Server: Netscape-FastTrack/2.01 Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 20:33:31 GMT Accept-ranges: bytes Last-modified: Mon, 12 May 1997 19:45:00 GMT Content-length: 9726 Content-type: text/html Healy & Baillie: Firm Description
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GENERAL BACKGROUND

Healy & Baillie is an international law firm specializing in maritime law, general commercial litigation, and bankruptcy. The firm also represents foreign and domestic clients in a variety of corporate and financial matters and for many years has assisted clients in arbitration and other methods of alternative dispute resolution.

The firm's main office is in New York City, with branch offices in Connecticut and New Jersey. To better serve foreign clients, Healy & Baillie established a branch office in Hong Kong in 1994. Several of the firm's attorneys are fluent in one or more foreign languages, including Greek, German, Norwegian, Chinese, and Russian. Others are conversational in French and Spanish.

The firm's attorneys are experienced practitioners, dedicated to creatively and efficiently serving the needs of the firm's clients. They are also leaders in promoting the development and improvement of the law. They teach at law schools, have authored several leading texts, serve as editors of professional journals and publications, and are active as members and officers of local, national and international professional associations. Members of the firm have also served as advisors to various governmental organizations and have provided expert evidence on United States law in cases before domestic and foreign tribunals.

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MARITIME AND SHIPPING

Healy & Baillie has been serving the legal needs of the international maritime community since 1948. The firm's maritime practice includes ship financing, carriage of goods under charter parties and ocean bills of lading, marine insurance, salvage, general average, towage, pilotage, and marine casualties of all types, including collisions, strandings, fires, maritime personal injury, and wrongful death. The firm has been involved in litigation resulting from many of the major marine casualties that have occurred since its formation, including the SCANDINAVIAN STAR, the ACHILLE LAURO, the AMOCO CADIZ, the ATLANTIC EMPRESS/AEGEAN CAPTAIN, the SEIRYU/STENA FREIGHTER, and the MARINE ELECTRIC.

The firm's maritime clients include a broad range of protection and indemnity associations, hull underwriters, banks, shipowners, shippers, charterers, trading companies, and other organizations active in the maritime area. The firm also acts for foreign governments and government-owned carriers and shipping companies.

Charter party advice and arbitration constitute a significant part of Healy & Baillie's maritime practice. Since 1980, the firm has advised clients in more than 1,200 charter party disputes and has represented parties in over 300 arbitrations wherein awards were issued. Members of the firm have co-authored the leading treatises, Voyage Charters and Time Charters, and have served as arbitrators. The firm frequently is requested to draft and revise charter parties, contracts of affreightment, and bills of lading.

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MARINE POLLUTION

Healy & Baillie has considerable experience in the area of marine pollution. The firm has been involved in major pollution incidents such as the AMOCO CADIZ, TORREY CANYON, NEPCO 140, AMAZON VENTURE, and the litigation arising out of EXXON's 1990 oil spill in the New York harbor. We have developed a computer data base of coastal states' pollution laws, formed a rapid response team, and prepared a Pollution Response Manual for better serving our clients. The firm has been actively involved in preparing contingency and response plans for individual clients and advising P&I clubs on contingency plans for their members. Attorneys in the firm have lectured and written articles on oil pollution topics, including the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

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GENERAL LITIGATION

Healy & Baillie handles a full range of general litigation in both state and federal courts, including cases involving contract disputes, sales of goods, products liability, corporate and financial disputes, property damage, toxic torts, insurance and reinsurance, and fraud and misrepresentation. The firm has been heavily involved in major asbestos litigation, is a leading firm in ERISA withdrawal liability litigation in New York, and is experienced in handling complex general litigation on an international scale. One example is The Norwegian Guarantee Institute v. Hambros Bank Ltd., a lawsuit pending in Norway. Our clients include domestic and international manufacturers, sellers, traders, and insurers. Healy & Baillie also represents plaintiffs and defendants in non-maritime personal injury cases. The firm's principal personal injury litigation partner has tried more than 100 personal injury cases.

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BANKRUPTCY

Healy & Baillie has an active bankruptcy practice and has represented trustees, creditors, and debtors in both large and small bankruptcies. The firm has been involved in the United States Lines, Hellenic Lines, Antonovich, and Thomson McKinnon Securities bankruptcies. The firm has been counsel for debtors in a number of shipping-related bankruptcies. Currently, the firm represents the estate of Regency Cruises in the reorganization proceeding taking place under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The firm also has acted in numerous international bankruptcies, including representing the Norwegian trustee in the Helmar Reksten bankruptcy. Healy & Baillie attorneys have pioneered the development of bankruptcy law in several areas, such as the use of the Bankruptcy Code by foreign trustees to locate and marshall foreign debtors' assets in the United States, the centralization of wrongful death and personal injury claims against debtors, and the effect of bankruptcy proceedings on claims subject to commercial arbitration..

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CORPORATE AND FINANCE

Healy & Baillie regularly represents lenders, borrowers, and underwriters in a wide variety of financial transactions, including ship mortgage loan financing, leases of vessels, drill rigs and other equipment, debt and equity placements, and joint ventures. The firm has considerable experience in shipping loan documentation for the U.S., Panamanian, Liberian, Cypriot, and other registries and has developed computer systems which enable us to prepare such documents quickly and economically.

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