admiralty

Thompson Coburn LLP (Thompson Coburn) has an extensive Admiralty practice centered primarily in its St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. offices, and has earned a national reputation in these areas. The Firm regularly represents numerous lenders to the inland and offshore maritime industries and virtually all of the major inland river barge and towing companies.

St. Louis Office
The Admiralty practice in the St. Louis office falls into two main categories: corporate advice, including maritime finance and maritime contracts, and maritime litigation.

The Admiralty litigation practice is varied and extensive. It involves all aspects of maritime litigation, including personal injury and death cases under the Jones Act, the Longshoremen and Harbor Workers Compensation Act, and the General Maritime Law. We also represent clients on traditional admiralty collision, property damage and contract disputes.

Admiralty trial lawyers represent maritime operators in collision cases involving other vessels, water structures and government facilities. The trial section of the Admiralty practice has extensive experience in handling contractual disputes involving charter parties, government contracts, and in rem foreclosure actions. Due to the potential for large casualties, the trial group routinely handles emergency representations in maritime investigations involving everything from single drownings to multiple deaths in sinkings, explosions and large scale incidents such as the White River breakaway (1980s) in which 30 vessels sank, the towboat/train derailment in Fountaingrove, Wisconsin (1990s), and recent major collisions in the St. Louis Harbor involving gaming and towing vessels.

Many of these large-scale investigations include dealings with governmental agencies and representing companies before the National Transportation Safety Board and the United States Coast Guard. Our Admiralty practice is staffed by other professionals including a private investigator who has been with the Firm for 20 years and holds a United States Coast Guard Pilot's license. The practice also includes an in-house medical specialist who assists on complex medical cases.

The Admiralty trial attorneys regularly try cases in state and federal courts, including Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. The Admiralty trial lawyers have been in jury and non-jury cases more than 100 days over the past two years. We are involved in various collision, injury and death cases.

Maritime Finance
We represent both borrowers and lenders in maritime financing, charters and other maritime commercial transactions involving barges, towboats, fishing vessels, gaming vessels and other marine equipment. Typical transactions involve loans secured by preferred ship mortgages, vessel charters and related remedial actions, including ship mortgage foreclosures. We also have extensive experience in government-guaranteed ship financing under Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, as amended. We regularly assist clients with the licensing and titling of vessels with the Coast Guard, and with the preparation and recordation of ship mortgages and other collateral documentation. In addition, we represented Ocean Transport Corporation in a reorganization proceeding under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in one of the first successful reorganizations of a marine transportation company under the Bankruptcy Code.

Washington, D.C. Office
The maritime and commercial finance group in the Washington, D.C. office represents borrowers, lenders, lessors, lessees, investment bankers and related parties in all types of project and equipment finance transactions, principally relating to ships, barges and containers. We have extensive experience in structuring and negotiating direct loans, single investor leases, leveraged leases (both on and off-balance sheet), operating leases, synthetic leases, mortgages, conditional sales agreements, pledges, multiple-layered debt financings and government-supported financings (especially government guaranteed ship financings under Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936, as amended). In addition, this group, working with the attorneys in our corporate finance and securities group, has considerable experience in the private placement of debt instruments in the capital markets.

This work has necessarily involved our attorneys in many aspects of the day-to-day operations of these companies in the marine industry, and they have developed special expertise in all of the federal laws and regulations relating to maritime matters. In addition, they have experience in drafting bareboat charters, time charters, management agreements, contracts of affreightment and construction contracts. These attorneys also specialize in vessel documentation and the registration of mortgages in the U.S. and in foreign ship registries.

Interaction with Transportation Group
The Admiralty law practice works in combination with other practice areas, particularly the Transportation group, to provide quality representation in an efficient and cost-effective manner to our clients.

Our clients include lenders, inland river transportation companies and offshore transportation and drilling companies and their insurers. We represent virtually all of the major inland river towing companies, as well as many of the smaller barge and towboat operators and their insurers.

Representative Clients
Our clients include lenders, inland river transportation companies and offshore transportation and drilling companies and their insurers, and virtually all of the major inland river towing companies, as well as many of the smaller barge and towboat operators and their insurers.

A.I. Marine Adjusters, Inc. Alter Company American Commercial Lines LLC Balfour Beatty Construction Co. Banc One Leasing Corp. Belterra Resort Indiana LLC BTM Capital Corp. Bunge North America Cargill, Inc. Danos and Curole Marine Contractors LLC E-Ships, Inc. Fru-Con Corp. GATX Capital Corp. Ghana National Petroleum Corp. Caterpillar Financial Services Corp. General Electric Capital Corp. General Ore International Corporation Limited Harbor Fuel Service, Inc. Hornbeck Offshore, Inc. Kirby Corp. & Affiliates Marine Drilling Companies Marine Equipment Management Corp Marine Office of America Corp. Metro Machine Corp. National City Leasing Corp. NationsCredit Commercial Corp. Northrop Grumman Corp. Norwest Bank/Minneapolis NPR, Inc. Ocean Transport Corp. Oglebay Norton Company and Transportation Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. PNC Bank President Casinos, Inc. Pride International LLC Riverway Co. Shell International State Street Bank & Trust Co. Sterling Equipment, Inc. Tokai Financial Services Transocean Sedco Forex Union Carbide Corp. U.S. Bank, N.A