Mr. Murnane has more than 35 years’ experience handling a wide variety of domestic and international contract and tort maritime litigations and arbitrations. He was recently selected by his peers as the 2022 “Best Lawyers -Admiralty Lawyer of the Year” for New York. In 2019 The Euromoney Best of the Best Global Expert Guide ranked Mr. Murnane in the top thirty maritime and shipping lawyers worldwide. He is rated “AV Preeminent” by Martindale-Hubble and has been annually recognized for many years as a leading maritime attorney by The Best Lawyers in America Guide; Expert Guide Best of the Best USA; Chambers USA; New York Super Lawyers Magazine and The International Who’s Who of Shipping and Maritime Lawyers.

Mr. Murnane graduated with highest honors from the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point in 1982 where he ranked second in his graduating class. He earned his law degree at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C. where he was on the Dean’s List and began practicing maritime law in 1986 (first with former Haight, Gardner Poor & Havens LLP in New York, and then joining FHM as a partner in 1997). Chambers USA named him “an expert litigator” described by his clients as “simply a great advocate”; “a practical attorney …sensitive to the client’s needs”; “really excellent: he does not waste time on tangential disputes and gets right to the heart of things”; a “fierce litigator” with a “calm, deliberative and bright” litigation style. A client told Best Lawyers: “Don Murnane is more than a safe pair of hands. You know you will get the best result for the deck of cards which you may have been dealt.”

Mr. Murnane has acted as lead counsel on disputes involving vessel and marine terminal casualties, international commercial fraud, time and voyage charters, terminal agreements and liner service contracts. His practice frequently involves issues of international conflicts of law including jurisdiction and forum disputes. Mr. Murnane is a leading expert on the investigation and litigation of sophisticated chemical product tanker disputes. He has represented one of the world’s largest chemical tanker owner-operators for more than 30 years. He also possesses expertise with perishable goods litigation and U.S. government contract disputes. For the last several years he has represented a major U.S. flag container vessel operator providing wartime intermodal transportation of U.S. military goods to and from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr. Murnane has testified in foreign litigation as a trial expert on U.S. maritime law and has served as an arbitrator including as tribunal chairman. He is the immediate past Chair of the U.S. Maritime Law Association’s Liaison Committee to the Society of Maritime Arbitrators, Inc., New York and currently the US Maritime Law Association Co-opted Delegate to BIMCO’s Documentary Committee. He has authored articles and lectured publicly and for clients in the U.S. and abroad on a range of maritime law, litigation and arbitration topics. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mr. Murnane worked for a shipping company and sailed as a deck officer aboard various types of oceangoing ships and inland marine vessels in both foreign and domestic trade.

When not practicing law, Don enjoys training bird dogs and is an avid outdoorsman.

• Euromoney's Best of the Best Global Expert Guide - One of the Top 30 Shipping Lawyers Worldwide- 2019
• Chambers USA - America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Transportation, Shipping Litigation, 2005-2019
• The Legal 500 - USA, 2017 and 2019
• Euromoney’s International Trade and Shipping Guide, 2015, 2019
• Who’s Who Legal: Transport 2015-2016
• Martindale-Hubbell, AV Preeminent Rating
• The Best Lawyers in America Guide, Maritime Law, 2007-2020
• Expert Guides Best of the Best USA, 2008, 2010-2018
• New York Super Lawyers Magazine, 2008-2017
• The International Who’s Who of Shipping and Maritime Lawyers, 2010, 2012
• Chambers Global – The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Shipping, 2007

