A billionaire could, in theory, buy a yacht or private jet without a lawyer, much as someone could buy a house without one. In practice, however, the legal, financial, regulatory and liability issues are complex enough that experienced buyers almost always involve specialised aviation or maritime lawyers. As one prominent aviation adviser tells Spear’s, ‘To buy the best, you have to be able to know what’s best.’
Structuring ownership is the primary reason why wealthy individuals will seek legal help when buying a private yacht or jet. UHNWs rarely own expensive assets in their personal name, rather, choosing to structure the payment through an LLC, trust or holding company to maximise their estate and tax planning. This method also aims to keep owners’ personal information private.
[See also: Superyacht maker latest to defy London wealth ‘exodus’ with new Mayfair showroom]
Many of the lawyers featured in our index are aviation and maritime enthusiasts, a useful skill in a world in which technology and regulation are constantly changing. Authorities such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency enforce flag-state requirements, maritime registration and crew employment laws. With fines that can total hundreds of thousands of pounds, instructing a lawyer who is experienced in navigating correct compliance can prove extremely advantageous.
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[See also: The best aviation advisers]
Very few interviewees describe one-off transactions, often remaining involved throughout the life of an asset. They mention acting over decades, advising on successive yacht sales and seeing the same asset change ownership. Jonathan Hadley-Piggin, a submariner officer turned partner at Keystone Law, spoke of ‘a large proportion of work from repeat clients and a lot of word-of-mouth referrals.’
‘One of the rewarding aspects of the work is following yachts and clients through the full lifecycle of ownership,’ said Andrew Charlier of HFW.
[See also: The best yacht advisers]
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While London functions as an international legal hub, the advisers featured in our index come from across the world, including the US, UK, Hong Kong and Italy. Often, a transaction might involve a seller in one country, a buyer in another, financing from a lender in a third and registration in a fourth. A good lawyer can coordinate delivery across all relevant jurisdictions.
Explore the other rankings within the 2026 Spear’s Legal Indices:
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Trends in 2026
America Takes the Helm
Sanctions on Russians have reshaped the market and allowed space for a new wave of clients to come to the fore. The centre of gravity for private aviation and superyacht work continues to shift towards the United States, with lawyers consistently identifying American clients as one of the most active sources of new instructions.
The strength of US purchasing power was raised in several interviews conducted by Spear’s this year. Charlier described the US as being the ‘economic muscle’ currently driving the industry, noting that ‘many current deals involve US buyers’ across both new-build projects and sale-and-purchase transactions.
[See also: Will Mercedes’ superyacht members’ club sink or swim?]
‘If you look at the Pacific West Coast of the US between Seattle and Silicon Valley, there’s trillions of dollars of wealth and the work is consistent,’ Paul Jebely of Sterlington Law tells Spear’s.
The trend also extends into aviation, where lawyers reported continued demand from US-based owners and financial institutions, alongside an increase in cross-border transactions involving Indian and Middle Eastern clients.
Beyond the Deal
Historically, many aviation and yacht lawyers were instructed for discrete matters—a purchase, financing, dispute or construction contract. Across several interviews, Spear’s found that the role is expanding well beyond individual transactions into an ongoing advisory relationship.
Rather than simply advising on the purchase, financing or sale of aircraft and yachts, many are increasingly acting as trusted advisers across clients’ wider wealth, businesses and personal affairs.
‘The key, in my experience, is to establish a genuine personal relationship with the client. We need to be perceived as more than yacht lawyers. We are trusted advisers, and we really are a part of the inner circle of the owners,’ Ezio Dal Maso of Stephenson Harwood tells Spear’s.
Elliot Bishop explained that his move to full-service firm W Legal was driven by clients increasingly asking him to advise beyond marine and aviation disputes, including commercial property, marina acquisitions and corporate transactions. ‘My clients wanted to give me more work across different disciplines,’ he said, adding that the aim was to keep work ‘under one roof’ while referring specialist matters internally.
Increasingly, advisers such as Bishop are involved in art, cars, property, governance and wealth planning. As Jebely put it, ‘rather than simply: “I help you buy your aircraft.” It’s becoming “I help run your private wealth ecosystem.”’
