Maritime Litigation

Winston & Strawn’s maritime group is familiar with all facets of admiralty and maritime law. We have extensive experience in maritime litigation and in providing day to day advice to meet the specific needs of our maritime clients. Our maritime attorneys are particularly active in the shipping – litigation area, frequently handling matters for clients opposite the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Maritime Administration, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Our maritime team has over 180 years of experience in marine-related contracts and disputes and represent ship owners, ferry owners, vessel manufacturers and dealerships, marine construction companies and underwriters, boatyards and marinas.

Winston & Strawn maritime litigation experience includes:

• The successful defense of the issuance of a coastwise trading license by the U.S. Coast Guard to a Matson vessel.
• The successful support of the U.S. Government’s award of long-term time charters to our client American Petroleum Tankers LLC.
• Ongoing multimillion-dollar litigation before the Federal Maritime Commission involving critically important issues to the U.S. marine terminal industry.
• The prosecution of a maritime in-rem attachment during a commercial dispute with a commodities brokerage.
• A successful challenge of a U.S. Government decision to exclude Liberty’s vessels from the carriage of certain U.S. Government international food aid cargoes.
• The successful defense of a port authority against claims exceeding $120 million before the Federal Maritime Commission.
• The successful defense of a marine terminal operator against claims of approximately $50 million brought by a port authority before the Federal Maritime Commission.
• Successful judicial challenges of arbitrary and capricious decisions of the U.S. Coast Guard that threatened companies with multi-million dollar losses.
• Conceived and crafted the winning argument for a dredging company against multi-billion dollar claims arising from Hurricane Katrina.