Blank Rome was named the Excellence in Maritime Law award winner at the 2019 Lloyd’s List Americas Awards, held on September 25, 2019, in Houston, Texas. The coveted award recognizes “exemplary expertise and commitment to the shipping industry as well as innovation through which lawyers have played a crucial role in notable cases, restructuring, or dispute resolution.”
The Lloyd’s List Americas Awards, which this year was combined with a unique content forum focused on Future Fuels, are part of the global Excellence in Shipping Awards, the industry’s flagship awards program that recognizes and rewards excellence across all sectors of maritime.
Keith B. Letourneau and Jeanne M. Grasso, co-chair and vice-chair, respectively, of Blank Rome’s Maritime practice group, accepted the award together on behalf of Blank Rome Maritime.
Pictured left to right: Eli Ginsberg, (Lloyd’s List Intelligence), Jeanne Grasso, and Keith Letourneau.
Who’s Who Legal 2019 has recognized five Blank Rome Maritime attorneys as “Global Leaders” in Shipping. In addition, 13 of Blank Rome’s attorneys were recognized as “Thought Leaders” and/or “Global Leaders” in five practice areas across the Firm.
GLOBAL LEADERS IN SHIPPING
Per Who’s Who Legal, “nominees were selected based upon comprehensive, independent survey work with both general counsel and private practice lawyers worldwide. Only specialists who have met independent international research criteria are listed.”
Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that on September 3, the Chicago office relocated to a new and permanent location at 444 West Lake Street. The Firm occupies 12,000 square feet of space on the 16th floor that can accommodate 30 or more attorneys and professional staff. Known as River Point, 444 West Lake is a 52-story, 1,050,000-square-foot, world-class office tower that just opened in 2017. It is conveniently located in Chicago’s West Loop on the corner of Lake and Canal Street and is steps away from the Chicago River, public transportation, and the highway.
“Our Chicago colleagues have been off to a great start,” said Grant S. Palmer, Blank Rome’s Managing Partner and CEO. “When considering locations for our Chicago office, we were committed to finding a location that was modern, efficient, and well equipped to help us best serve our clients. We are thrilled to call 444 West Lake our new Chicago home, and look forward to continued growth in such a vibrant and successful market.”
“We are excited to settle into our new space,” said Mr. Ottaviano. “Karin, Will, Paige, and I are confident that 444 West Lake will provide us with the perfect setting to grow and thrive. This location underscores Blank Rome’s commitment to Chicago as well as to our clients and the Firm’s ongoing national expansion efforts. We are eager to welcome our clients and colleagues from across the country to our new office and great city.”
Candid conversations, unfiltered insights, and a dose of hard-earned wisdom from influential women, committed to helping other women succeed and lead.
Have you ever met a fabulous, accomplished woman and wondered how she got to where she is today? Not only that, but where is she going from here and who is she taking with her? In Seriously Driven, host Marilyn Chinitz, a partner in the Matrimonial & Family Law practice at Blank Rome LLP, talks to successful women about their careers, roadblocks they’ve overcome, what or who they credit for their achievements, the other influential women in their lives, what it takes and means to become a leader, and how they mentor future leaders.
In this teaser episode, host Marilyn Chinitz talks about how she has thrived both professionally and personally and how her podcast guests have, too. Here you can listen to a preview of episodes 1 and 2, which feature Wendy Federman, the Tony-award winning Broadway producer, and Dr. Erika Schwartz, a pioneer in the field of health and wellness and author of the book Don’t Let Your Doctor Kill You: How to Beat Physician Arrogance, Corporate Greed and a Broken System.
Welcome to the October 2019 edition of Perspectives, Blank Rome’s diversity and inclusion newsletter that keeps you informed on our latest diversity and inclusion news and provides insight on current diversity and inclusion issues in the legal industry and beyond.
Featured in this edition:
Insightful conversation with Human Rights Campaign President and former Blank Rome Attorney Alphonso David
Update on Mansfield Rule 2.0 and Mansfield Rule 3.0 participation
Inside look at Blank Rome’s inaugural series of Women’s Forum Bootcamps
Celebratory highlights from Heritage History Months
Initiatives aimed at advancing women in law and promoting LGBTQ+ equality
Overview of recent diversity and inclusion headlines, accolades, and events
Blank Rome’s Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Team (“SWERT”) helps those impacted by natural disasters like recent powerful hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico, and by wildfires and mudslides in California and Colorado. We are an interdisciplinary group with decades of experience helping companies and individuals recover from severe weather events. Our team includes insurance recovery, labor and employment, government contracts, environmental, and energy attorneys, as well as government relations professionals with extensive experience in disaster recovery.
Blank Rome Maritime has developed a flexible, fixed-fee Compliance Audit Program to help maritime companies mitigate the escalating risks in the maritime regulatory environment. The program provides concrete, practical guidance tailored to your operations to strengthen your regulatory compliance systems and minimize the risk of your company becoming an enforcement statistic. To learn how the Compliance Audit Program can help your company, please visit blankrome.com/complianceauditprogram.
