Our Maritime Group represents clients in maritime personal injury claims under the Longshore Act, as well as cargo damage, marine construction, collisions, fire and groundings. We counsel our clients in intermodal freight and custom matters, maritime labor, environmental and products liability, Inland Marine Insurance, and criminal investigations. We handle maritime cases on a 24-hour on-call basis on Lake Erie, throughout the Great Lakes, and the West Coast. Our trial lawyers bring Merchant Marine experience to their courtroom capabilities and have tried cases in the jurisdictions around the Great Lakes, as well as in New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Guam, California, and Florida.
Areas of Emphasis
- Personal injury claims involving longshoremen, seamen, and passengers
- Cargo damage actions/Carrier defense
- Charter disputes
- Collisions, allisions, fires, groundings, and other major casualties
- U.S. government criminal investigations and prosecutions
- Marine construction
- Maritime labor
- Maritime liens and attachments and arrests of vessels
- Marine environmental liability
- Maritime products liability
- Appellate practice
- Coverage and bad faith relating to Inland Marine Insurance
Our Team
Thomas W. Baker
- Position
- Partner
- Locations
- Cleveland, OH
Robert S. Crowder
- Position
- Counsel
- Locations
- Los Angeles, CA
Frank O. Garritano
- Position
- Partner
- Locations
- Cleveland, OH
Jack J. Goldwood
- Position
- Counsel
- Locations
- Cleveland, OH
Marc R. Greenberg
- Position
- Partner
- Locations
- Los Angeles, CA
- San Francisco, CA
Joseph A. Manno
- Position
- Counsel
- Locations
- Cleveland, OH
Dakota C. Reckamp
- Position
- Associate
- Locations
- St. Louis, MO
- Represented ship captains and crew members in civil and criminal proceedings in federal and state court, from on-board murder investigations to allegations of illegal dumping of oily waste, falsification of logs, and allisions
- Defended numerous bodily injury cases under Jones and LHWCA Acts
- Successfully defended criminal investigation of whistleblower allegations of illegal discharges of bilge waste and prevailed on exclusion of the U.S. Coast Guard’s expert witness
- Obtained enforcement of English Club’s London Arbitration clause by U.S. Court of Appeals
- Represented lessors in ocean container leasing matters, including suits
- Represented a major U.S. charterer in M.T. Mary Ellen limitation proceedings
- Defended product manufacturer in self-unloading boom collapse case
- Represented U.S. carriers in ocean and intermodal freight and customs matters
- Defended ocean and Great Lakes steamship companies in maritime personal injury and death cases
- Experienced with multiple container overboard and cargo loss cases
