Law Firms News

The FBI said on Monday it opened a criminal probe into the collapse of a Baltimore bridge in March when a ship crashed into a bridge support, while local officials confirmed the recovery of a fourth body from the incident.FBI agents boarded the cargo ship Dali to conduct court-authorized law enforcement activity regarding the crash, an FBI spokesperson said. The spokesperson said there was no other public information available and the bureau will have no further comment.The body…

With the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s financial muscle is beyond question. Howev-er, at a corporate level, the country’s capital markets offer a range of benefits to overseas companies seeking equity, debt … or both. Øivind Amundsen is CEO of Oslo Børs and, as you would expect, a strong advocate of the Norwegian capital as a place to raise money for marine-related projects. The diverse nature of the companies which are listed on the Børs, part of Europe’s largest stock exchange group…

Legal and professional services firm Ince Group Plc plans to enter administration and pursue a sale of the company, it said on April 12, amid cash concerns and repeated delays in reporting its financial results.Ince's directors applied to London's High Court on April 12 to appoint administrators under UK insolvency law in relation to the company and four subsidiaries, court filings show.Trading in Ince on London's Alternative Investment Market was suspended from Jan.

America may have only entered the offshore wind sector recently, but it is wasting no time in playing catch-up. The White House has set targets of 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 110 GW by 2050. The focus so far has centred on bottom-fixed installations, but the prospect of higher energy yields in deeper waters where the wind blows stronger and longer now beckon. The White House has also set a floating wind deployment target of 15 GW by 2035.From a standing start, there are immense challenges in America’s offshore wind development.

The Liberian Registry opened a full-service office in Imabari, Japan, as part of the continued expansion of its presence in Asia.Led by Eiji Okazaki, President of the Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry (LISCR) Japan, the Imabari office is comprised of key staff trained to handle ship registrations and technical issues locally. He has been leading the Tokyo office since 2017, and has helped develop the office to now being one of Liberia’s major and most active locations.The office-warming party was held on October 3…

Data sharing is a prerequisite to enabling the successful implementation of “Just-In-Time” (JIT) operations – which can cut the time ships spend idling outside ports and help cut emissions as well as save on fuel costs.Participants at a roundtable meeting of  International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s Global Industry Alliance to Support Low Carbon Shipping (GIA) at IMO Headquarters, London (1-2 May), agreed that increased transparency of information through data sharing was imperative, while this should be achieved through standardized functional and data definitions.More frequent exchange of information would lead to better predictability of when a berth is available.

Teekay Offshore Partner, a marine energy transportation, storage & production company, has signed for a shipping export credit agency (ECA)-backed US$414m debt facility to fund four LNG-fuelled newbuild shuttle tankers.Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) is advising its long-standing client Teekay on this ECA-backed newbuild loan, noted a release.The facility, which bears interest at Libor plus 225 basis points for up to 12 years from each delivery, is funded and guaranteed by both Canadian and Norwegian export credit agencies and commercial banks.The vessels covered are four Suezmax DP2 shuttle tankers due for delivery in 2019 and 2020, two of which will work under Teekay Offshore’s Master Agreement with Norway’s Equinor…

Gordon Dadds Group plc said it agreed to buy one best known names in maritime law Ince & Co International.The merged firms will become a new global legal business and the largest listed law firm in the UK by revenue.Ince is a network of affiliated international commercial law firms, serving its global client base from offices across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For the year to April-end it generated revenue of GBP52.5 million."The parties are now engaged in the detailed contract negotiations and are aiming for completion by 31 December 2018," said a press release from the UK firm. This move will see Gordon Dadds’ international presence grow to nine countries…

The newly formed Maritime Global Technologies Innovation Center (MGTIC) is a collaborative incubator hosted at SUNY Maritime College that sets out to foster technology developments in the maritime space through entrepreneurial innovations. “Shipping interests exist in an increasingly complex environment and are impacted by new problems every day. At the same time, entrepreneurs and researchers seek to remedy these problems,” said MGTIC co-founder Dr. Christopher Clott, ABS Chair of Marine Transportation and Logistics at SUNY Maritime College.

