Practice Areas
Admiralty & Maritime Law
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC is, at its core, a maritime law firm. Our legal business model brings excellence, responsiveness and experience to bear in all matters, but is nonetheless driven by the client’s business needs and economic considerations.
Our attorneys have in depth experience with virtually all facets of maritime law, including charter parties, contracts of affreightment, maritime casualties, Jones Act personal injury defense, marine construction personal injury defense, recreational boating personal injury defense, tug and towage, salvage, yacht purchasing and financing, marine cargo claims, vessel arrests, Rule B maritime attachments, pollution incidents, maritime liens, maritime bankruptcies and workouts, offshore wind, submarine utilities, and related insurance issues.
Our attorneys have substantive industry experience. They include graduates from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. They served onboard ocean going vessels, coastal vessels and yachts. Our shoreside experience includes marine insurance, vessel operations, brokerage, chartering, and service at classification societies. Our substantive maritime experience has given us access to an international network of lawyers, experts, salvors and surveyors that we can unleash to assist you with your complex maritime legal issues.
Civil & Commercial Litigation
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC provides business litigation services and advice to clients worldwide. Our services include in-depth and intelligent analysis of commercial disputes to determine the most effective and productive course of action to achieve a positive result. If possible, we orchestrate an amicable settlement, avoiding litigation altogether and achieving our client’s business objectives as cost effectively as possible. If a beneficial settlement is not obtainable, Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC’s attorneys deliver an aggressive and effective prosecution or defense in court.
We regularly litigate in federal and state courts, at the trial and appellate levels, and participate in arbitrations before the American Arbitration Association, the Society of Maritime Arbitrators (SMA), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), and pursuant to the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) arbitration rules. We have deep experience pursuing and defending against injunctive and other coercive relief, including cases involving confidentiality agreements and restrictive covenants in employment contracts, Admiralty Rule B and C arrests and attachments, and state court judgment enforcement methods.
Our business litigation experience includes breach of contract, first party insurance claim disputes, insurance coverage disputes, commodity sales disputes, judgment enforcement actions, personal injury defense, mass tort litigation defense, construction litigation, franchisor/franchisee litigation, oil trading contract disputes, financial services employment contract disputes, trademark and copy right infringement litigation, foreign judgment enforcement actions and all manner of complex business disputes. We regularly work with counsel internationally, and in other states, to orchestrate a coordinated approach to our clients’ needs, including attachment of foreign assets and the prosecution of foreign litigations and arbitrations.
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC is poised to offer your company experienced, responsive and cost effective counsel and litigation services. Your business objectives will be our guidepost throughout the process.
Financial Advisors and other Employees in Transition
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC represents employers, financial advisors and other employees in times of transition. Our attorneys analyze employment agreements, company policy manuals and related documents, provide advice to our clients on their rights and responsibilities under those documents and provide advice on how to make the employees transition as seamless as possible.
We provide advice regarding restrictive covenants, including covenants not to compete, “Garden Leave” provisions, agreements not to solicit customers or employees, confidentiality agreements and agreements relating to trade secrets and other intellectual property rights, We are well versed in the intricacies of the Protocol for Broker Recruiting. We represent our clients in litigation and FINRA arbitration proceedings involving claims of unfair competition, breach of restrictive covenants, breach of fiduciary duty and duty of loyalty as well as claims of theft of intellectual property and trade secrets. We also prosecute or defend against cases seeking temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctive relief.
We represent financial advisors in FINRA regulatory matters, including on-the-record interviews, disciplinary and enforcement proceedings and other regulatory matters, as well as in cases involving customer complaints.
Business Law and Commercial Transactions
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC represents individuals and companies, both large and small, in business and commercial transactions. We assist our clients in the formation and organization of business entities including corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships. We provide counsel on corporate governance issues, including drafting and analyzing by-laws, shareholder agreements, operating agreements and partnership agreements. Our attorneys negotiate, draft and analyze various contracts on our clients’ behalf, including sales and supply agreements, independent representative, agency and distribution agreements, consulting agreements, employment agreements, brokerage agreements, equipment servicing and various other agreements, We represent our clients in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and dissolutions, including negotiating and drafting the necessary transactional documents.
Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC’s bankruptcy attorneys represent debtors, secured creditors, unsecured creditors and their committees, shipowners, charterers, maritime service and necessary providers, in and out of court in regard to bankruptcy proceedings worldwide. We have extensive experience representing parties in the purchase and sale of assets through Bankruptcy Code Section 363 sales. We have experience seeking relief from the automatic stay to continue arrest and attachment procedures and litigation, objecting to disclosure statements and chapter 11 plans, objecting to and defending proofs of claim, and prosecuting and defending against preference actions and other adversary proceedings. We also have experience representing parties in the purchase and sale of bankruptcy claims.
We have in depth industry knowledge in the maritime, finance and telecommunications industries. An example of our result-oriented, quality legal work can be seen in a high profile maritime bankruptcy recently pending in the Southern District of New York. In that large, complex action, our client was successful pursuing its claim to a maritime lien against the bankrupt entities’ vessels. On the basis of its maritime lien, our client ultimately recovered a multi-million dollar award in London arbitration.
Insurance Litigation
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC regularly handles insurance matters for both insurers and insureds, including the litigation of first party claims and insurance coverage actions, protecting the interests of excess insurers during the defense of covered claims, and advising business entities on strategies for maximizing their insurance claim recoveries when faced with an insurer’s reservation of rights and/or denial of coverage. We fully grasp the strategic challenges and opportunities that arise out of coverage issues flowing from the insurance of mobile risks.
We regularly appear in court to obtain declaratory judgments clarifying insurers’ obligations to their insureds and to obtain stays of litigations when filed in inconvenient or unrelated jurisdictions for the purpose of gaining strategic advantage. We recently negotiated a multi million dollar settlement on behalf of an LHWCA compensation paying entity for reimbursement of yearly U.S. Department of Labor assessments under a series of comprehensive marine general liability policies.
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC provides sophisticated, nuanced insurance coverage advice and aggressive, effective insurance litigation services, when litigation is required.
Personal Injury Defense
Betancourt, Greco & Evans LLC concentrates in maritime and construction personal injury defense. Our partners have in depth experience with all facets of these highly specialized fields of law. We represent shipowners and operators, protection & indemnity clubs, marine insurers, marine terminal operators, waterfront labor providers and yacht owners in the defense of Jones Act personal injury claims, longshoremen’s 905(b) actions, New York State Labor Law claims and personal injury and death claims arising under the general maritime law. We represented a major marine construction company in the World Trade Center mass tort litigation.
We have significant jury trial experience in both New York and New Jersey State and federal courts. Our partners have also tried cases before the New York Court of Claims. We have substantive industry experience that gives us a strategic advantage in representing our clients including service aboard oil tankers, container ships, bulk carriers, ocean going and harbor tug boats, oil rigs and offshore racing yachts.
We promise to provide an aggressive, informed and effective defense of your maritime and construction personal injury claims.
New Jersey
151 Bodman Place, Suite 200
Red Bank, NJ 07701
Tel: (732) 530-4646
Fax: (732) 530-9536
New York
75 South Broadway – 4th Floor
White Plains, NY 10601
Tel: (914) 997-1100
Fax: (914) 997-1101
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