Firm Profile - Freehill Hogan & Mahar LLP - Maritime Law Firm

May 21, 2013

Our Goal

At Freehill Hogan & Mahar our goal is to provide our clients with practical, problem solving legal advice and, when litigation is required, to be skilled and determined advocates. Risks are inherent in every business venture. When our clients want to avoid such risks, they often seek our help and we recommend safeguards. Because in over fifty years of practice we have seen what can go wrong, we are in a strong position to provide sound, practical advice to reduce our clients' exposure before risks become realities. We provide periodic seminars for our clients on topics of interest and concern, to give them a competitive edge by virtue of their awareness of relevant legal issues.

On those occasions when our clients' business risks do become reality, they have operational problems to solve and, quite possibly, legal problems as well. They need to analyze their position and find business and legal solutions. That is definitely when we can help. We have dealt with virtually every type of legal matter which confronts the maritime industry. Our experience ranges from the most complex casualty and environmental litigation to routine claims. Our international roster of maritime clients includes P&I Clubs, hull underwriters, owners, operators, charterers, terminal operators, stevedores, shipyards, brokers and myriad others in the shipping industry.

History

Freehill Hogan & Mahar was founded in 1952, primarily as a defense firm specializing in marine protection and indemnity insurance. Over the years, the firm has developed into a full service admiralty practice and today is well known worldwide for its maritime law expertise. However, our admiralty practice has also expanded beyond its origins, and now includes commercial litigation, the defense of occupational disease cases, criminal law and environmental criminal law.

Commitment to Responsiveness

The business world, particularly in the maritime field, operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The attorneys at Freehill Hogan & Mahar are available on the same schedule and are always ready to provide an immediate and efficient response. We maintain a twenty-four hour, live answering service and partners are immediately accessible by cell phone. Every attorney is accessible by voicemail and e-mail. Full details can be found on our individual attorney pages and our Contact Us page.

To speed our response to clients, we have invested heavily in technology. For internet and e-mail service, we utilize T1 service, which allows us to communicate in a matter of seconds. In addition, we have unified our faxing and e-mail to create a more efficient messaging system. Our word processing and document management system are linked by a local area network designed to enable us to quickly exchange and access information. Consequently, our substantial database of legal research and forms can be easily utilized with each new endeavor. We feel strongly that staying on top of technological advances allows us to provide the most efficient and effective service to our clients.

Staffing

While communications technology is an invaluable tool, the critical component in client service is a firm's legal staff. At Freehill Hogan & Mahar, with twenty-five attorneys and three paralegals, we have the resources to handle even the largest casualty cases, but can, and do, still give clients individual attention and direct personal access to our attorneys. Fully one-quarter of the firm's attorneys have been graduated from a maritime academy, sailed in the Merchant Marine or served in the U.S. Navy. We are lawyers, but this technical background has proved to be an invaluable asset to our clients. At Freehill Hogan & Mahar, we practice law as a team. We staff individual cases leanly, but with the full support, as necessary, of the resources of the entire firm.

Philosophy

At Freehill Hogan & Mahar, we are committed to providing high quality, result driven and cost effective legal services. We strive to develop a long-term relationship with each client, based on mutual trust and a thorough understanding of the client's unique operation and objectives. Over the years we have earned a reputation for integrity, competence and advocacy. Our goal is simply to be an effective part of the solution to our clients' legal problems.