By Philip Newswanger
philip.newswanger@insidebiz.com
The status quo and law firms are synonymous. So when a law firm makes a change, it is a noteworthy event, even though the change may seem slight or insignificant.
Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders announced last month that it has fine-tuned its Transportation practice.
Instead of one practice serving a spectrum of clients, Troutman Sanders has split its traditional Transportation practice into groups.
The newly renamed Transportation and Logistics practice group will be led by Washington, D.C., partner Charles Hunnicutt, and will be based in the nation's capital. The group advises clients about their multi-modal transportation needs, as well as about third-party logistics, and export and import compliance issues.
The other new practice group - Maritime Law and Government Contracts - will be led by partner Christopher Abel in Norfolk.
The group represents a spectrum of marine and government contracts issues before state and federal courts, the U.S. Congress and a variety of federal regulatory agencies.
In an interview, Abel explained in greater detail his group's responsibilities and scope.
"We have a number of government contract clients in Hampton Roads," he said. "We also have several of our maritime clients here, too. In some cases, there is a local component of a larger out-of-town client.
"For example, Perdue has a grain terminal in Chesapeake. So that part of Perdue's maritime operation is local, even though Perdue does maritime business around the world."
Abel's group is composed of nine attorneys whose primary practice area is Transportation and Government Contracts. Eight of them are in Hampton Roads.
"When you include those attorneys who practice in Maritime or Government Contracts as a secondary practice, our group's membership includes 26 attorneys, of which approximately a dozen are in Hampton Roads," Abel said.
The group handles a broad range of cases, from the purchase of multimillion-dollar yachts, to marine cargo issues, to oil spill cases, to a fatal recreational boating accident in Hampton on July 4.
"Creating a separate practice group lets us focus our resources and attention on the maritime and government contracts aspects of what we do, as opposed to being a discrete component of a more general practice group that included over-the-road, rail and air issues too," Abel said.
"Plus, it makes it much easier for our clients and potential clients to find us on the firm's website and in other advertising and marketing media.
The partners and the of counsel attorneys in the group include Mike Gardner, Dave Sump, John Holloway and Abel, he said.
Abel said admiralty or maritime law is very specialized. It has its own language, federal procedural rules and substantive law distinct from the law of any state.
"Precisely because it is so specialized, and because it requires a strong familiarity with and understanding of seamanship, the sea and the maritime industry generally, the admiralty bar is a relatively small slice of the legal community nationwide and certainly here in Hampton Roads," Abel said.
"Although not as arcane a legal specialty as admiralty and maritime law, much the same could be said of the government contracts practice, too."
Few attorneys practice only maritime law, Abel said.
"What is just as common in our market is for maritime attorneys to have another practice area that supplements their admiralty work," he said.
"Virtually all of us in our practice group routinely handle matters in areas of the law other than admiralty and maritime work, although there often is a 'wet' component or aspect to that other work that we do."
Abel, 53, is a former (not ancient) mariner. His office is cluttered with clues to his background, a model of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter that he built, a photograph of another cutter when he was stationed in the Coast Guard in Puerto Rico and a wall plastered with diplomas.
While with the Coast Guard, Abel managed to finish a master's degree in international relations from Old Dominion University and a law degree from the College of William and Mary.
He has commanded ships and prosecuted murderers and rapists for the U.S. Navy.
But Abel decided his future was elsewhere than the military, so he departed the Coast Guard four years before he could retire.
"I loved my time with the Coast Guard," but he said it was time to go. He was 38. He could have retired when he turned 42.
His entire world had been the military, which guided him and told him what to do. So when he joined the private sector, he was astonished by the fact he could make his own decisions.
"The biggest adjustment was the degree of control over your own life," Abel said, describing his transition to civilian life.
He said the transition was liberating.
"At the end of the day, I made my choice," Abel said.