Tugboats, Contracts and Sunken Treasure

Two Experts Reflect on the Practice of Maritime & Admiralty Law in Coastal Virginia

by Eric J. Wallace

It’s no secret that the maritime industry is huge in Coastal Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay seafood industry generates $1.1 billion annually, employing more than 7,000 workers. Shipbuilding accounts for about 64,000 jobs and $6 billion annually. The Port of Virginia alone handles more than 14.3 million tons of containerized imports per year and boasts economic impacts of $100-plus billion annually—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

What many of us don’t realize is that all of this activity creates a tremendous need for associated legal services. Maritime lawyers handle everything from shellfish farm and fishery leases, to injury-based liability lawsuits, to salvage rights for sunken ships and freight contracts for port-owned tractor-trailer chassis.

Maritime law is a broader term that encompasses admiralty law. In many jurisdictions, the terms “maritime law” and “admiralty law” are used interchangeably to describe the body of law that governs maritime activities. However, in some countries, such as the United States, “admiralty law” is used more specifically to refer to the laws and procedures that apply to maritime claims and disputes in federal courts. In the United States, admiralty law is distinct from other areas of law and falls under federal jurisdiction.

While maritime law covers a wide range of legal issues related to the sea and ships, admiralty law is a subset that specifically deals with the legal aspects of ship operations, navigation and maritime disputes. The terminology and distinctions between the two may vary by jurisdiction, but both are crucial in regulating and resolving legal matters in the maritime industry.

To learn more, we enlisted the help of two regional experts: David Ventker of Ventker Henderson Stancliff, PLLC, and Thomas Berkley, of Pender & Coward to share their perspectives and insights.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard at Sunrise

Norfolk Naval Shipyard at Sunrise

CoVaBIZ: Tell us a bit about your personal background and what inspired you to pursue this particular area of law?

Ventker: I grew up in Cincinnati and, though I can’t put my finger on a particular event or circumstance that created the interest, decided I wanted to be a lawyer as a teen. From there I spent seven years at Ohio State University earning an undergraduate and law degree.

My father was an Air Force fighter pilot and instilled a sense of duty in me early on. By that I generally mean the privilege of living in this great country creates an obligation that must be repaid, whether through public service, military service, or otherwise. Poor vision precluded being an Air Force pilot, so I commissioned into the Navy, as I felt it was the most interesting of the branches with the greatest opportunity to face unique legal challenges.

I started as a defense attorney at Charleston, South Carolina’s Navy legal services office defending sailors at special and general courts-martial. From there I spent two years as a prosecutor at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy, then got assigned to the legal office of the Atlantic fleet commander in chief in Norfolk. My wife and I liked it here and decided to stay when I left the Navy in 1990.

Berkley: I was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up playing and working on and around the water. I eventually got a job working as a tugboat deckhand during high school and college summers in the harbor, on the Chesapeake Bay, and along the East Coast.

Thomas Berkley

Thomas Berkley

During that time, I also learned much about our local maritime industry from listening to family members and close family friends—many of whom enjoyed thriving maritime legal practices that had a global impact. They’d tell stories at holiday dinners and gatherings, and those experiences inspired me to want to pursue a maritime law profession.

After high school, I earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and then a law degree from William & Mary.

What kind of cases do you deal with on a day-to-day basis and how has that changed over the years?

Berkley: My first break into maritime law came with representation of the marine salvage company for the RMS Titanic. Representation of commercial fishmen in maritime matters—like allision, [which is when a boat causes damage to a stationary object]—and in fisheries disputes involving the National Marine Fisheries Service followed. These early representations taught me a lot and convinced me that I’d chosen a fascinating professional path.

As my experience developed, I began securing work from the Port of Virginia and other major marine terminals in the region. [Many people don’t realize these ports are political subdivisions of the state and operate like a small city within a city. So my job was basically like a city attorney, and involved everything from] cargo, tariff, and personal injury defense work, to train incidents.

I now represent marine terminals, international ship lines, and a variety of maritime and waterfront centric businesses like tugboat, engineering, construction, transportation, custom yacht building, dredging and insurance companies on a variety of maritime, liability and business matters.

