Member
Attorneys
Christopher A. Abel
Member
A former seagoing officer, Chris leads the firm’s Maritime Section and represents maritime clients across admiralty and maritime law, insurance defense, subrogation and coverage, and the full span of waterfront operations and regulatory compliance. Chris also maintains a robust employment practice, advising and litigating for employers across the spectrum of modern workplace issues. Before entering private practice in 1995, Chris served sixteen years as a commissioned officer and law specialist in the United States Coast Guard—rising to the rank of Commander. While on active duty, he spent three tours of duty at sea and commanded two ships.
Across both practices, Chris brings the experience gained in more than 200 trials—including 50+ jury trials—and the practical judgment borne of a career leading and managing people and organizations in addition to providing legal advice to countless individual, organizational, institutional, and governmental clients.
Chris runs a truly national practice. He’s admitted before the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Virginia; the First, Third, Fourth, Seventh, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits; the Federal Circuit and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, Michigan, and Arkansas, as well as the Western District of Pennsylvania; and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Add in frequent pro hac vice appearances across the country, and clients know they can draw on the experience and expertise of a lawyer capable of stepping in anywhere in the county and delivering for them right away.
Following the MV DALI’s destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Chris served as lead maritime counsel to the State of Maryland, coordinating fast, practical advice across a wide range of liability, regulatory, and recovery issues.
In parallel NTSB and U.S. Coast Guard investigations into the engine-room fire that destroyed the SPIRIT OF NORFOLK dinner cruise ship, he defended a marine services client—using his marine technical and admiralty legal expertise to secure a favorable outcome for it.
In a single federal court case arising from catastrophic hurricane damage to a marina, he represented 120 individual vessel owners on behalf of ten marine insurers, obtaining a winning result for all of them. Similarly, his extensive experience with large marina fires often involves major loss cases involving numerous claims, including one boat storage facility fire that destroyed more than 600 boats and another marine fire that damaged or destroyed 36 boats with multiple fatalities.
He has litigated scores of Shipowners’ Limitation of Liability actions in both district and appellate courts nationwide, using the Act to shield both vessel owners and their insurers when exposure stakes were high.
In an exceptionally complex recreational boating matter in which over $100 million was being sought for a devastating personal injury, Chris obtained a favorable result of his client, despite the case involving twelve parties, seventy-plus counsel, and overlapping suits in multiple jurisdictions and states.
As lead trial counsel in a federal case arising out of a fatal explosion, fire, and oil spill from a commercial barge, he successfully defended the vessel’s owner and operator and defeated the government’s effort to break his client’s limit of liability under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
Chris was the lead litigation counsel in in a multi-million-dollar international contract dispute involving damage to—and lost use of—a gantry container crane at a major terminal, navigating a number of maritime, business, and technical issues to achieve a favorable resolution.
Chris has successfully defended shipowners and operators against claims brought by the government under the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.
He regularly prosecutes and defends maritime lien and vessel-arrest matters, including obtaining the expedited release of a client’s barge arrested by governmental authorities in Puerto Rico and winning the related wrongful arrest action for the barge’s owner at both the trial and appellate court levels.
Chris has resolved scores of EEOC and state discrimination and harassment charges for employers—prevailing at trial and on appeal when litigation is necessary—allowing his clients to remain focused on their businesses and their operations.
He won a federal jury verdict in a novel workplace email-privacy and monitoring case, helping develop and clarify the contemporary legal limits in that aspect of the employment relationship.
He has litigated class and collective wage actions in multiple federal courts, always being careful to align legal defense strategies with his clients’ business needs and objectives.
He prevailed in a public-employee grievance at the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Chris is experienced in resolving workplace regulatory and enforcement matters involving OSHA, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Coast Guard, and numerous other federal, state, and local governmental agencies.
Outside the courtroom, Chris invests in the profession itself. An award-winning author, he speaks to local, regional, and national audiences on both maritime and employment law topics, providing both legal knowledge and practical advice drawing on it. Since 2005, he has served as an adjunct professor at William & Mary Law School, teaching maritime law and multiple employment law courses. The school honored him as its 2011–2012 St. George Tucker Adjunct Professor of Law.
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