Cruise Law News : Maritime Lawyer & Attorney : James M. Walker : Walker & O'Neill Law Firm : Admiralty Law, Cruise Ship Accidents & Injuries

A lot of people ask me how I became involved practicing maritime law. 

Thirty years ago, I started law school at Tulane School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana.  I may be biased, but Tulane has the best law school in the United States involving maritime studies. Tulane has a renowned "Admiralty and Maritime Law" program which is part of the Tulane Maritime Law Center.

Tulane is where I took my introductory maritime courses (Admiralty I and Admiralty II), maritime jurisdiction, maritime personal injury and death, maritime insurance and "offshore operations" -  a particularly excellent course addressing personal injury and death cases in the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tulane is the home of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal (previously called has the Maritime Lawyer) which is described in Wikipedia as the "preeminent student-edited law journal in the field of Admiralty and Maritime Law."  

The professors teaching the maritime law courses were excellent.  A professor named Thomas Schoenbaum taught the introductory maritime course.  He went on to write the famous maritime law hornbook - "Admiralty and Maritime Law."  A number of the maritime personal injury courses were taught by maritime lawyers, including the Honorable Eldon Fallon who was a well known personal injury lawyer and then became a highly respected Federal Court Judge in New Orleans.      

After graduating from Tulane law school, in 1983 I joined the Maritime Law Association. Since 1983, I have been practicing maritime law - mostly personal injury and death cases.  

I have a lot of fond memories of attending maritime law classes at Tulane.  Its hard to think that was three decades ago!  

Tulane also sponsors the Admiralty Law Institute every other year, which is always a good excuse to make a trip back to New Orleans.

You can follow Tulane's maritime program on Twitter @TulaneMaritime. 

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Jim Walker practices 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 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 has experience regarding issues of cruise ship crime and sexual assault.  Over the past ten years, he has represented around 500 clients including over 75 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 handled the following cases in the past ten years: 

• 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.  
• 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 represented 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.   Here is what some publications are saying about Jim Walker: 

"Top Maritime Lawyer" - ABA Journal.

"Top Cruise Lawyer" - USA Today.

"Prominent Private Practice Maritime Attorney" - Fox News.

"Prominent Cruise Plaintiff Attorney" - Law.com (America Law Media).

Perpetual Pain-In-The-Cruise-Lines-Neck Jim Walker - Gadling.

Jim is the author of Cruise Law News - described as a "Hard-Hitting Blog" by  Miami's Daily Business Review. 

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 (not active) 
• 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, U.K.'s Telegraph, St. Petersburg Times, Miami’s New Times, U.K. Mirror, London’s Guardian, Edmonton Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Bahamas Journal, Italy's "Chi l'ha Visto?" television show, Germany's Wunderwelt Wisen, CruiseCritic, South Florida Business Journal, Open Secrets organization, Queerty, Baltimore Sun, Bahamas Tribune, National Public Radio (NPR), USA Today, Gadling, FOX Business, Slate Magazine, ABA Journal, Australia's The Age, Attorney at Law Magazine, Huffington Post, U.K.'s Daily Mail, BBC, Freeport (Bahamas) News, Haaretz, Trip Advisor, Wikipedia, Palm Beach Post, India Times, E Turbo News, Global Travel News, Comunidade News (Brazil), Canada's CTV, OutFront with CNN's Erin Burnett, Slate, The Daily, London's Financial Times, Newsweek Magazine, Newsweek's The Daily Beast Blog, Reuters, and the Associated Press have all covered Jim’s cases and his client's causes. 

Watch Jim on ABC's 20/20 program in January 2012 about the Costa Concordia disaster: