Leasing of Personal Property

While at Shearman & Sterling Mr DeKoven led the firm’s leasing practice. During that time he structured a number of innovative cross border leasing transactions for major airlines and railroads. He was sought after in this area as he was the Reporter for the principle U.S. leasing law, Article 2A of the Uniform Commercial Code. When Mr DeKoven finished that task, the then Director of the American Law Institute said, in the letter transmitting the law for promulgation:

The drafting task has been complicated both as a matter of substance and as a matter of process. The Reporter, Ronald DeKoven, has been a master of substance and a steady and receptive principle in the process. We join with the Conference and the Institute in expressing our admiration and appreciation for his contribution to this important field of law.

After moving to London in 2003, Mr DeKoven was asked by the then General Counsel of UNIDROIT to act as the Reporter for a model law of leasing designed for enactment by the various states in Africa. Mr DeKoven completed that project (after years of research on the common law, civil law and Sharia law), now known as The UNIDROIT Model law of Leasing, in 2008. The Model law has been widely accepted and enacted by states as disparate as Tanzania and Jordan. Even The Peoples Republic of China has expressed an interest. In May of 2011 Mr DeKoven and several of his colleagues were guests of the state at a seminar in Beijing; the sole focus of the program was the UNIDROIT Model law and its relevance to leasing in China.