The Vancouver International Maritime Centre (VIMC) is on a mission to grow the city and port into one of the world’s premiere maritime centers. Maritime Reporter & Engineering News recently spoke with Kaity Arsoniadis-Stein, Executive Director of the newly re-established VIMC, for her insights on the pace and direction of the initiative. Let’s start out easily. Why Vancouver? Why now? Why Vancouver? Projections and studies indicate that global trade will increase and shift to the Pacific due to the demand of resources by China and India.

Following the success of the inaugural Asian Marine Casualty Forum (AMCF) in 2015 and by popular demand, the bi-annual industry forum aimed at addressing the current crises in maritime casualty management, is back for the second time running and officially launched in Singapore today. The much welcomed not-for–profit event with its“arranged by the industry for the industry” feature remains and already, sponsorship response has been well beyond expectations. LOC Group (LOC), the leading international maritime consultancy group, will once again be hosting the forum, a cornerstone event of the forthcoming Singapore Maritime Week (22-28 April 2017) – which gathers the international maritime community in Singapore for a week-long of conferences…

Since 1935, MOPS Marine License Insurance has defended the USCG licenses of mariners operating in every maritime sector in the United States. Its network of over 80 maritime law firms, representing almost 200 experienced maritime attorneys, provides MOPS policyholders with personal legal representation from the marine casualty to final disposition. MOPS provides Unlimited License Defense, Full or Partial Income Protection, Civil Legal Defense, Civil Penalty Defense, Criminal Defense, Professional Liability, and Professional Equipment/Instruments Protection. The firm has 12 employees.

Bureau Veritas has acquired international consultancy TMC Marine Ltd. TMC has provided pre- and post-casualty advice and support to the marine industry since 1979. The business focuses on marine claims and accident investigations, salvage and wreck removal consultancy and marine expert witness services for a client base that spans P&I clubs, law firms, marine insurers, salvage companies and ship owners. Headquartered in London, TMC has a network of offices in the U.S., China, Singapore and Australia. It employs more than 50 people and generated revenues of €8.5 million in 2015. Didier Michaud-Daniel, CEO of Bureau Veritas, said, “Our Marine & Offshore business, the historical activity of Bureau Veritas, is one of our eight key growth initiatives to 2020. As such, it is evolving rapidly.

Norway's Songa Offshore SE referred Tuesday to its announcement July 15 regarding the receipt of notices of arbitration from South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in respect of the construction contracts for the Cat D rigs. On November 16, 2015, Songa Offshore received claim submissions from DSME related to Songa Equinox, the first Cat D rig, in which DSME asserts a claim of USD 179 million, along with a request for repayment of liquidated damages in a total amount of USD 22 million. The claim that is asserted relates to alleged cost overruns and additional work in relation to Songa Equinox rig due to what DSME alleges were inherent errors and omissions in the design documents (as often referred to as the FEED package).

Thomas Miller the international insurance, professional and insurance services provider announces the acquisition of the partners and staff of specialist marine law firm, Davies Johnson & Co of Plymouth. The acquisition brings an additional six fee earners to the Thomas Miller Law Ltd (TM Law) team. The firm will operate from Plymouth and London in addition to TM Law’s main office in Newcastle, where it forms part of the Group’s claims handling and risk management consultancy business. Davies’ Johnson’s existing clients will continue to be able to instruct the Plymouth firm, and there will be no change to the service they enjoy currently.

Patent trolls—those who seek to enforce patent rights, but do not actually manufacture or supply services based on the patents—are a problem in all industries, including the shipping industry. And as the pace of innovation in shipping continues to accelerate in areas such as environmental compliance, electronic navigation, vessel design, construction and operation, offshore construction and exploration, and cargo logistics management, claims by patent trolls are sure to rise. It is not just companies who design and sell products in the maritime sector who are at risk.

