Best Lawyers in Louisiana, United States for Admiralty and Maritime Law
Select a city from the list below to find the best legal talent for your needs.
Cities
Robert M. Kallam is a seasoned litigation attorney with more than thirty years of experience representing clients in state and federal courts at the trial and appellate levels. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, he is a shareholder at Kean Miller and focuses his practice on Administrative / Regulatory Law and Admiralty and Maritime Law, along with complex civil litigation arising from marine , energy, transportation, and insurance-related matters. He regularly represents companies involved in hig...
Kelly Duncan is a partner in the Maritime Practice Group. He serves currently as co-chair of the firm’s Gaming Industry Team and served on Jones Walker’s board of directors from 2006 to 2014. Kelly has 40 years of experience handling admiralty, maritime, and international and customs law matters, including domestic and international matters relating to marine acquisitions, financings, vessel construction, regulatory issues, maritime lien enforcement and foreclosures, contracts of ...
Jim Wright is a partner in the Maritime and Litigation practice groups. He represents clients in a broad range of commercial disputes, regulatory investigations, and criminal cases. Jim has more than four decades of experience as a trial attorney in civil and criminal jury and judge trials in federal and state courts. His areas of practice include maritime, white collar crime, oil and gas regulatory enforcement, environmental, customs, gaming regulatory enforcement, commercial litigation, pro...
Senior Counsel Will Bland, III, one of the founding members of the firm, has more than 49 years of experience as a litigator. Will’s practice focuses on maritime personal injury defense, maritime collision and property damage insurance coverage, contractual indemnity, longshore matters, transportation defense, and general litigation. His clients have included both Fortune 500 and local one-boat companies, and he regularly represents vessel operators, shipyards, both brown water and offs...
Neal J. Kling, a Member of the firm, received his undergraduate degree in Business and Public Administration from Louisiana State University and his law degree from Louisiana State University Law Center where he graduated Order of the Coif and was a member of the Louisiana Law Review. He represents clients in the areas of secured financing transactions, real estate transactions, real property and personal property leasing, maritime construction and finance and other commercial transactions. M...
Member Alan G. Brackett, who is one of the firm founders, leads the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act defense team, which also handles claims arising under the Defense Base Act and War Hazards Compensation Act. Alan litigates claims nationwide for large corporations and insurance companies, including Chubb and American Longshore Mutual Association. As supported by the many peer honors he has received, including The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers, Alan has develop...
Michael R.C. Riess is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Admiralty and Maritime Law, Construction Law and Litigation - Construction. Michael R.C., who practices law in New Orleans, Louisiana, has been recognized since 2021. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Michael R.C. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Paul Sterbcow is the managing member of Lewis, Kullman, Sterbcow & Abramson, LLC. Paul obtained a B.S. from Tulane University and a J.D. from Tulane University School of Law. Paul is licensed to practice in all Louisiana state and federal courts, along with the United States Supreme Court. Paul’s primary practice area is admiralty and maritime law, an area in which he has been recognized as one of the best practitioners in the country. Paul was selected as a member of the Plaintiff&...
Jeff Tillery is a partner in the Maritime Practice Group and co-leader of the maritime litigation, arbitration, and dispute resolution team. He helps maritime and marine industry clients prevent and resolve a broad range of disputes. For more than 35 years, Jeff has advised and represented clients in maritime personal injury and collision matters, commercial litigation, longshore matters, and marine insurance coverage disputes, and has tried, as lead counsel, complex marine multi-party casual...
Rodger focuses on maritime and oilfield transactions and litigation. This includes insurance coverage, marine finance and vessel documentation, litigation, corporate and commercial law, and international transaction primarily in Latin America. Rodger was born in Durham, North Carolina. His educational background includes: Phillips Academy (Andover), 1968; an undergraduate degree from Stanford University, 1972; a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia University, 1977; and a Juris Do...
Jim Silverstein joined Kean Miller in 2012 and is based in New Orleans, Louisiana. His practice focuses on Admiralty and Maritime Law and Product Liability Litigation – Defendants , along with matters involving energy, construction , environmental , and commercial litigation . Jim has substantial litigation and trial experience representing clients in admiralty and maritime disputes, energy and oil and gas matters, and complex product liability litigation. He regularly defends manufactu...
Grady Hurley is a partner in and co-leader of the maritime litigation, arbitration, and dispute resolution team and co-chair of the Energy, Environmental & Natural Resources Industry Team. Since 1979, he has focused on maritime, oilfield, and energy litigation. Grady has broad-ranging dispute resolution and transactional experience at the intersection of energy and maritime law, including in areas such as offshore energy exploration, production, and distribution, where a range of complex ...
Member Dan Hoerner anchors the firm’s Lafayette, Louisiana office. He has been with Mouledoux, Bland, Legrand & Brackett since it was founded in 1997 and practiced with the firm’s founders for five years prior to that. His practice is primarily litigation-based, with emphasis on admiralty and maritime law, general casualty and insurance defense, personal injury defense, property damage claims, employer and premises liability, and contract negotiations and disputes. He has succ...
Kevin LaVie practices in the area of admiralty and tort. He has a very broad-based practice involving nearly all aspects of maritime law including personal injury and death claims; cargo damage claims; dock damage and collision claims; Limitation of Liability matters; charter party and related commercial disputes (including ship arrests and Rule B attachments); insurance coverage disputes; oilfield indemnity actions; pollution matters; and various Coast Guard and immigration matters. His prac...
Matthew’s experience and practice primarily includes the representation of shipyards, vessel owners and operators and contractors as well as other businesses in maritime, construction and commercial disputes. This experience includes the defense of Jones Act, Longshore Harbor and Worker’s Compensation Act, and maritime personal injury claims, as well as maritime contractual disputes and maritime property damage matters. Matthew’s experience also includes the defense of insur...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.