Bob is counsel in the firm's regional admiralty and tort practice group in the Houston office. He concentrates his practice in the admiralty, environmental and international trade law areas for energy industry clients, as well as companies engaged in the international trade areas on the import side. Bob's general maritime law experience includes personal injury/death claims, collision/stranding or groundings, salvage, general average, cargo claims, marine insurance charter parties, international law of the sea and related conventions. He has extensive experience in the drafting and preparation of virtually all types of marine-related agreements. In the administrative law area, Bob has prepared filings with the U.S. Maritime Administration and U.S. Coast Guard in connection with the use, documentation, charter or financing of vessels. He has also prepared oil spill response contracts between major oil companies as well as spill response contractors. In the energy law area, his experience includes providing legal advice in connection with offshore drilling contracts and the charter of all types of offshore support vessels and seismic research vessels. In the area of environmental law, Bob provides legal advice on compliance with state and federal environmental laws affecting clients' ocean and inland marine operations including the handling and disposition of hazardous waste under federal and state law. In the international trade area, he has been involved in a number of projects involving the importation of large floating offshore production facilities (SPARS). He has experience in obtaining ruling request from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and handling matters with local CBP offices concerning the importation of these facilities and related equipment and components. He conducts compliance audits for marine clients and provides advice in connection with such audits.
 
Bob previously served as in-house counsel to SeaRiver Maritime, Inc.; general counsel for Exxon Shipping Company, a position he held at the time of the EXXON VALDEZ oil spill; and Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

• University of Texas School of Law, J.D., 1966
• Lamar University, B.S., 1963

• Member: State Bar of Texas, Houston Maritime Arbitrators Association
• Admitted to practice: Texas, United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of Texas

• "Ocean Transportation of Oil and Gas and Hard Minerals," Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute (2005)
• "Federal and State Preemption Regarding Vessel Construction and Operation," Tulane Law Review (1999)
• "New Laws Governing the Jettisoning of Oil," Proceedings National Research Council, Salvage Symposium (1994)
• "Fifth Circuit Survey," Texas Tech Law Review (1988)
• A Guide for Investigating Marine Casualties (1985)