TWA Pilots Hire David Boies’ Firm

A group representing the 2,400 pilots of Trans World Airlines, which was bought earlier this year by American Airlines parent AMR Corp., has hired the firm of celebrated corporate lawyer David Boies to protect the pilots’ interests in the merger, Boies’ office said.

The Aviation Workers Rights Foundation, which the TWA pilots helped establish this summer, retained the firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner in New York to consider various options to “ensure a fair and equitable” integration of the pilots into American’s work force, said one of the firm’s partners, Alan Vickery.

As American moves closer to fully integrating TWA, TWA’s pilots haven’t been happy with proposals made regarding their seniority within American and other issues, he said. The matter is further complicated because TWA’s pilots have one union, the Air Line Pilots Assn., while American’s 11,500 pilots have their own union, the Allied Pilots Assn. American spokesman Emilio Howell declined to comment, and ALPA officials could not be immediately reached.