Practice Areas & Industries: Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Barnes & Thornburg LLP has a thriving transportation and global logistics practice. Based in its Washington, D.C. office, this practice group has a depth and breadth of experience in transactional, planning, lobbying, administrative, and litigation matters involving transportation and global logistics. It provides an array of legal services involving virtually everything that moves in international, interstate and intrastate commerce. The modes of transportation involved in this work range from existing freight railroads to futuristic high speed rail passenger service, as well as trucking lines, cruise ships, airlines and the passengers and shippers who utilize their services.

This group includes attorneys who regularly practice in various other practice areas, including governmental services, administrative law, environmental and hazardous material issues, litigation, business and taxes, intellectual property, labor, developmental disabilities, immigration, financing and bonds, finance, insolvency and restructuring, among others. They have experience with various transportation issues, covering laws and treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the ICC Termination Act, the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, the Warsaw Convention, the Capetown Convention, all of which impact the movement of goods in international and interstate commerce.

Firm attorneys represent all modes of transportation providers, as well as shippers, state and local governmental agencies, rural rail transportation districts, airport authorities, inland port authorities, transportation logistics businesses and even coalitions of landowners and American Indian tribes involved in railroad line issues - in short, the whole spectrum of the transportation world. For information on our aviation practice, see the group's page in the practice area section.

Attorneys interact with many different courts, agencies and governmental bodies, including federal and state courts, the United States Congress and state legislatures, multiple administrations within the United States Department of Transportation (Surface Transportation Board, Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), the United States Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Customs Service and other state and federal agencies.