Of CounselNew York, Houston
Nicholas Paine is Of Counsel with our firm and specializes in maritime litigation, particularly personal injury defense under U.S. maritime law.
Nicholas has handled personal injury litigation for his clients in both state and federal courts, as well as appeals related to those cases and claims. He has also worked on maritime litigation involving vessel collisions, bunker disputes, demurrage claims, contractual disputes, and limitation of liability.
He has also negotiated and drafted charter parties and other maritime services agreements in his former role as in-house counsel for a vessel operator in Houston, Texas. In addition to his transactional duties, he handled maritime and environmental regulatory issues, consulted on maritime insurance issues, and supervised the company’s litigation matters.
Nicholas has given several continuing legal education presentations for the Inns of Court in the U.S., including on issues involving U.S. maritime and admiralty law. Since moving to New York, he has been involved with local maritime-related organizations focused on revitalizing the New York waterfront. Nicholas graduated with a Juris Doctor (with cum laude) from Roger Williams University in 2012.
Nicholas works in English (native).
Highlights of Nicholas’s work include:
Negotiated and drafted multi-million-dollar offshore services contract on behalf of vessel-owner client.
Obtained dismissals based on U.S. maritime law defenses resulting in reduction of client’s damages from multimillion-dollar jury verdict to less than $300,000.00 in a lawsuit by former Jones Act employee and family.
Obtained dismissal of employee’s workers’ compensation claim for Longshore Act employer client at trial level, resulting in settlement for amounts previously paid following appeal of court’s dismissal.
Are you interested in specific aspects of Nicholas’s recent work? Contact houston@zeilerfloydzad.com for further reference cases.
Professional Experience
Education
Nicholas Paine, Background on Natural Resource Damage Assessments, Blowout: The Legal Legacy of the Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe, Roger Williams University School of Law Marine Affairs Institute Symposium, 13.04.2011
“US Class Action and European Representative Actions”
US Class Actions are a feature of US litigation, which is well-known and sometime misconceived far beyond the United States. The member states of the European Union will introduce representative actions for the protection of collective interests of consumers by 25 December 2022 under Directive 2020/1828.
Join us on 9 December 2021 for a discussion on the principles of class actions and whether or not they could serve as a model for representative actions in the EU with class action focused attorney Mike Lowenberg and our Vienna partner Alfred Siwy moderated by our New York/Houston of counsel Nicholas Paine.
Thursday, 9 December 2021, 8:30 EST / 14:30 CET
In Spielthoff Transport B.V. v. Phyto-Charter Inc., No. 20-CV-3283, (S.D.N.Y. May 13, 2021), the court granted a petition to compel arbitration, denying the respondent’s motions to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim, and went so far as to order the respondent to choose an arbitrator or have the court appoint one for it.
One (not so) small Record of Decision from BOEM, one giant leap for US offshore wind: The first commercial scale offshore wind project in the United States recently received final federal approval to proceed.
On January 27, 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) published its first Jones Act guidance ruling (“Ruling”) related to offshore wind energy production.
We are delighted that Nicholas Paine has joined the firm as Of Counsel! Nick is a Texas and New York qualified attorney.
