Gary Evans founded Coats & Evans, P.C. in 1999, serving as Managing Shareholder for over 25 years through the end of 2024. C&E represented clients from all over the world in aviation transactions, aviation disputes and aviation-related regulatory and tax matters. We also provide advocacy solutions in a variety of public, media and governmental forums. Our firm is a member of the National Business Aviation Association. This tradition continues with Gary Evans’ new law firm Texas Aviation Law, P.C.

Texas Aviation Law’s aviation litigation practice includes aviation-related commercial trial work and aviation tort and aviation products liability defense. Additionally, Texas Aviation Law represents pilots and aviation businesses in disputes, enforcement and civil penalty litigation with the Federal Aviation Administration before the NTSB in the Department of Labor.

Texas Aviation Law’s aviation transactional practice includes formation of aviation businesses and preparing and negotiating aircraft and aviation facility leases, aircraft purchases, sales and financing, and aircraft operating agreements. Texas Aviation Law also assists aviation businesses with minimizing the risks of potential future litigation.

Texas Aviation Law not only represents the aviation community, it is an active participant. Gary Evans currently owns and operates an award-winning 1984 Piper 700P Aerostar aircraft. This aircraft enables Texas Aviation Law’s attorneys to travel quickly and efficiently to trials, hearings, depositions, inspections and meetings without submitting to the vagaries and risk of airline schedules, delays, routes and security concerns. This capability saves Texas Aviation Law’s clientele significant legal fees otherwise incurred in travel time.

Texas Aviation Law’s practice includes the following areas:

Litigation

• Aviation-Related Commercial Litigation
• Aviation-Related Business Disputes
• Aircraft Accident Defense
• Aviation Products Liability Defense
• Certificate and Civil Penalty Litigation with the Federal Aviation Administration before The NTSB
• Sales Use Tax Disputes
• Property Tax Disputes

Aviation Transactions

• Aviation Business Formation
• Aircraft Acquisition Planning
• Purchase, Sale, & Financing of Aircraft
• Aircraft Dry Leases
• Aircraft Management & Operating Agreements
• Airport Facility Leases
• Risk Management & Mitigation
• Tax Planning

Advocacy, etc.

• Mediation Services
• Media Relations
• Governmental Relations

Mr. Evans is a native of Columbus, Ohio. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeroscience from Ohio State University, and a Masters in Business Administration, with distinction, from Illinois Benedictine College. Mr. Evans received his Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law where he achieved the Order of the Lytae, Dean’s List, and was a member of the South Texas Law Review. Mr. Evans received the FAA’s prestigious Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award on July 16, 2022, signifying over 50 years of flying as a pilot without incident since he first soloed on July 14, 1972.

Mr. Evans is an Airline Transport Pilot with 13,600+ hours of flight experience, including over 9,500 flight hours in multi-engine corporate jets, a Certified Flight Instructor, Single and Multi-Engine Instrument, Ground Instructor Advanced Instruments, and recipient of the National Business Aviation Association’s million mile, 4,500, 5,500, 6,500, 7,500, 8,500, 10,000, 11,000, and 12,000 hour business flying safety awards. His flight training includes the American Airlines Flight Academy, United Airlines Cockpit Resource Management School, and Flight Safety International. He is type rated in the Cessna Citation 500/650, Lear Jet, and Boeing 737, and currently operates an award-winning Piper Aerostar 700P, recipient of the Aerostar Owner’s Association prestigious “Queen of the Fleet” award for 2008, 2015, and 2024, and formerly owned and operated an Aero Commander 500S “Shrike”, an aircraft type Mr. Evans flew early in his career as a professional pilot.

Mr. Evans is the author of Texas Landowners Strike Water Surface Estate Remediation and Legislatively Enhanced Liability in the Oil Patch—A Proposal for Optimum Protection of Groundwater Resources from Oil and Gas Exploration and Production in Texas, 37 S. Tex. L. Rev. 477 (1996), for which he received the Cecil N. Cook Memorial Award for Best Article on Oil & Gas Law for 1995, published in the South Texas Law Review. He also authored and presented Trial By Fire Versus Trial By Jury: Land Mines on the Administrative Path to Aviation Truth and Justice at the 37 th  Annual Southern Methodist University School of Law Air Law Symposium during 2002, and has spoken on multiple occasions as a presenter at Lawyer Pilots Bar Association meetings. Mr. Evans is a member of the State Bar Association of Texas, is admitted to practice before the United States Northern, Southern, and Eastern District Courts in Texas, and previously served as a registered lobbyist.

Mr. Evans is a Past President of the Houston Aviation Advisory Council and served as President of the Lawyer Pilots Bar Association 2012-2013, is an Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association Legal Services Plan Panel Attorney, and is past President of the Hooks Airport Business and Property Owners’ Association.  Mr. Evans has served as a guest author for the Texas Flyer Magazine, he received the Hobby Airport Person of the Year Award for 1999 presented by the Pearland/Hobby Area Chamber of Commerce, and has authored aviation articles appearing in The Texas Lawyer, The Lawyer Pilots Bar Association Journal, and the Aerostar Owners Association Log.

Mr. Evans’ practice includes aviation law, defense and commercial trial law, aviation and other transactional work, and administrative proceedings involving the Federal Aviation
Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Gary is married, and he and his wife Penny have four children and four grandchildren, the youngest of which is named “Piper”.