John Knudsen

John Knudsen has over 40 years of Aviation legal and corporate general counsel experience. With a combination of government, private practice and corporate General Counsel practice, developing deep experience in all facets of Aviation litigation and insurance, FAA Regulatory and Compliance as well as Corporate and General legal matters. He is currently the Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Bye Aerospace, Inc. where he manages all internal corporate legal matters; FAA certification and compliance; insurance and risk management; as well as all government relations for the company. He maintains currency in private Colorado aviation law practice. Prior to private and corporate practice, he spent 5 years as Trial Attorney with the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. representing FAA in numerous cases brought against the Agency and employees under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), five of which were successfully tried to defense verdicts. He represented the FAA in three major airline crash investigation hearings before the National Transportation Safety Board and assisted in representation on numerous general Agency legal matters. He was the co-founder, President, and General Counsel with Adam Aircraft and was a partner with a specialized Aviation Law Firm in Denver, CO practicing in major airline and commercial operator aviation insurance defense litigation, aircraft transactional matters, FAA enforcement defense, regulatory and certification matters as well as general corporate law and civil litigation. Mr. Knudsen received a B.S. degree in Business and Accounting from the University of Colorado (1974) and a J.D. from the University of Puget Sound (Seattle University) School of Law (1987). While attending Law School, he was a Captain for a small commuter airline operating in the Seattle, WA area. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Knudsen spent seven years as a pilot in the U.S. Navy flying the A-6 Intruder and numerous other aircraft including the A-4 Skyhawk, T-2C Buckeye and T-34. He has logged more than 150 aircraft carrier landings. He continued his service in the U.S. Navy Reserves flying the P-3 Orion and retired in 1994 at the rank of Lt. Commander. He is an ATP rated pilot with Lear Jet and Citation SP type ratings and has logged over 3800 flight hours.