Williams Mullen supports the transportation and logistics industries with a core team of attorneys and consultants who are positioned to respond to clients’ needs across the supply chain. Our team is well versed in international trade and shipping regulations, customs and homeland security issues, environmental and marine finance related matters as well as other business law specialties that affect both the international and domestic movement of goods and people. The team is multimodal with attorneys who regularly represent industry leaders in the maritime, rail, motor, mass transit, third party logistics and terminal, warehousing and distribution industries.
Specific areas of interest to the transportation and logistics industries include:
Maritime Law
The Williams Mullen Maritime Practice Group focuses on admiralty and maritime transactions and litigation. We represent all facets of the marine industry including vessel owners and operators, ship repairers, stevedores and terminal operators, as well as financial institutions. Our attorneys are experienced in numerous maritime matters including ship financing, maritime liens, vessel arrests and seizures, cargo claims, personal injury, environmental compliance, groundings, collisions, explosions, fires and regulatory matters.
Marine Finance
Attorneys at Williams Mullen have considerable experience representing lenders and borrowers in marine finance transactions, involving both U.S. and foreign flag vessels. Attorneys from Williams Mullen’s Maritime Practice Group have an understanding of the vessel registry laws, maritime lien priorities, preferred ship mortgages, marine insurance, admiralty jurisdiction and other laws and regulations so the appropriate considerations are made and steps taken to ensure the interests of the client, whether lender or borrower, are protected in the initial loan transaction and any subsequent mortgage lien enforcement.
Transportation Infrastructure Finance
Williams Mullen attorneys have substantial experience in working with businesses and governmental entities in the development, design, construction and financing of transportation infrastructure. Our team’s experience covers various forms of project delivery, including design-build, construction management, design-bid-build and public-private partnerships. We are qualified and well-prepared to assist clients in Virginia, having substantial experience as counsel on projects developed under the Virginia Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995 (PPTA).
Williams Mullen has also worked on large-scale public-private partnership projects to develop alternative financing solutions for critical infrastructure. In a consulting role, Williams Mullen teams with financial and technical experts to identify project and policy hurdles, and builds a strategy for the client to utilize public sector tools and identify potential private sector involvement.
Supply Chain Safety and Security
Williams Mullen attorneys are well versed in supply chain issues relating to security and import safety. Our attorneys have counseled transportation companies, especially maritime concerns, as well as importing and other companies with regard to the Department of Homeland Security’s programs such as Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism and 10+2 (the Importer Security Filing). Our attorneys speak frequently on topics concerning Homeland Security developments as well as consumer product and food safety, regularly counseling clients on enactments such as the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act (BTA or Bioterrorism Act), Consumer Products Safety Improvements Act of 2008 and food safety legislation. Attorneys serve in leadership roles on Customs & Border Protection and supply chain issues.
Government Relations
Williams Mullen attorneys and professional consultants have considerable experience working with the executive and legislative branches of local, state, and federal government on a broad range of policy initiatives, legislation, regulation and government procurement. We have developed valuable relationships with elected officials, agency heads, legislators and key staff, as well as business and community leaders and interest groups. We are particularly skilled at strategic assessments of a client’s interests, crafting solutions and implementing successful plans. We know how to mobilize grassroots support, develop communality among multiple constituencies and create and manage effective coalitions. In addition, we can effectively transcend and manage political considerations, if and when they are a factor.
Regulatory Compliance
Williams Mullen attorneys have significant experience in federal regulatory compliance affecting the transportation industry. Our attorneys counsel clients with regard to matters involving, inter alia, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs & Border Protection (CBP); Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE); the U.S. Coast Guard; the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC); the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS); the U.S. Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC); the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS); the Surface Transportation Board (STB); the Maritime Administration (MARAD); the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and agencies relying on U.S. Flagged vessels such as The Export-Import Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Williams Mullen attorneys interact regularly with both political appointees and career service professionals within the Departments of Transportation, Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury, Energy and Interior and the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office and the U.S. International Trade Commission as well as all relevant committees of the U.S. Congress.
Environmental
Our environmental attorneys have broad experience with transportation issues. They have helped transportation clients with legal issues raised by the transport of hazardous materials, including spills of hazardous substances from vessels and the international classification of hazardous chemical products. Williams Mullen attorneys have also assisted clients with negotiating cleanup agreements with USEPA and state agencies for rail yards, wood treating plants and a trucking terminal that was on the National Priorities List of toxic waste sites under Superfund. Our attorneys have also represented clients in the divestment of transportation-related real estate assets with recognized environmental conditions. We have handled a variety of environmental issues related to air transport and airports and have been called upon to manage environmental issues raised by the offshore scrapping of obsolete commercial vessels. In addition, our attorneys are knowledgeable about the increasing regulation of vessel discharges and emissions and have consulted with clients on NPDES among other programs. Williams Mullen attorneys keep abreast of the latest environmental issues facing the transportation industry, including the Department of Justice’s enforcement priority for oily water discharges.
Visas, Immigration Planning and Compliance
Williams Mullen attorneys counsel and assist clients with respect to the cross-border movement of personnel for long and short-term assignments. Our attorneys have counseled transportation and other companies, especially intermodal concerns, with respect to nonimmigrant visa matters and “green card” processing, and maritime firms where immigration laws intersect with crews and staffing. Our attorneys assist clients with immigration planning and the implementation of corporate programs for expedited personnel transfers, such as the Blanket L program. Our attorneys speak frequently on topics concerning immigration and compliance developments as well as planning for corporate restructurings. Attorneys serve in leadership roles on visa, immigration compliance and immigration reform issues.
Labor Negotiation
Attorneys at Williams Mullen have considerable experience representing clients in numerous industries in collective bargaining negotiations throughout the United States. Williams Mullen takes a proactive approach to collective bargaining and diligently seeks to ensure that its clients’ goals are met, and that clients’ businesses are not affected by unions. Williams Mullen’s extensive experience does not stop at the bargaining table. Attorneys at Williams Mullen have represented numerous employers before the National Labor Relations Board and in federal courts across the country when unions have filed unfair labor practice charges against the firm’s clients for positions taken in collective bargaining.
White Collar and Investigations
Williams Mullen’s White Collar and Investigations Team recognizes that companies and their employees are facing increased scrutiny from state and federal administrative and criminal investigations, congressional inquiries, worksite enforcement audits and raids, as well as the potential for “parallel proceedings” such as administrative investigations, derivative suits and whistleblower cases. Focused, discrete, and strategic intervention by our experienced team, early in an investigation, may preclude or limit costly civil liability and criminal exposure for our clients. We also assist clients in client initiated internal investigations to determine what, if any, exposure our client may face. Should there be wrongdoing by the corporation or an individual employee, our team is uniquely positioned to counsel the client and to tailor a plan for remedial action while defending the client in any administrative or criminal proceeding that may result. In some cases, cooperating with the investigative agency is appropriate. In other cases, a vigorous defense is appropriate. Our White Collar and Investigations attorneys assist clients in determining the best course of action based on the unique facts of the case. Moreover, our team assists clients in the development and implementation of both curative and forward looking compliance programs designed to respond to all phases of an investigation and prevent costly criminal or civil violations.