About Jim Walker

Jim Walker is a nationally recognized attorney involved in admiralty and maritime personal injury law. He has been involved in maritime litigation since 1983. Based in Miami, Florida, Jim represents passengers and crew members injured or assaulted on cruise ships.

Jim Walker - Cruise Law - Maritime LawyerJim attended Duke University and graduated cum laude in 1980. He attended Tulane University School of Law, graduating in 1983 after taking Tulane’s internationally renowned admiralty curriculum.

Jim is considered to be an authority on issues of cruise ship safety and issues involving shipboard crime and sexual assault. Over the past ten years, he has represented over 500 clients including over 60 individuals who have been victimized on cruise ships, cruise excursions and ports of call. Six of Jim’s clients have testified before the United States Congress regarding cruise ship safety. Jim has been involved in virtually every high profile case involving the cruise industry in the past ten years, including:

  • The case of Laurie Dishman, sexually assaulted on Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas. Her case resulted in changes to the cruise industry and the introduction of the Cruise Ship Safety and Security Act of 2009. Jim also obtained the highest settlement involving a crime in the history of the cruise industry.
  • The “Missing Honeymooner Case” involving the disappearance of George Smith IV of Greenwich Connecticut from Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas cruise ship. Jim represents Mr. Smith’s widow, Jennifer Hagel.
  • The 2006 Star Princess fire disaster. The cruise ship fire resulted in one hundred cabins being destroyed and the death of one passenger, Richard Liffridge. Jim represented Mr. Liffridge’s family in litigation against Princess Cruises in California.
  • Numerous cases involving serious injury, sexual assault, and death of passengers and crew members aboard Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, Norwegian, Oceania, Princess and Royal Caribbean cruise ships.

Jim is married to Lisa O’Neill who he met while they were undergraduates in college thirty years ago. Jim and Lisa are also law partners.

Lisa is also a Duke cum laude graduate, and attended the University of Florida School of Law in Gainesville, Florida. She served on Law Review as the Senior Articles Editor, won the prestigious Gertrude Brick Award, and graduated cum laude. Jim and Lisa work on all cases together.

In 1999, the firm created the web site CruiseLaw.com as an information resource for passengers and crew members worldwide. CruiseLaw.com remains the only web site in the world focusing exclusively on cruise ship law.

 

Professional Associations

  • Admiralty Law Committee of the Florida Bar (former member)
  • American Association for Justice, Admiralty Law Section
  • Florida Admiralty Trial Lawyers Association
  • Maritime Law Association of the United States
  • Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum
  • Southeast Admiralty Law Institute

Education

  • Kent School, Kent Connecticut 1976
  • Duke University, Durham North Carolina 1980
  • Tulane School of Law, New Orleans Louisiana 1983

Bar Admissions

  • Florida Bar Association
  • Louisiana Bar Association
  • United States District Courts, Eastern District of Louisiana and Southern District of Florida

Media, Television, Radio, Magazines and Newspapers

Jim and his clients have been featured over a hundred times on television, cable news and radio shows, as well as in documentaries, newspapers and magazine articles.

ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, FOXNews, DATELINE, 48 HOURS, Larry King Live, A & E Investigative Reports, Hannity & Colmes, Greta Van Sustern, Nancy Grace, Inside Edition, Julie Banderas, Big Story Weekend, CourtTV, Catherine Crier, Montel Williams, Joe Scarborough, Rita Cosby, Mike & Juliet, Geraldo Rivera, Nancy Bloom, Dan Abrams, UK’s BBC-Radio 4, Heartland w/John Kasich, E! Entertainment, TruTV, Canada’s CATV-5, Good Morning America, TIME Magazine, National Law Journal, RADAR Magazine, Lawyer’s Weekly USA, Miami Herald, American Law Media, Tradewinds, Fort Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel, Miami Business Review, LA Times, NY Times, Salt Lake Tribune, Florida Today, Daytona Beach Journal, Sacramento Bee, Washington Post, Greenwich Times, Greenwich Citizen, Greenwich Post, San Francisco Chronicle, St. Petersburg Times, Miami’s New Times, London’s Guardian, Edmonton Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Bahamas Journal, CruiseCritic, South Florida Business Journal and the Associated Press have all covered Jim’s cases and his client's causes.