Christopher M. Hannan is a shareholder in the New Orleans office of Baker Donelson, and is a member of the Transportation Group, with a focus on the areas of admiralty and maritime law. As part of the Group’s Marine and Energy Industry Service Team, Mr. Hannan has significant experience, including first and second chair trial experience, in a variety of areas involving insurance defense and personal injury claims, both inland and offshore marine concerns, as well as the onshore and offshore energy industries.
As a litigator, he has handled a diverse array of personal injury and insurance defense matters involving both maritime and state law issues, and has significant experience concerning all aspects of admiralty and maritime law, including Jones Act/LHWCA /OCSLA/ maritime/ offshore worker personal injury claims, allision and collision matters, shipowner’s limitation of liability, marine insurance, vessel arrest and attachment, maritime liens and preferred ship mortgages, the Oil Pollution Act and related issues.
Mr. Hannan also has extensive experience providing contract and regulatory advices for maritime and offshore industry clients, with a focus on indemnity, insurance, and additional insured issues, as well as representation in maritime commercial disputes, including maritime lien issues and anti-indemnity act concerns.
Prior to joining Baker Donelson, Mr. Hannan served as a judicial clerk in 2008 for the Honorable Carl J. Barbier, United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana,
Mr. Hannan is also a published poet whose work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines. He was selected as the runner-up in the 2010 Faulkner-Wisdom Poetry Contest for his poem “Epithalamion,” and was selected as the Grand Prize Winner in the 2011 Tennessee Williams Festival Poetry Contest for his five-part poem The Nephilim.
Most recently, his first booklength selection of poems, Alluvial Cities, was selected for publication by Texas Review Press as the winner of the 2014 Southern Breakthrough Prize for best unpublished manuscript, and will be published in Summer of 2015.
EDUCATION:
- Loyola School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude (2008)
- College of the Holy Cross, B.A., summa cum laude (2004)
ADMISSIONS : All Louisiana state and federal courts
Representative Matters:
- Represented the London insurance market in regard to the DEEPWATER HORIZON Multi-District Litigation.
- Represented the London insurance market in regard to the sinking of the Petronius platform off the coast of Alabama.
- Represented inshore oil and gas exploration company in claims by oyster fishermen regarding alleged damage to oyster beds by vessels and oil and gas exploration equipment.
- Obtained summary judgment dismissal of an intervenor’s maritime lien claim on behalf of a mortgage-holding lender in a vessel mortgage foreclosure action, and prevailed on a motion to dismiss the intervenor’s appeal to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals based on the “useless judgment” doctrine.
- Obtained Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal for no cause of action of claims against hull and machinery underwriters arising out of a jackup vessel grounding incident.
- Obtained summary judgment dismissing a store owner and its insurer in a slip-and-fall case based on the court’s finding of no unreasonably dangerous hazard.
Professional Honors & Activities:
- Louisiana State Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- Maritime Law Association of the United States
- Young Leadership Council
- Pirates’ Alley Faulkner Society
Cost
Rate : $$$