Ventker: I started out doing a lot of work for a tugboat company around getting big ships in and out of port. In broad terms, that’s everything surrounding the first mile out and last mile in. In that capacity I worked on labor contracts, towing agreements, and a lot of lawsuits or claims around unanticipated damages caused by anything from boats hitting things they’re not supposed to hit, to injuries due to sea conditions, to random equipment fires. And in fact, that tugboat company is still a client of mine today!

David Ventker

David Ventker

Now most of my work is with fishing vessels, and fleet owners in particular. There’s a law called the Jones Act which, among other things, requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be transported on ships that are built, owned and operated by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. It also allows crewmembers to sue ship owners if they get hurt, because there’s no worker’s compensation for seamen. Claims in some of these cases can be very large, as it’s unlikely a seaman who’s suffered a serious injury will be able to get a job that pays as well. So, a lot of what I do is represent owners in those situations.

Share a few exciting cases that you’ve been involved with over the years.

Ventker: I got a huge break very early in my maritime career working on the famous “Ship of Gold” litigation of the early 1990s. The Columbus-America Discovery Group of Ohio (CADGO) had recovered [gold and artifacts] from the SS Central America, a sidewheel steamer that sank in an 1857 hurricane roughly 40 miles off the coast of South Carolina carrying about three tons of gold—which would have a value of about $1 billion today.

The group brought what they recovered into the Port of Virginia because they knew their claim to it would be contested, and the federal court here specializes in salvage. Well, the insurance companies that originally paid claims on the vessel and cargo when it sank sued them saying that the gold belonged to them. CADGO’s argument was that the ship and everything on it had been abandoned. The latter hired a law firm out of Ohio, and their team needed local council with knowledge and contacts in the area. That was me.

Working on that case was an amazing learning experience. But the best—or at least most surreal —moment was standing in a Chesapeake Brink’s vault watching them loading in everything from plastic bags of gold dust to 600-ounce gold bricks.

Berkley: I was part of a team involved in litigation surrounding the wreckage of the R.M.S. Titanic. The U.S. government intervened shortly after the discovery of the shipwreck in 1985 and granted exclusive salvage rights to RMS Titanic, Inc. in 1994. In that agreement, the court was made a trustee of any items that were salvaged from the site. The firm I worked for represented the salvage company. We’d have to meet with a judge every time they wanted to bring something up from the ocean floor and present plans around how the items were going to be preserved, shown, and so on.

It was an incredibly fascinating experience. I got to work with some of the best lawyers in the business and, looking back, that was the one that really got me hooked. Working on that case I learned much from my boss, mentor and friend Mark S. Davis, who now sits as the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division. He introduced me more closely to our federal courts, the local maritime commercial community, and the maritime bar.

Looking to the future, what do you see as an important area of growth for the maritime industry?

Berkley: Looking ahead, I think the most important thing for staying competitive and driving the maritime economy in our region will be dredging the southern and eastern branches of the Elizabeth River to a mean depth of 55 feet. We’re already in the process of doing that throughout our primary shipping channels to accommodate the new ultra large container vessels, and projects have been authorized for Norfolk Harbor and the channel to Newport News. What makes this so incredibly important—and such a major boon for the region—is these next generation cargo ships carry around 24,000 containers, whereas the older ones held only about 7,400.

The branches of this historically commercial river need attention. The waterfront businesses that thrive along these branches of the Elizabeth River provide many important skilled jobs and offer great opportunities for continued workforce growth.

Ventker: Wind energy is one, for sure. It has huge potential in the region and, in my opinion, is going to create a considerable amount of work for this industry. When you look at the number of turbines Dominion plans to build—I think the current number is around 180 and they’re building them on a plot that’s two times the size of the city of Norfolk about 30 miles off the coast —they’re going to need considerable ships and personnel for construction and servicing.

The majority of those vessels will operate out of Virginia’s port facilities. That’s going to create a lot of jobs, and it’s going to generate considerable need for legal services around contracts, leasing rights, liability claims, you name it.

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