Law firm Cozen O’Connor has hired the former top lawyer of the US Maritime Administration as it seeks to capitalise on rising public interest in the maritime industry.
Former MARAD general counsel Jeffrey Hardin Lewis joins after leaving the government agency in January, the same month US President Donald Trump took over from predecessor Joe Biden.
Lewis, a maritime lawyer, has joined Cozen O’Connor’s transportation and trade group in the firm’s Washington, DC office.
In an interview with TradeWinds, he described this as an “exciting and unprecedented time” for the maritime sector.
He pointed to the attention to shipping and shipbuilding that started in the Biden administration and is accelerating under the new president.
“There’s a doubling down by the current administration in the attention that they’re paying to maritime transportation, to maritime labour, to the shipbuilding industry and the needs of US shipyards to remain a vibrant part of our economy and our economic security, and that has implications for national security as well,” Lewis told TradeWinds.
The lawyer’s experience includes the first Trump administration and all of Biden’s term.
He spent nearly a year and a half as MARAD’s chief counsel, providing legal and policy advice to then-administrator Ann Phillips.
Coast Guard
Before that, he spent four years as a senior attorney adviser to the US Coast Guard, where he worked on maritime cyber security, vessel and port safety and security, vessel inspection, marine casualty investigations and other matters.
Lewis also spent a decade as counsel to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
His LinkedIn profile shows he also served as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University for 11 years.
Robert Magovern, chair of Cozen O’Connor’s transportation and trade group, said hiring a lawyer with 20 years of federal government experience is a “coup” at a time when the new president’s administration is signalling strong interest in expanding the US maritime industry.
“As someone who has played a fundamental role in shaping and enforcing maritime law in the US, Jeff will be a tremendous legal asset for our domestic and foreign clients,” Magovern said.
Washington’s growing attention to maritime is not just in the executive branch.
Lewis pointed to the Ships for America Act, reintroduced in Congress last week by a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Democratic Senator Mark Kelly.
He acknowledged there are challenges for shipping as well, pointing to the unexpected move to shutter much of the United States Agency for International Development. Much of the foreign aid exported under the programme was guaranteed to US-flag ships.
Volatility challenge
Asked by TradeWinds about the volatility that shipping stakeholders have faced under the Trump administration, Lewis also highlighted tariffs and fees that Washington has imposed on ships.
“Volatility — businesses don’t like that, and I think we all know that, and it’s something to be reckoned with,” the lawyer said.
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