Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2023 The Path to Maritime Law Walter Leger, Jr’s path to maritime law is not surprising. His grandfather, Captain Mitchell Leger, was a troop and cargo ship captain during World War II. He sailed primarily in the European theater. His other grandfather was a sailor in United States Navy in the Pacific theater. Walter’s father, inspired by his dad, became a mariner as well. He attended the Maritime College of New York. He was a member of the Navy reserve and sailed the high seas in the Merchant Marine working his way up from Ordinary Seaman to ship’s Mate and eventually obtaining a Master’s License like his father before him. After marriage, he wanted to stay closer to home to raise his family. In those days mariners were gone for many months at a time with no communication back home. After several attempts, the senior Walter Leger entered the apprentice program to become a Mississippi River Bar Pilot. These pilots direct the operation of large seagoing ships from the Gulf of Mexico through the shallow waters of the mouth of the Mississippi River on the way upriver to various ports in New Orleans and beyond. The junior Leger had a youthful interest in public service and politics. But the “salt in his blood”, and his dad, directed him toward maritime law. After graduating from high school with honors and receiving numerous honors while pursuing a degree from Louisiana State University, he graduated from Tulane University School of Law with a concentration in Maritime Law. There he was Managing Editor of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal and received the American Admiralty Law Institute Award for highest grades. Upon graduation and interviewing with major maritime law firms, he joined the Phelps Dunbar law firm in New Orleans, one of the most prominent and oldest maritime law firms in the United States. The focus his early practice involved the representation in large oceangoing ships, tugboats and barges on the Mississippi River and the thriving offshore oil exploration industry in the coastal marsh waters of Louisiana and the deep waters offshore. He worked with what he considered to be some of the top maritime lawyers in the United States, and perhaps the world. He later left to form his own firm joining up with one of his former classmates, who had been at another highly regarded maritime law firm. In the years that followed, Leger was involved in nearly every major maritime litigation in Louisiana and the United States. Since 1981, Leger has been recognised as a “Proctor in Admiralty” by the Maritime Law Association of the United States. He is a member of the Southeast Admiralty Law Institute and the maritime law sections of the American Association of Justice, the Louisiana Association of Justice and other bar organisations. Over the years he has lectured extensively and written on maritime law and complex litigation topics at Harvard Law School, Tulane Law School, Loyola Law School, the University of New Orleans, LSU Law School and various law associations. He is Past President of the New Orleans Bar Association and the New Orleans Bar Foundation and has served in numerous capacities in other bar and legal associations. Notable Maritime Cases Notably, Leger was Special Trial Counsel in the relatively recent BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill case and was a member of the Phase I and Phase II Trial Team. He was the lead negotiator on behalf of Louisiana local governments in the historic government settlements with BP. He represented hundreds of businesses, citizens, and governments in the litigation. In the early stages of the litigation, Leger was asked by US Senator Mary Landrieu to work with and advise attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who had been brought in by BP to attempt to develop a mass settlement with the numerous claimants involved. Ultimately, this program and the successor program exceeded more than $65 billion to businesses, fishermen, and government entities. This case is undoubtedly the largest maritime environmental disaster in history. As part of the discovery team, Leger and others travelled to London to depose corporate executives of BP in addition to the 300 depositions taken in New Orleans. But Leger’s involvement in high profile maritime disasters dates back to 1980 when a Peruvian cargo ship, the M/V INCA TUPAC YUPANQUI, lost steerage and collided with a butane barge on the Mississippi River. Leger had only months before formed his own firm and was asked by a lawyer representing three of the horribly injured and burned Peruvian seamen to represent them. He had previously represented primarily vessel and shipowner interests. The case was anything but routine, as it turned out that the ship was owned by the Peruvian government, and the collision became a major political issue in the first presidential elections in Peru in many years. The young lawyer suddenly found himself against many of the top maritime lawyers in the country. After weeks of depositions in New Orleans, lawyers travelled to Peru and Germany for depositions. The young Leger had to borrow money to finance the travel and litigation. While in Peru, they faced demonstrations and political intrigue. One of the more mysterious cases in which Leger was involved was the case of the M/V POET. The POET, a cargo ship with 25 crewmen, left the port of Philadelphia bound for Egypt. It disappeared and was never heard from again. The most extensive search in maritime history followed. Nothing was ever found. Leger represented the families of five of the crew members. There was never real closure for them, as rumors circulated in the news media and in the maritime community that either the ship had been involved in the famous “arms for hostages” scandal or that it had been taken by pirates. This disappearance remains one of the mysteries of the sea. A relatively minor collision of two ships on the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet generated a case of major legal import. When the M/V TESTBANK and the M/V SEA DANIEL collided, a container USA 95
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