SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse–based NUAIR Alliance has chosen Syracuse law firm Bousquet Holstein PLLC to serve as its corporate general counsel.
NUAIR, which has offices in Syracuse and Rome, is short for Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, Inc.
It is an organizational partner of CenterState CEO, Central New York’s primary economic-development organization.
Bousquet Holstein is located in One Lincoln Center at 110 W. Fayette St. in Syracuse.
The NUAIR Alliance is a nonprofit coalition of more than 100 private and public entities and academic institutions working to operate and oversee test ranges for unmanned aircraft system (UAS) in New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan.
It is also leading efforts to develop a UAS corridor between Hancock International Airport in Syracuse and Griffiss International Airport in Rome for the testing and use of commercial unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs), or drones.
The relationship
Bousquet Holstein will assist NUAIR with its efforts to develop and implement the UAS secure autonomous flight environment (U-SAFE) initiative, the law firm said in a news release.
This project incorporates a functioning unmanned traffic-management system (UTM) with the advancement of additional UAS-focused projects in the Central New York region.
The U-SAFE initiative was a primary focus of a $500 million award that Central New York won in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic-development contest held in 2015, referred to as the Upstate Revitalization Initiative (URI).
In addition to these specific projects, Bousquet Holstein attorneys will assist NUAIR with its internal corporate and business affairs “as needed.”
“Our firm is honored and enthusiastic to have been selected to help NUAIR grow the UAS industry in CNY. We hope that with NUAIR’s support, the UAS industry will experience further regional, national and even international development,” Aaron Frishman, a partner at Bousquet Holstein and leader of its UAS/UAV practice group, said in the release.
“As we work to strengthen our leadership position in the global marketplace for this sector, we are fortunate to have the engagement of Bousquet Holstein and are pleased with their commitment to helping us grow the nascent UAS industry,” Larry Brinker, interim president and CEO of NUAIR, said.
NUAIR manages one of just seven FAA-designated UAS test sites in the U.S.
FAA is short for Federal Aviation Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
NUAIR’s goal is to help lead the development of research and deployment technologies to establish the case for safe UAS operations in the national aerospace system.
In addition, NUAIR is installing and maintaining a ground based, sense-and-avoid system at Griffiss International Airport to deploy range instrumentation that can track UAS in the air and, once fully built out, will provide a first-of-its-kind testing capability in the country.
NUAIR’s work in this area has been expanded to help with developing a functioning UAS test corridor in Central New York.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com