Monday, October 21, 2002
Page 3
Degadillo Picks Eduardo Angeles to Lead Airports Legal Team
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The former legal chief of San Francisco’s Fire Department and Public Protection Team has been named Los Angeles’ top lawyer for the airports department.
Eduardo Angeles began serving Tuesday in his new post as managing assistant of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office Airport Division. In that role, he will be chief counsel to Los Angeles World Airports, the proprietary city department that operates much like a huge corporation and manages Los Angeles International Airport and three smaller airports.
Angeles, 37, served for eight years as the number two lawyer in San Francisco’s airport unit before moving to head public safety operations. He said his background in the highly specialized aviation field and in public safety makes him a “perfect fit” at LAX, where safety and counterterrorism have become the top concerns since Sept. 11, 2001.
“In a sense it was a complete package,” Angeles said of his opportunity to come to Los Angeles.
Los Angeles World Airports is a branch of city government but, like the harbor and the Department of Water and Power, it is operated separately as a proprietary department. LAWA is subject to federal and state, as well as city, regulation. Department revenues come almost exclusively from landing fees paid by airlines, rent and other tenants, plus parking and other fees, fines and some transit taxes.
Angeles will be chief counsel to the seven-member Airport Commission and will be assisted by a staff of 12 other lawyers. Their duties include litigation involving the airports and drafting transactional documents such as leases and concession agreements.
Representing an airport is considered a fairly rarefied specialty, requiring in-depth knowledge of federal aviation regulations, local tax issues and general business transactional and litigation matters. Angeles said there are few lawyers in the field, and that to progress, attorneys must be prepared to move from airport to airport.
“It’s always been a niche practice,” Angeles said. “It’s very incestuous in some ways.”
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said he was pleased to have Angeles on his team.
“Eddie Angeles has proven himself an exemplary lawyer through his service with the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office,” Delgadillo said in a statement. “I have no doubt he will be an invaluable asset to the City of Los Angeles and add expertise to the complex issues surrounding our airports.”
Angeles is a graduate of U.C. Santa Barbara and Hastings College of the Law.
While in San Francisco, he served as president of the Asian Bar of California and the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California.
He has made his new home in Pasadena, where he lives with his wife, Evelyne, and their two sons.
“I am really glad for Rocky to give me this opportunity,” Angeles said. “I’m really honored.”
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company