• Alaska Reefer Management, LLC v. Network Shipping Ltd., No. 14-3589, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82453 (S.D.N.Y. June 16, 2014)
• TDC, L.L.C. v. Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group B.V., No. 13-670, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29544 (M.D.La. Mar. 7, 2014)
• TDC, L.L.C. v. Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group B.V., No. 13-670, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46945 (M.D.La. April 3, 2014)
• Stolt Tankers B.V. v. Allianz Seguros, S.A., 2011 A.M.C. 1711 (S.D.N.Y. 2011)
• Stolt Tankers B.V. (f/k/a Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group B.V.) v. Geonet Ethanol, LLC, 591 F. Supp. 2d 612 (S.D.N.Y. 2008)
• Mardas Marmara Deniz Isletmeciligi A.S. v. Fast Shipping and Trading Co., 2008 A.M.C. 251 (S.D.N.Y. 2008)
• Halcot Navigation L.P. v. Stolt-Nielsen Transp. Group, BV, 491 F. Supp. 2d 413 (S.D.N.Y. 2007)
• Maersk Line, Ltd. v. United States, 513 F. 3d 188 (4th Cir. 2006)
• Maersk Line, Ltd. v. United States, 460 F. Supp. 2d 678 (E.D.Va. 2006)
• Proton Shipping Inc. v. Sovarex, S.A., No. 05-10295, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2389 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 23, 2006)
• Linea Naviera de Cabotaje, C.A. v. Mar Caribe de Navegacion, C.A., 2001 A.M.C. 2756 (M.D. Fla. 2001)
• Stolt Tankers, Inc. v. Marcus Oil Chemical, No. 01-5291, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19750 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 29, 2001)
• Linea Naviera de Cabotaje, C.A. v. Mar Caribe de Navegacion, C.A., 2000 A.M.C. 356 (M.D. Fla. 1999)
• National Petrochemical Co. of Iran v. M/T STOLT SHEAF, 930 F. 2d 240 (2d Cir. 1991)
• National Petrochemical Co. of Iran v. M/T STOLT SHEAF, 722 F. 2d 54 (S.D.N.Y. 1989)
• Kaystone Chemical, Inc. v. BOW SUN, 1989 A.M.C. 2976 (S.D.N.Y. 1989)
• M/T STOLT PERSEVERANCE, S.M.A. No. 4205 (2013)
• M/V WESTWOOD ANETTE, S.M.A. No. 4189 (2012)
• M/T PERLA, S.M.A. No. 4152 (2011)
• In re Agrowest, S.A., Dos Valles S.A. and Comexa S.A. and Maersk Sealand, SMA No. 4033 and 4050 (2009)
• In re Cargo Port Transportation, C.A., S.M.A. No. 3701 (2001)
• M/T LACERTA, S.M.A. No. 3703 (2001)
• In re ICC Chemical Corp., S.M.A. No. 3535 (1999)
• M/V LUGANO VENTURE, S.M.A. No. (1998)
• M/T BRIMANGER and ORKANGER, S.M.A. No. 2962 (1993)

• Football "Deflategate" or Arbitration "Floodgate" - Analysis of National Football League for Management Counsel v. National Football League Players Association, S.D.N.Y. 15 Civ  5916 and 15 Civ. 5982, (Review and vacatur of Commissioner Goodell's arbitral award suspending Tom Brady for four games), published in The Arbitrator, Society of Maritime Arbitrators, Inc., Vol. 45, No. 3, November 2015. Click here to read

• "Seven Days in May" Resolving Your Arbitration Insecurities - Author and Participant - New York Maritime Consortium interactive mock maritime arbitration, May 2015 and March 2016.
• “Pros and Cons of Optional Appellate Arbitration Rules” – Presenter and debate participant for the con position; Arbitration and ADR Committee of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, April 2014.
• “The Shipowner’s Limitation of Liability Act – Practices and Procedures” – Continuing Legal Education course presented to the Admiralty and Maritime Law Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association, October 2013.
• United States Rule B Attachment Developments - Article in Steamship Mutual P&I Club newsletter, Sea Venture, January 2006.
• "CSI," "C-TPAT," The "24-HOUR RULE" and Vessel Security Plans: Do New U.S. Security Programs Result In New Liability Issues? – Presented at the BLG Annual Maritime Law Seminar, Montreal, Quebec, December 2003 (co-authored with FHM Partners Lawrence J. Kahn and James L. Ross.)
• Panama Maritime World Conference & Exhibition VI - Mock arbitration participant and speaker, Panama City, Panama February 2002.
• Carriage of Goods by Sea Legislation and International Maritime Arbitration issues - Address delivered at the Barcelona Shipping Law
• Forum, Opus 2002, December 2002.
• Judicial Review of Arbitral Awards - “Manifest Disregard of the Law” Standard - Published in The Maritime Advocate, Issue 16, October 2001.