Our Ship Repair and Ship Building team has the practical and legal experiences necessary to steer our clients through the often turbulent issues facing the shipyard industry. Throughout the decades we have paired over 131 years of admiralty experience with our contracting and government contracting experiences to represent shipyards of all sizes throughout the United States, including the Port of Hampton Roads, the Northeast (Boston, New York, and Philadelphia), Florida and Gulf Coasts, and West Coast (San Diego, Los Angeles and Portland).
Our shipyard practice encompasses all aspects of related law, as well as the day-to-day operations of the ship repair and ship building industries. We provide services to our shipyard clients that cover their projects from start to finish, including assistance in: setting up, maintaining and improving the company’s systems and cost accounting systems, ethics training, forward pricing rates and purchasing systems, the solicitation and bidding processes; assembling teams, subcontractors, and preparing proposals; addressing bidding mistakes and disputes, including bid protests; contract performance, including scheduling, delay and disruption analysis; dealing with performance problems, such as equitable adjustment requests, warranty issues, subcontractor disputes, terminations, and claims; and contract close-out, including billing issues, audits, pricing actions, insurance issues and settlements.
The firm’s multi-disciplinary approach provides a full spectrum of legal services to address any issues a shipyard might face, such as commercial drafting, labor and employment issues, workers’ compensation and Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) defense, and product liability issues. We also have extensive experience in state and federal procurement law that is invaluable in the industry given the large percentages of ship repair and construction carried out by federal and state agencies or under federal guarantee programs.
We are seasoned in dispute resolution specific to shipyards, including extensive experience in Federal and state court litigation, federal and military Boards of Contract Appeal, arbitration including the American Arbitration Association and the Society of Marine Arbitrators of New York, mediation and other forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Vandeventer Black has many trained and certified arbitrators and mediators with industry-specific backgrounds.
Vandeventer Black’s shipyard practice relies on the integrated talents, experience and backgrounds of our lawyers. The team includes seasoned attorneys with marine leadership backgrounds, including Coast Guard and Naval officers, as well as a Naval Architect, several engineer / lawyers, and the General Counsel for the Virginia Ship Repair Association. Several of our lawyers have prior project management and scheduling experience and are experienced contract professionals, including two certified Fellows of the National Contract Management Association.
AV Preeminent®: The highest peer rating standard. This rating signifies a large number of the lawyer’s peers rank him
or her at the highest level of professional excellence for their legal knowledge, communication skills and ethical standards.
Distinguished: An excellent rating for a lawyer with some experience. This rating indicates the attorney is widely
respected by their peers for high professional achievement and ethical standards.
Notable: This rating indicates that the lawyer has been recognized by a large number of their peers for strong ethical standards.
