Aviation Lawyer at Home in Brookline and the Sky

Paul Bell has always loved planes. As a child, his parents would often drive to the airport so he could watch the planes takeoff and land. After he graduated from college, he even got his pilot’s license, learning how to fly small, single-engine aircraft. So when a client approached him about handling some work in the little-known field of aviation law, Bell jumped at the opportunity.

“I was so excited,” said Bell. “I’ve been really fortunate over the last five years to have gotten pretty involved in that. We’ve acquired about 12 or 15 aircraft over that time, and we have nine currently. We’ve leased them to airlines, including Cape Air and some others in the United States and in foreign countries.”

Most of the firm's work in aviation law consists of guiding its clients through the process of buying and financing the aircraft, in addition to handling the leasing of the aircrafts. The planes are usually 30- to 50- passenger turboprops, often used to connect smaller airports with the larger, regional hubs that handle most of an airline’s jet traffic.

“Those turboprops are all run by airlines that are subcontracted by the major airlines,” said Bell. “So they might say United Express or American Express. That’s not really American Airlines that’s flying that plane. They’re contracting out to another airline. Those smaller airlines, we would lease to companies like that.

“People are always surprised to hear that when you fly commercial airlines, about half of those jets, maybe more, are not owned by the airline,” Bell continued. “So when you go fly on US Air or on JetBlue, those planes aren’t owned by the airline, they’re leasing them.”

While much of the firm’s work is located in the New England area, their aviation practicedeals with clients from Alaska to Panama, and they have even had discussions with companiesas far away as Argentina and Australia. Bell said there are very few small firms that handle aviation law, and those that do are usually much larger law firms in metropolitan areas like New York City and Washington, D.C..

Bell graduated from Boston College Law School in 1996, and for the next decade worked at the Boston law firm Greenberg Traurig. In June 2005, he left to start his own practice, first setting up offices in Brighton, then, in September 2008, relocating to his current office at 1212 Boylston St. in Chestnut Hill. Bell said he had wanted to make the move to Brookline for some time, for a few reasons. 

“I wanted to get into the Brookline area because that’s where my clientele is,” said Bell. “I wanted to be close to where I live, I wanted to be involved in the Brookline community, and to be able to service the legal needs of the Brookline community better.

“I’m a member of the Brookline Preservation Commission, a member of the Brookline Rotary, [and] I’m in a local Brookline business networking group, so my relationships branch out from Brookline. This is the epicenter where my relationships build from," he said.

Bell said he usually has anywhere from one to five people working with him at a given time. The aviation law aspect of the practice usually takes up about 35 percent of his business. The rest of his firm’s work is divided between commercial and residential real estate and business law, where Bell says he brings a strong value to his clients because of his 10 years of experience at Greenberg Traurig.

When asked whether he thought his practice might expand to other areas of law, Bell said he is dedicated to building upon what the firm focuses on now. However, he said if someone comes to him with something outside of his area of expertise, he can still be helpful.

“I have great relationships with other lawyers in Brookline who are really good at the things they do — family law, estate planning, small litigation stuff,” said Bell. “I like to think of myself as an advisor to my clients. I want them to come to me with any problem they may have, and if that’s not in my wheelhouse, then I’m going to help them find exactly the right person.”

[Update Oct 24: Made edits for clarity]