Overview
The maritime industry is the lifeblood of the Gulf South economy, a thriving, changing sector that requires rapt attention to keep up with opportunities and challenges along waterways and offshore.
With the majority of the nation’s largest ports at the doorstep of our offices in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Stone Pigman’s experienced attorneys are uniquely poised to handle the distinctive legal issues that arise in maritime and admiralty litigation.
Our full-service legal team has represented clients in cases resulting over significant property damage and personal injury, class actions over chemical releases and accidents, contract disputes, liens, and regulatory and administrative matters in the maritime field. We represent ports, vessel owners and operators, shipbuilders, and others negotiating vessel construction, repair contracts, preferred ship mortgages, charter agreements, trans-loading agreements, shipping contracts, terminal services agreements, batture leases, fleet lease agreements, and licensing transactions.
Our maritime attorneys have been recognized by Super Lawyers for transportation and maritime issues as well by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers for Admiralty and Maritime Law.
Our Experience
Representative projects of Stone Pigman’s Maritime Industry Group include:
- On behalf of client, seized a ship owned by the government of Ghana in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana for its failure to pay a steamship agent, ultimately resulting in the client being paid in full.
- Successfully assisted a steamship agent on the Lower Mississippi River in securing a full and complete recovery of maritime liens against the M/V POMORYE and contract claims against the vessel's owner, JSC Murmansk Shipping Company, in federal court.
- Represented a commercial dive contractor against its insurance carrier for insurance coverage and duty to defend against claims arising out of multiple occurrences that resulted in death and significant bodily injury and disability.
- Represented a chemical company in a suit resulting from an alleged release of EDC from a barge and loading dock into the Mississippi River.
- Served as an expert witness for the defense in a legal malpractice case involving preferred ship mortgages in state court.
