When airline flights land on time over the next few years, Richards might be one of the people to thank.
The partner and 27-year O'Melveny & Myers veteran helped lead a winning bid to redevelop Central Terminal B at New York LaGuardia Airport. New York has the nation's most congested airspace, often causing backups that delay flights around the country. The six-year, $4 billion-plus terminal renovation project won't fix the crowded airspace, Richards said, but it should ease the passenger and runway congestion that contributes to delays.
The complex bid was delivered to the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey in a dozen boxes carried in a U-Haul truck. It united three companies: Vancouver's Vantage Airport Group Ltd., international construction firm Skanska AB, and Paris-based Meridiam Infrastructure Finance SARL.
"The public sector is reaching out more and more to make use of the private sector expertise in planning design, construction and financing the operation of sophisticated infrastructure projects," Richards said.
Richards helped create the credit and finance structure, coordinated with airlines and concessions companies, and structured contingencies for potential cost overruns and construction delays. He plans to stay on as lead counsel for the newly created LaGuardia Gateway Partners consortium, which took over a 35-year lease of the Central Terminal in June.
He has also advised American Airlines Inc. on a major terminal project at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and served as lead counsel for the ADC & HAS Airports Worldwide acquisition of Northern Ireland's Belfast International Airport.
O'Melveny was founded in 1885 when "Los Angeles was a trading outpost," Richards said. The firm "grew up with Southern California," helping build Los Angeles International Airport and the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland.
"About 75 percent of my practice is outside of California, but we developed this practice because we represented many government and private entities that developed this region's infrastructure."
— Malcolm Maclachlan
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