MARITIME CYBERSECURITY REVIEW PROGRAM
Blank Rome provides a comprehensive solution for protecting your company’s property and reputation from the unprecedented cybersecurity challenges present in today’s global digital economy. Our multidisciplinary team of leading cybersecurity and data privacy professionals advises clients on the potential consequences of cybersecurity threats and how to implement comprehensive measures for mitigating cyber risks, prepare customized strategy and action plans, and provide ongoing support and maintenance to promote cybersecurity and cyber risk management awareness. Blank Rome’s maritime cyber risk management team has the capability to address cybersecurity issues associated with both land-based systems and systems onboard ships, including the implementation of the Guidelines on Cyber Security Onboard Ships and the IMO Guidelines on Maritime Cyber Risk Management in Safety Management Systems. To learn how Blank Rome’s Maritime Cyber Risk Management Program can help your company, please visit blankrome.com/cybersecurity.
TRADE SANCTIONS AND EXPORT COMPLIANCE REVIEW PROGRAM
Blank Rome’s Trade Sanctions and Export Compliance Review Program ensures that companies in the maritime, transportation, offshore, and commodities fields do not fall afoul of U.S. trade law requirements. U.S. requirements for trading with Iran, Cuba, Russia, Syria, and other hotspots change rapidly, and U.S. limits on banking and financial services, and restrictions on exports of U.S. goods, software, and technology, impact our shipping and energy clients daily. Our team will review and update our clients’ internal policies and procedures for complying with these rules on a fixed-fee basis. When needed, our trade team brings extensive experience in compliance audits and planning, investigations and enforcement matters, and government relations, tailored to provide practical and businesslike solutions for shipping, trading, and energy clients worldwide. To learn how the Trade Sanctions and Export Compliance Review Program can help your company, please visit blankrome.com/services/cross-border-international/international-trade or contact Matthew J. Thomas (mthomas@blankrome.com, 202.772.5971).
Our maritime industry team is composed of practice-focused subcommittees from across many of our Firm’s offices, with attorneys who have extensive capabilities and experience in the maritime industry and beyond, effectively complementing Blank Rome Maritime’s client cases and transactions.
Maritime Emergency Response Team (“MERT”) We are on call 24 / 7 / 365 In the event of an incident, please contact any of our MERT members listed in redbelow.
The central theme of Dan Brown’s best-selling book Origin involves answering the long-debated questions on evolution: Where do we come from? Who are we? And, where are we going? When you think about it, those three simple questions, when answered by any individual, group, or organization, will, in all likelihood, include an assessment of their own evolution. Blank Rome Maritime’s evolution, in and of itself, is quite extraordinary.
Where did we come from? On January 1, 2003, the firm Dyer Ellis & Joseph, P.C. joined Blank Rome, bringing with them a group of talented attorneys that focused on maritime regulatory, environmental, and transactional matters, formally launching Blank Rome Maritime. Three years later, on October 1, 2006, the firm Healy & Baillie, LLP joined Blank Rome, bringing with them a group of attorneys who had a broad array of dispute resolution skills focused on international shipping disputes and transactional matters. Then, on August 1, 2013, the firm Bell, Ryniker & Letourneau, P.C. joined Blank Rome, expanding Blank Rome Maritime’s geographic footprint by adding shipping lawyers in Houston, Texas. In the intervening years since 2003, Blank Rome Maritime has added many talented partners and associates, expanding each office and broadening the scope of matters we presently handle today.
Who are we? With nearly 40 shipping lawyers in New York, Washington, D.C., Houston, and Philadelphia, Blank Rome Maritime has the largest and most comprehensive maritime practice in the United States. Our maritime attorneys include former ship’s officers, U.S. Coast Guard and Navy officers, representatives and senior staff from congressional committees, P&I Club claim executives, and high-level officials of government agencies, including the Department of Justice, Maritime Administration, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We handle a broad array of issues for our clients operating in the maritime and international trade sector, and routinely represent our clients both in court and in arbitration, as well as before numerous governmental regularity bodies. And, Blank Rome Maritime is nationally recognized and ranked in leading surveys and publications, including The Legal 500 United States and Chambers USA (see here and here for our recently announced 2019 rankings), to name a couple.
Where are we going? Blank Rome Maritime will continue to evolve to meet the ongoing needs of our clients, and has a bright future ahead with our younger colleagues collaborating with our seasoned attorneys on enhancing our maritime services and capabilities.
With this overview of Blank Rome Maritime’s evolution, we hope you enjoy our summer edition of Mainbrace and the timely topics discussed, ranging from current congressional updates to discussions on evolving maritime policies, laws, and trends, and we welcome your feedback, as always.
Blank Rome also received high rankings and recommendations for our Energy Regulation: Oil and Gas, Government Contracts, Insurance: Advice to Policyholders, and M&A/Corporate and Commercial – M&A: Middle-Market (sub-$500M) practices, as well as for attorneys in those practices.
To view Blank Rome’s full Legal 500 rankings, please click here.
For more information on The Legal 500 United States 2019, please visit legal500.com.