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
- Methodology
- Best aviation and yacht lawyers: some names to know
- Best aviation and yacht lawyers: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
Best aviation and yacht lawyers: some names to know
Quentin Bargate
- Focus: Luxury asset contracts, transactions and disputes
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: Bargate Murray
With a background in maritime law and commercial shipping work, Quentin Bargate’s focus on superyachts developed naturally.
‘What led me into doing superyacht-related work was my clients – they bought superyachts, and I followed,’ says Bargate, who founded luxury asset law firm Bargate Murray in 2004.
Bargate represents clients in arbitration and litigation and advises on purchases and construction agreements (such as a recent $200 million new-build contract) as well as taxation and cross-border issues, from crewing agreements and insurance coverage to flagging.
Read Quentin Bargate’s full profile on Spears500.com
Paul Jebely
- Focus: High-value aviation transactions
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: Sterlington
‘I’m very comfortable to lay claim to being the top private aviation attorney internationally, outside the US, who focuses on just ultra-high-net-worth individuals,’ Paul Jebely tells Spear’s.
The personable lawyer is a cross-border operator, based between Hong Kong, the UAE, and the West Coast of the US. He heads up the international practice of the New York-based firm Sterlington as a partner and vice-chair.
Primarily, Jebely advises clients – almost exclusively billionaires and leaders in their fields – on the complexities of buying, selling, financing, leasing, owning and operating private jets, as well as resolving related disputes. However, he also acts as a ‘general counsel’ for a discerning group of APAC wealth creators, coordinating their legal relationships across everything from security and staffing to real estate and asset protection.
Read Paul Jebely’s full profile on Spears500.com
Alison Vassallo
- Focus: Yacht acquisitions and sales
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Fenech & Fenech Advocates
For Alison Vassallo, a Fenech & Fenech Advocates partner and head of the firm’s yachting department, being loyal to clients is all-important.
‘There is a personal touch,’ Vassallo tells Spear’s. ‘What I learnt very early on is that clients like to have one point of contact on a project.
‘What is very crucial is that the client, or whoever is representing them, can feel like they can come to you.’
The Maltese firm is renowned for its shipping practice, which is more than 120 years old, and it has built up a striking portfolio of UHNWs. Vassallo explains that clients expect a very high level of service, which her team is ‘very well placed to offer’. Clients can come to Vassallo and seek advice on a range of matters, such as yacht financing, registration and all matters relating to marine litigation.
Read Alison Vassallo’s full profile on Spears500.com
Elliot Bishop
- Focus: Marine dispute resolution
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: W Legal
Well-known in the luxury asset sector, W Legal consultant Elliot Bishop specialises in litigation and dispute resolution, with a focus on marine and aviation matters, as well as agriculture.
He advises owners and lenders on asset finance disputes, charter disputes and broker commission payments arising from the sale of yachts. Clients have included prominent individuals, billionaires, business leaders and UK coastal marinas.
Bishop moved to W Legal in 2026, after spending three years at Bargate Murray. He tells Spear’s that he was motivated by the full-service nature of his new firm: ‘My existing clients are as loyal as loyal can be, and whilst I concentrate on marine and aviation litigation, some of them have other issues, whether they be commercial or property related – I can connect them with my colleagues in the firm.’
Read Elliot Bishop’s full profile on Spears500.com
Amanda Applegate
- Focus: Whole and fractional aircraft transactions
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Soar Aviation Law
A fascination with aviation led Amanda Applegate into the industry in 1998, soon after she completed her legal studies.
Following roles as a partner at Aerlex and general counsel at NetJets, she co-founded Soar Aviation Law in 2022. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the firm positions itself as ‘a women-owned law firm specialising in business aviation law’.
Applegate tells Spear’s she particularly enjoys working with HNW clients and corporates who are new to aviation but who have a burgeoning interest in the industry.
‘We pride ourselves on timeliness of response; we only take on so many clients at a time so that we can offer them the ability to talk with us in person and have responses to their questions within 24 to 48 hours.’
Read Amanda Applegate’s full profile on Spears500.com
Best aviation and yacht lawyers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles on spears500.com. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Contact us
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With additional reporting by Caitlin Kilpatrick.
