Skip to Content
  

Maritime and Commodity Trading Team

The McLaughlin & Stern Maritime Team, which focused on maritime corporate, finance and regulatory matters, and was expanded in June, 2013, with the addition of all the partners and associates of maritime and trading litigation boutique Nourse & Bowles, LLP has again expanded with the addition of white collar criminal specialists Dan Horwitz and Mike Armstrong. We now offer a wide range of maritime and commodity trading advice and services including litigation (civil and criminal), arbitration, casualty and pollution response, regulatory compliance and corporate reorganization. The Team's clients center on the shipping and commodity trading industries and closely related fields including finance, insurance, and agency. The team's attorneys are involved on a daily basis in drafting, negotiating, offering advice, investigating and litigating matters concerning:

  • Contracts for the sale, purchase, insurance, construction and repair of ships
  • Contracts for the sale, purchase and transportation of commodities
  • Registration of ships and mortgages under flags including traditional maritime jurisdictions
  • Agreements for financing of ships and other maritime-related property, including marine terminals and container equipment
  • Contracts of carriage of all types, including contracts of affreightment, time charters, voyage charters, bills of lading, space sharing and vessel pooling agreements
  • Contracts for the purchase or leasing of equipment, including containers and chassis
  • Ship management, agency and freight forwarding contracts
  • Stevedore and ocean marine terminal contracts
  • Insurance, reinsurance, excess insurance and insurance brokerage contracts
  • Contracts for passenger vessel operations
  • Private placements, bond financings, and other financial investment vehicles
  • Regulatory/Inquiry/Casualty matters before the Federal Maritime Commission and Coast Guard

The Team's attorneys also investigate and handle resolution of maritime casualties as they arise throughout the world, including vessel fires, groundings, sinkings, collisions, and equipment failures resulting in cargo and vessel loss and damage, pollution (see MSWAT and Environmental webpages), loss of life and bodily injury. Counsel, Larry Bowles, taught navigation at the U.S. Naval Academy and partner, Jack Vayda, has taught Admiralty at the college and graduate level. Partner, Jay Paré, won a precedent-setting case for Exxon Corporation involving admiralty jurisdiction in the U.S. Supreme Court, Exxon Corp. v Central Gulf Lines Inc., 500 US 603 (1991).

Partner, Walter Lion, recently assisted a shipowning group arrange over $2 billion in financing for a series of ships being constructed in Europe and Asia. Counsel Mike Armstrong defended the barge-owning Frank sisters against criminal charges arising from pollution. The Team's attorneys receive highest ratings in national and international directories, including Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Shipping & Maritime Lawyers, Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers. They regularly lecture at industry events around the world and have chaired committees and have been directors of the Maritime Law Association of the U.S.

Maritime Swift Action Team

Members of McLaughlin & Stern's MSWAT and casualty response team with decades of casualty response and litigation experience combined with former federal and state prosecutors and the former Director of Counter-Terrorism for the MTA are ready to go any place, an time to assist you with the investigation/response to a maritime casualty which might include vessel loss or damage, cargo loss or damage, pollution, personal injury, loss of life, or shoreside damage together with the civil and/or criminal litigation which may follow. The MSWAT Members are based throughout the New York, New Jersey Metropolitan area and Florida. Please contact any of them 24/7/365 as follows:

General office number: New York: 212 448-1100

MSWAT TEAM MEMBERS

Last, FirST Office Mobile Email
Vayda, John 212-952-6200 917-543-0401 jvayda@mclaughlinstern.com
Paré, Jay 212-952-6201 347-743-7395 jpare@mclaughlinstern.com
Bowles, Lawrence 212-448-1100 516-343-1535 lbowles@mclaughlinstern.com
Lion, Walter 212-448-6253 917-859-5963 wlion@mclaughlinstern.com
Horwitz, Dan 212-455-0448 347-563-2096 dhorwitz@mclaughlinstern.com
Armstrong, Mike 212-455-0419 646-872-6384 marmstrong@mclaughlinstern.com
Hyman, Steven 212-448-6228 917-647-8476 shyman@mclaughlinstern.com
Levinson, Paul 212-448-6279 917-902-9429 plevinson@mclaughlinstern.com
Solomon, Neil 561-659-4020 (x3017) 561-531-2456 nsolomon@mclaughlinstern.com
Jeremias, Jonathan 212-448-1100 (x1396) 646-385-3721 jjeremias@mclaughlinstern.com
       

 

RELATED NEWS & PRESS

We are all watching the developments of the coming November election, in an environment of great uncertainty. Read More

Share This

It was just days before Christmas in 2023 when flames tore through the apartments at 43-09 47th Ave., in Sunnyside, Queens.

Share This