Vedder Price

Geoffrey R. Kass

Shareholder

Member, Board of Directors
Chair, Global Transportation Finance Team

222 North LaSalle Street Chicago, Illinois 60601

+1 (312) 609 7553

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Geoffrey R. Kass

Shareholder

Member, Board of Directors
Chair, Global Transportation Finance Team

Geoffrey R. Kass is the Chair of the Global Transportation Finance team at Vedder Price.

He counsels and represents clients in corporate and securities matters with particular emphasis on structured financings. He has represented manufacturers, borrowers, lessees, lessors, equity participants, credit enhancers and lenders in various financing structures, including portfolio and company acquisitions and divestitures, secured loans, U.S. and cross-border leveraged leases, operating leases, municipal and cross-border structured financings, public and private securities offerings and debt restructurings.

He has extensive experience in the financing of commercial and private aircraft, railcar, bus, telecommunications, miscellaneous equipment and various facility (including manufacturing, electricity and gas distribution, and water treatment) financings.

In 2010, Mr. Kass advised Macquarie Group Ltd. in a $2 billion aircraft acquisition from American International Group. In 2015, he advised Macquarie in the acquisition of a $4 billion aircraft portfolio from AWAS and Terra Firma, which, with the associated $3 billion of loan financing, was named 2015 “Overall Deal of the Year” by Airfinance Journal. He also acted as lead counsel for Castlelake LP in the private securitization of a portfolio of 79 aircraft leased to 26 different lessees located in 17 countries, recognized as the 2014 “Aviation Overall Deal of the Year” by Airline Economics. In 2015, 2017 and 2018, Vedder Price was named Airline Economics Aviation 100 Law Firm of the Year.

Mr. Kass was recognized among the world’s leading aviation attorneys by Euromoney Legal Media Group Aviation Expert Guides from 2000 to 2021, and from 2020 to 2023 he was recognized in “The Best of the Best USA (Top 30)” Aviation Expert Guide. He is featured in the 2010–2016 and 2019 editions of The International Who’s Who of Aviation Lawyers, where he is recognized as one of the leading structured finance lawyers in the United States. From 2012 to 2022, Chambers USA has ranked Mr. Kass in the Nationwide Transportation: Aviation: Finance category and from 2020-2024 he was ranked in Chambers Global Asset: Finance category. Mr. Kass has been recognized by the Legal 500 United States as a Leading Lawyer in Transport: Aviation and Air Travel–Finance since 2011 and included in the Hall of Fame for this category since 2018.  Mr. Kass was also recommended for the categories of Transport: Rail and Road—Finance and Transport: Shipping–Finance since 2018. From 2022 to 2024 he was editorially recommended by the Legal 500 Asia Pacific Singapore Asset Finance: Foreign Firms. 

Geoffrey R. Kass

Shareholder

Member, Board of Directors
Chair, Global Transportation Finance Team

Education

  • Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., 1989
  • Williams College, B.A., 1986, cum laude

Geoffrey R. Kass

Shareholder

Member, Board of Directors
Chair, Global Transportation Finance Team

Bar Admissions

  • Illinois, 1989
  • New York, 2009

Affiliations

  • Member, International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT)

Geoffrey R. Kass

Shareholder

Member, Board of Directors
Chair, Global Transportation Finance Team

Geoffrey R. Kass

Shareholder

Member, Board of Directors
Chair, Global Transportation Finance Team