Judy R. Nemsick

Judy Nemsick is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group of Holland & Knight's New York office. Her practice is focused primarily on complex litigation matters, with emphasis on air disaster litigation, class-action lawsuits, product liability and privacy issues.

Ms. Nemsick has represented air carriers in multidistrict litigations arising out of the Flight 447 accident in the mid-Atlantic Ocean; the American Airlines Flight 587 accident near Belle Harbor, New York; and the Swissair Flight 111 accident near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. She is currently part of the team representing a military charter operator in passenger injury claims arising from the runway incursion at Jacksonville Air Force Base on May 3, 2019.  

Ms. Nemsick has significant experience representing U.S. and foreign air carriers in civil litigation, including claims involving wrongful death and personal injury, premises liability, passenger delay, cargo liability and breach of contract. Her appellate experience includes successfully serving as co-lead counsel in El Al Israel Airlines, Ltd. v. Tseng, 525 U.S. 155 (1999), Privacy Rights Clearinghouse v. JetBlue Airways Corp., 2005 WL 3118798 (Cal. App. Nov. 22, 2005) and Bailey v. Rocky Mountain Holdings, LLC, 889 F.3d 1259 (11th Cir. 2018). She represents air carriers before various state and federal appellate courts on issues relating to the Montreal Convention and preemption under the Airline Deregulation Act. Additionally, she has authored amicus curiae briefs on behalf of industry trade groups on significant aviation issues before the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals

Ms. Nemsick also counsels air carriers on a variety of commercial and civil matters, including contracts of carriage, charter contracts, ground-handling agreements, airline training materials, the Air Carrier Access Act, frequent flyer programs and family assistance plans. She has written articles on various aviation-related topics, including federal preemption, choice of law, privacy rights, the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions and forum non conveniens. She authored chapters on choice of law and federal jurisdiction for the American Bar Association (ABA) treatise Litigating the Aviation Case From Pre-Trial to Closing Argument (3rd and 4th editions).

Ms. Nemsick currently serves as an editor of Holland & Knight's Centerline aviation alerts and the Aviation Law Blog, and previously served for seven years as the National Chair for Holland & Knight's Women's Initiative. She also is a past member of the International Aviation Women's Association (IAWA).

Ms. Nemsick's pro bono efforts include working with Kids in Need of Defense to successfully represent minors in obtaining Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and eventually legal residency, in the United States. She also has authored amicus briefs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the National Women's Law Center and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights challenging state demonstration projects that would disproportionately limit access to Medicaid for women and communities of color.