Infrastructure Group Named "Transportation Practice Group of the Year" for Fifth Consecutive Time
Nossaman's Infrastructure Group was once again profiled in Law360 as a result of being named a "Transportation Practice Group of the Year" (subscription required) for 2019.
Law360’s profile lauds the Group for having “overseen a flurry of innovative and thoughtful projects this year, from crucial bridge and tunnel replacements in rural Louisiana to its continued work on modernizing Los Angeles International Airport (LAX),” and notes that the breadth and depth of its work helped it “snag a spot for the fifth time in a row among Law360’s 2019 Transportation Groups of the Year.”
Offering his thoughts, Group Chair Patrick Harder said that as a practice that represents exclusively public agencies, Nossaman has carved out a “niche” part of the industry for itself. “Our practice is unique. There aren’t really many competitors that have that singular focus that we do on public agencies.”
He added that Nossaman’s projects “tend to be big game-changers in their communities, often times the first transaction of a particular type.”
A series of such innovative projects was “negotiated in Louisiana this year for its Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD)” and led by Partner Ann-Therese Schmid. The team she led advised the state’s DOTD on its first-ever privately funded public work — the $125 million replacement of a bridge and tunnel in New Orleans-area Belle Chasse with a toll facility.
Law360 also notes that Ann-Therese and her team “closed a deal in August to build a $125 million Louisiana interstate interchange to offer access to a new terminal at New Orleans’ international airport.”
Commenting on her work, Ann-Therese said, “It’s very humbling and satisfying to work on projects like that…You know that it’s going to be something that people will use for decades to come, and it’s really going to change the way the community is.”
Nossaman’s work with Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the City of Los Angeles on the $1.3 billion ConRAC project—which will centralize LAX’s car rental facilities and relocate them to have direct access to major freeways—was also highlighted.
Speaking of the project, which reached financial close in December of 2018, Patrick Harder said, “There’s a lot of flexibility and so-called future-proofing thinking that went into that facility…If this facility ceases to be a repository for rental cars because people don’t rent cars, they take automated vehicles, then we envision that the facility will then become a staging area for those automated vehicles.”
He added that “L.A. is my home, so it’s especially rewarding to do something in our own hometown.”
