KAPLAN KIRSCH & ROCKWELL - Key Persons
Adam Gerchick concentrates his practice on representing airports in litigation, regulatory, and transactional matters. Adam has handled cases in federal and state courts, represented airport sponsors in administrative proceedings before the Federal Aviation Administration, counseled creditors in national airline and rental-car bankruptcy cases, and handled bond offerings as bond, disclosure, and underwriter's counsel.
Adam has also prepared rules and regulations and minimum standards for commercial and general aviation airports, counseled airport sponsors on intermodal transportation partnerships, and assisted sponsors with legislative drafting and public advocacy.
Job Titles:
- Partner Lead, Infrastructure, Major Projects, Public - Private Partnerships, and Alternative Delivery Practice
Ayelet Hirschkorn is a strong and effective advocate with extensive experience in the transportation industry. She successfully manages, drafts, and negotiates agreements for some of the nation's largest transportation projects and advises her clients on federal and state policies, statues, and regulations in the railroad, environmental, utility and procurement industries. Ayelet also represents commuter rail agencies before the Surface Transportation Board, federal and state courts on a variety of issues including railbanking, abandonment of rail lines, environmental reviews, federal preemption and expansion of freight and intercity rail services. Ayelet spent a majority of her career in public service, ensuring that commuter agencies maximize their transportation services in an efficient and accessible manner.
Job Titles:
- of Counsel
- Presents Webinar With Land Trust Alliance
Bill Silberstein represents clients in a wide variety of real estate developments, purchases, sales, leasing, and financing transactions for office buildings, hotel properties, retail shopping centers, ranches, and rural recreational properties throughout the Rocky Mountain states. He has served as developers' counsel for many brownfield developments and transit-oriented developments.
In his over 40 years of experience, Bill has also built a land conservation practice that has a national reputation for excellence. He has represented landowners and conservation organizations in hundreds of conservation easement transactions and in more than 30 IRS audits of conservation easements. Bill helped the Forbes family create a conservation easement for its ranch in the San Luis Valley. More than 80,000 acres were included in the easement, the largest in Colorado at that time.
The breadth of his practice allows Bill to assist property owners who are pursuing either development or preservation objectives. He helps clients achieve an appropriate balance between development and conservation that is sensitive to economic development in the region and quality of life that is so important to the regional economy.
Brandon previously served as U.S. Senator Mark Udall's Denver Metro Area Regional Director and helped lead efforts to protect and increase funding for land conservation during multiple Colorado General Assembly sessions. Drawing on these experiences, Brandon advises clients on sensitive government and public policy issues. He has drafted ballot measures, legislative text, and intergovernmental agreements, and he regularly counsels clients on pending bills and rules. Brandon also acts as general counsel to various special districts and boards, and he has deep expertise in governance issues and laws like TABOR, the Local Government Budget Law of Colorado, the Colorado Open Meetings Law, and Colorado procurement requirements.
Brent served as general counsel to the High Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE), a government-owned business and division of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the office responsible for pursuing public-private partnerships and other innovative means of project finance and delivery. As general counsel, Brent provided legal advice on a broad array of matters, including project procurement and delivery, public-private partnership structuring, intergovernmental agreements, real property transactions, project financings, and ongoing administration. Previously, he advised commercial and residential developers on the organization and structuring of taxing districts, improvement districts, and other special purpose entities to support public infrastructure development.
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Human Resources Manager
- Professional Staff Member
Chuck Spitulnik has spent his entire legal career representing both public and private sector clients on issues relating, in one way or another, to the rail industry. For the past 35 years, his practice has focused on representation of state and local governments in addressing issues related to the rail companies that serve their communities or to the issues that arise when those communities develop and implement plans for operation of rail transit systems, whether commuter rail, light rail, or heavy rail systems.
Chuck regularly advises clients on issues related to negotiation of agreements with both freight railroads and Amtrak for acquisition or use of their lines; developing arrangements (including the procurement documents when required) with those railroads and with third-party operators for the operation of the rail transit systems in that right-of-way; compliance with the complex web of federal legislation and regulation of the rail industry as well as with state laws and other requirements; and understanding and addressing the unique features of the rail and transit-related labor laws and the protections available to workers in the industry.
Christian's practice includes a focus on assisting public entities in the development and operation of public transportation and infrastructure projects, particularly passenger rail systems, rail-related infrastructure, and airports. He has significant administrative law experience representing state and local governments before various federal boards and administrations, including the Surface Transportation Board, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and various state regulatory bodies, as well as litigation experience before federal courts and quasi-judicial regulatory entities. His experience in transportation infrastructure and operations also extends to land acquisition and use, contracting, tenancy and concessionaire issues, labor, civil rights, and funding issues. He has worked on both transit-oriented development and rails-to-trails projects.
Christian has experience with legal issues involving regulating the environment, energy, and land use. His work includes advising clients on federal environmental regulatory processes for public projects, as well as use of public lands. His background also includes working on state and federal energy regulation and policy issues. Christian holds a master's degree in city and regional planning and a graduate certificate in renewable and sustainable energy studies.
The unique relationship between tribal law and tribal sovereignty and federal and state law poses special opportunities and challenges for tribes, tribal members, and tribal businesses. Christian assists tribal governments regarding issues of tribal sovereignty and governance, and the implications on projects and people in Indian Country. In law school, he assisted in researching climate change mitigation and adaptation on tribal lands and helped initiate a social-entrepreneurial effort to support small-scale renewable energy accessibility on the Navajo Nation. Christian is a proud member of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians of Northern California.
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Billing Specialist
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Dave Bannard is a transactional lawyer that brings financial acumen to his work in both airport finance and airport-airline negotiations. Dave's understanding of the financial underpinnings of his airport clients is the foundation of his work and leads to effective, flexible and responsive legal work that serves his airport clients' best interests. He serves as bond and disclosure counsel for airport financings and has participated in negotiating nearly a dozen airport-airline agreements and rate ordinances in the last four years. An experienced transactional lawyer, he also regularly works with airports in the procurement and negotiation of agreements with concessionaires, including both in-terminal providers and rental car companies and other specialized concessionaires.
Dave's bankruptcy experience has a transactional focus and has resulted in the restructuring of crucial airport agreements and continuity of operations during bankruptcies of airlines and rental car companies. His bankruptcy experience informs his drafting of agreements to aid airports in ensuring that they retain and recovery the revenues to which they are entitled. He has participated in several novel public-private partnerships, including the negotiation of the full range of agreements supporting a privately developed passenger terminal, the transfer of several small airports to private operation and the development of another privately operated air carrier terminal. Dave has also successfully defended numerous Part 16 administrative actions brought before the Federal Aviation Administration against his airport clients. Having served in-house overseeing all transactional matters for a dozen years at a major U.S. airport, Dave is familiar with the day-to-day operational issues that confront his airport clients and he brings that experience to the table when working with the airport's tenants and other service providers to achieve mutually beneficial solutions to operational as well as legal issues.
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Billing Specialist
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- IT and Office Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Billing Specialist
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Accounting Manager
- Professional Staff Member
Job Titles:
- Chief Operations Officer
- Professional Staff Member
Job Titles:
- Facilities Assistant
- Professional Staff Member
- Receptionist
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Billing Specialist
Job Titles:
- Marketing Director
- Professional Staff Member
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Marketing Assistant
- Professional Staff Member
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Legal Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Professional Staff Member
- Paralegal