BusinessTN

Aviation has always been Robert Van de Vuurst's passion. The shareholder in the Johnson City/Tri-Cities office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz started flying airplanes in high school. After he got out of law school, Van de Vuurst went to work with what was then the Baker Worthington law firm in Johnson City--not exactly a hotbed of the aviation industry. Van de Vuurst could not have known he would one day become the go-to guy in this part of the world for aviation law, mergers and acquisitions.

No, Van de Vuurst started out in far more pedestrian fashion as a good old-fashioned trial attorney doing car wrecks for State Farm and slip-and-falls for AllState. But located just outside Johnson City in Piney Flats was one of the largest independent helicopter dealers in world, Edwards & Associates, and when Baker Worthington took a case involving the company, the partners gave it to Van de Vuurst. The second-year attorney was no doubt greener than a gourd, but he was also the only attorney in the office who knew anything about aircraft.

Van de Vuurst handled the case. The folks at Edwards & Associates (still a powerhouse in the industry today) liked him and vice versa. That relationship mushroomed, with Edwards & Associates sending Van de Vuurst more and more work and with Van de Vuurst's reputation growing in the aviation industry. "One day, I looked in the mirror and said, 'I'll be danged--I'm an aviation lawyer,'" Van de Vuurst explains.

Last year alone, Van de Vuurst completed over $500 million in aircraft deals in places as far flung as Australia, Spain, the North Sea, Sweden, China and Turkey, to name just a few locations. He has also been doing a lot of oil and gas-related work for clients due to the increase in petroleum prices. When interviewed in September, Van de Vuurst had just been to Alaska visiting with a client heavily involved in the offshore oil and gas business, spending two days in the town of Deadhorse to check on operations.