International Trade, Transportation & Maritime

Overview

Our team provides a range of legal services to the maritime industry, working with many forms of transport and related logistics. We are skilled counselors who can guide you through requirements of the port authorities, FTC, FMC, USCG, MarAd, and vessel documentation agencies. With a maritime practice dating back more than a century, we also have strong relationships with regulators. 

We bring together the knowledge of tightly woven teams of corporate governance, contract, M&A, finance, private equity, tax, securities, and employment lawyers, all of whom have unique and applicable experience.

We advise on maritime compliance, prepare and file agreements and contracts, and utilize our past experience in seminal maritime cases to litigate before the FMC. Further, our team represents maritime and logistics companies in public and private M&A transactions.

Representative Experience

• Identifying exceptions to the Jones Act and solutions to establish compliance and defending Jones Act litigation. Our team includes a partner with extensive in-house experience at the Department of Homeland Security working on Jones Act and Coast Guard issues.
• Extensive knowledge of the programs sponsored by the U.S. Maritime Administration under the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, as amended for the benefit of new builds and existing vessels
• Helping clients communicate with the U.S. Coast Guard National Vessel Documentation Center, assisting in complicated flag-in/flag-out processes with compliant and business-friendly results (including for Maritime Security Program (MSP) vessels) and in-depth assistance with the CSR Desk
• Partnering with purchasers and sellers in connection with acquisitions and dispositions of marine terminals and logistics companies and with joint ventures and strategic alliances
• Drafting, negotiating, and facilitating approval for vessel acquisition and disposition, as well as finance documents, trust agreements, time charters, bareboat charters, ship management agreements, crewing agreements, logbook entries, certificates of ownership, and continuous synopsis records, including for MSP replacement vessels
• Drafting and negotiating vessel escort and assist agreements, tugboat service agreements, agency agreements, and cargo and shipment agreements, including support regarding the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA), taxes, import fees, customs, and border protection
• Advising stevedoring companies, terminals, and ports and the Pacific Maritime Association in OSHA, labor and employment, and ERISA matters
• Maintaining an industry-leading crane and other equipment acquisition and finance practice that works on virtually all maritime industry equipment acquisition and financing and deftly handles subsidy financing matters
• Representing terminal operators on terminal and port leases, leases of nearby logistics facilities, and the construction, renovation, and financing of terminal and lease facilities and dredging of channels
• Negotiating and resolving disputes relating to terminal services arrangements, including lift rates, volume commitments, service standards and responsibilities, and related matters
• Representing terminal and port operators and carriers on environmental compliance and related regulatory matters