Robert A. Siegel

Co-chair of O'Melveny's aviation industry group, Siegel has advised on just about every major airline merger for the last 30 years.

These days, he helps airlines and employee unions find common ground post-merger, from sorting out which union will represent the combined employee groups to negotiating each union's contract down to a single collective bargaining agreement.

But the most contested issues in these matters, Siegel said, are the pilots' seniority lists, which employee groups use to give the most experienced and senior pilots control over their schedules and aircraft.

"It determines lifestyle, everything from when you fly, where you fly and what kind of airplane you fly," Siegel said. "It drives a lot of things in the airline industry, so [you] have to have a way of integrating the two seniority lists."

Those attempts at integration have led to some of Siegel's most recent wins. Siegel scored a victory last August when the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of claims brought by nearly 10,000 American Airline pilots following the carrier's merger with US Airways.

The pilots sought an order vacating the merged seniority list, arguing that their union and American violated the McCaskill-Bond amendment to the Federal Aviation Act. The 2007 amendment guarantees protective provisions to airline employees' seniority in mergers.

The 3rd Circuit ruled in favor of American and the union, holding that the arbitration panel that merged the two lists acted fairly and equitably. Bakos v. American Airlines, 17-2505 (3rd Cir., Aug. 31, 2018).

The case is significant because it clarifies process on these issues under McCaskill-Bond, setting an important legal precedent, Siegel said.

"The court just wanted to determine the more limited issue of whether the procedure was correct," he said. "That was very important to clarify because the contrary result would have been pretty destabilizing for the industry to be able to say that [the pilots] will get a second bite of the apple."

In a similar case, Siegel won a dismissal for American in a class action involving a seniority dispute between US Airways and America West following their 2005 merger. The pilots operated under two separate seniority lists when American merged with US Airways and the larger airline sought to merge all the outstanding lists.

A group of former America West pilots sued in Arizona federal court, alleging collusion between American and the former US Airways pilots' union, but Siegel got the class action dismissed by arguing the arbitrated merger of lists was fair. The pilots later appealed to the 9th Circuit, where Siegel again argued on behalf of American.

The 9th Circuit agreed and affirmed the lower court's ruling last month. Beckington v. American Airlines, 2019 DJDAR 5018 (9th Cir., June 11, 2019).

"The significance of the case was a clarification again that a carrier is required to endorse and support a fair arbitration process for integrating lists but should not be liable for damages in a claim of collusion against the union regarding that process," Siegel said.

-- Glenn Jeffers