Fox Rothschild congratulates partner Mark A. Dombroff on receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 D.C. Legal Awards, presented by The National Law Journal and Law.com. The honor recognizes his more than five decades in practice and his significant contributions to aviation law.

Dombroff has handled some of the most significant aviation matters in U.S. history, first as a government trial lawyer and then as counsel to the aviation industry.

Dombroff began his career in the general counsel’s office of the Federal Aviation Administration before joining the U.S. Department of Justice’s aviation unit, where he spent 15 years and rose to director of aviation and admiralty litigation. In that role, he supervised attorneys in New York, Washington and San Francisco while continuing to try cases himself.

He defended the FAA in Federal Tort Claims Act suits alleging negligence in air traffic control and represented aviation operations of the military services and FBI. His government work included litigation arising from the Soviet Union’s shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the Air Florida crash into Washington’s 14th Street Bridge and the TWA crash into Mount Weather, Virginia.

At Fox Rothschild, Dombroff leads a full-service aviation industry practice that advises clients on accident response, National Transportation Safety Board investigations, litigation, regulatory and enforcement matters and commercial issues. His clients include airlines, charter and cargo operators, corporate flight departments, airports, manufacturers and repair stations.

A cornerstone of Dombroff’s practice is helping aviation clients prepare for potential crises before they occur.

“The worst time to meet me and my team is after the accident occurs,” Dombroff told the National Law Journal. “We’ve been there and we’ve done that and we know how what they say today is going to come back and haunt them tomorrow, next week, next month.”

That philosophy was put into practice following the emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River. Dombroff represented the airline in connection with the “Miracle on the Hudson” incident and recalled that US Airways contacted him while news coverage still showed passengers standing on the aircraft’s wing, before the first ferry reached the plane.

Outside the courtroom, Dombroff has practiced magic since age seven, an avocation he credits with shaping his approach to advocacy, preparation and engaging an audience. He also authored a book exploring the lessons magic has brought to his work as a trial lawyer.

“You practice. You rehearse. You prepare. You direct attention. You focus attention. You don’t misdirect,” Dombroff said.

View his profile.