Tom Belknap is a member of our Maritime Emergency Response Team (“MERT”) and is co-chair of Blank Rome’s Maritime Industry Team.
Tom Belknap concentrates his practice on international commercial and insurance litigation and arbitration, with particular emphasis on the maritime industry. He also focuses on offshore construction, casualty, and insurance issues. Tom has been involved in a wide variety of domestic and international maritime, commercial, and insurance matters, including:
- Marine casualty and collision cases and vessel limitation of liability actions
- Maritime bankruptcy matters, advising debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, and unsecured creditors’ committees
- Marine insurance coverage disputes, including protection and indemnity, general commercial liability, marine liability, hull and machinery, cargo, and war-risk insurance coverage issues
- International and domestic commercial contract disputes, including arbitrations under AAA, ICC, SMA, and ad hoc arbitration terms
- Charterparty disputes, including arbitrations under SMA, MAA, and ad hoc arbitration terms
- COGSA and multi-modal cargo damage claims
- Offshore wind and pipeline installation and construction projects and related insurance issues
- Maritime commercial and “treasure” salvage and general average disputes
Maritime attachment (Rule B) and vessel arrest (Rule C) actions
- Recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration awards and judgments
Tom is a co-author of Time Charters (7th ed. 2014), and he co-authors the annual update to Benedict on Admiralty, Vol. 3A: The Law of Salvage. He also authored the chapter titled “Enforcing and Challenging Arbitral Awards” in Navigating Maritime Arbitration: The Experts Speak (2019). Tom is the editor of Mainbrace, Blank Rome’s quarterly maritime newsletter.