Shipping is the premise for international trade and has always been an international industry. A central driver for the global shift has been the operational and technological development of the shipping industry, which has lowered transportation costs dramatically, says a report from Menon Business Economics. With the emergence of standardized bulk carriers, oil and other raw materials could be traded globally. Today most shipping markets, not just raw materials carried in bulk, but also specialized segments like cruise, offshore and car carriers, are globalized. Maritime services, however, have, until recently, been relatively national or regional, often located around the ship owning companies.

Shipping firms have paid millions of dollars into U.S. accounts to prevent their vessels from being detained due to non-payment of bills for fuel supplied by the bankrupt OW Bunker, indicating the impact from the collapse of the Danish firm was spreading. OW Bunker filed for bankruptcy in November after losing almost $300 million in alleged fraudulent trading in Singapore, leading to claims by distributors who sold shipping fuel on behalf of OW Bunker but had not been paid. Some 13 cases involving bunker bills totalling about $12 million have been filed at New York's southern district court, a maritime lawyer said. U.S. court documents seen by Reuters show 11 firms…

Clarification: This story has been updated to include the full name a company which is under investigation for involvement in a corruption scandal with Petrobras. The name of the Brazilian company is UTC Engenharia, not UTC as initially reported. There are several global companies known as UTC, and only the Brazilian firm UTC Engenharia is implicated. Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras on Monday said a growing corruption scandal may implicate its employee pension fund and has led to a freeze on payments to 23 contractors allegedly involved in the scheme. Petros, the 66 billion real ($24 billion) employee-pension fund of Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, was singled out by an internal investigation, Petrobras said in a statement.

China's increasing regulatory influence over international mergers and acquisitions has helped to create the hottest new commodity in its legal industry: anti-trust lawyers. Six years ago, China did not even have a legal system for regulating the impact of M&A on competition. Today, its Ministry of Commerce is the biggest wildcard for dealmakers trying to get a major cross-border deal past anti-trust regulators. The ministry's decision last month to reject Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk's planned alliance with Swiss and French rivals came as a "big surprise" to Maersk Chief Executive Nils Smedegaard Anderson, whose team had been in close contact with the regulator until days earlier.

Creditors of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA approved a restructuring plan for the oil company that could lead to a quick resolution of the largest bankruptcy in Latin America's history, lawyers said on Tuesday. The plan was approved by creditors holding 90 percent of the Rio de Janeiro-based company's nearly 12 billion reais ($5 billion) of unpaid obligations. If a judge approves, creditors will swap debts for about 90 percent of Oleo e Gas stock, said Ricardo Knoepfelmacher of Angra Partners, the consultancy that handled talks with creditors. The judge's approval is expected within days, he said. Creditors include Newport Beach…

India Tanker Conference the biggest event of Hinode Events and Services Pvt Ltd, and the first one on the Tanker trade is set to take off on JUNE 5 in Mumbai at the Hotel Vivanta by Taj - President, in MUMBAI. This First Annual Conference on the Outlook for India’s Seaborne Oil, Bulk Liquids and Gas Tanker Trade, will explore the current challenges and outlook for the seaborne transportation of crude oil, bulk liquids AND gas cargoes encompassing the shipment of crude oil, petroleum products, petrochemicals, liquefied gases as well as vegetable oils, etc. Over 200 delegates are expected to attend. They will represent a wide cross section of the trade and industry including Ship owners and operators, charterers, cargo interests.

Tom Ridge, President and CEO of Ridge Global, an international provider of security and risk management services, today announced that Thomas Betro, former Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and VP at NTT DATA, has joined as an advisor. Betro will work closely with Ridge Global’s Flag Bridge strategic maritime team to help guide the expansion of a global maritime criminal investigation service. “We are fortunate to have a seasoned maritime law enforcement professional like Tom Betro on our team,” said Gov. Ridge.