Mr. Allan Mendelsohn is "of counsel"
to the firm where he represents companies involved in transportation
industry matters before the courts, federal agencies and departments,
and the Congress. He has also litigated transportation related and
other cases in the federal district and appellate courts and regularly
works with the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation
Agency and the Department of State in connection with both transportation
and general international legal issues. He has extensive experience
also as an arbitrator in both single and tripartite arbitrations involving
both domestic and international issues.
Professional Background
In addition to serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State for Transportation Affairs during 2000-2001, Mr. Mendelsohn
served as an attorney in the State Department’s Legal Advisor’s
Office from 1963-1968. During both periods, he was deeply involved
in all areas of aviation and maritime law and policy. He worked on
the 1963 Tokyo Convention on hijacking, on amendments to the liability
provisions of the Warsaw Convention, on the 1966 Montreal Intercarrier
Agreement, on the 1968 Visby amendments to the Hague Rules, and on
many other related issues. During his most recent service at State,
he led the team of American negotiators that concluded the world's
first multilateral open skies passenger and cargo agreement, now known
as the APEC Multilateral Accord. Since leaving State, he has participated
as a member of the OECD’s Panel of Experts in drafting the text
of a proposed multilateral open skies all-cargo agreement.
Prior to his work at the State Department, Mr. Mendelsohn
spent three years as a Judge Advocate General Officer in the U.S.
Army in Germany and four years at the National Labor Relations Board
in Washington, D.C. where he was involved in all phases of appellate
litigation for the Board. He was admitted to the bar in 1955 in Illinois
and has been a member of the District of Columbia bar since 1966.
He has been a partner in several Washington, D.C. law firms during
the years when he was not in U.S. Government service.
He has also been an Adjunct Professor at
the Georgetown Law Center where he has taught International Transportation
Law since 1980 and, more recently, International Conflicts of Law.
Practice
Areas
Administrative
Aviation
International Law
Litigation
Professional
Affiliations/Associations
District of Columbia Bar, 1966
U.S. Supreme Court, 1961
Publications and Articles
Mr. Mendelsohn is a frequent contributor of articles
to national daily newspapers and to professional journals. Representative
of the latter are:
The Warsaw Convention Article 28, the Doctrine of Forum Non Conveniens, and the Foreign Plaintiff, J. of Air Law and Commerce 2003 (co-authored);
The
United States, the European Union, and the Ownership and Control of
Airlines, CCH Issues in Aviation Law and Policy 2003
Domicile and the Warsaw System, Annals of Air & Space Law 1997
Why the U.S. Did Not Ratify the Visby Amendments, J. Mar. Law & Commerce 1992
The United States and the Warsaw Convention,
Harvard Law Review 1967 (co-authored)
Recent
Developments in the Forum Non Conveniens Doctrine, The Federal
Lawyer - February 2005
Education
University of Illinois, B.S. (1954), J.D. (1955)
Harvard
Law School, LL.M. (1956), Sorbonne (1962).
