L. Etienne "Etienne" Balart

Etienne Balart is a partner in the Maritime and Litigation practice groups, in the Construction Industry Team, and co-leads the firm's Latin America working group. He provides transactional and litigation counsel to clients in the energy and maritime industries. Etienne helps clients identify and quantify financial, compliance, and other risks associated with disputes and litigated matters, negotiate, and, where necessary, bring to trial commercial and other disputes. Relying upon this deep experience, Etienne also counsels and assists clients in the construction and energy sectors in the drafting of construction contracts, master service agreements, and other contracts. Etienne has practiced law since 1997, including one year of service as a law clerk to the Honorable W. Eugene Davis of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He has appeared before numerous courts at the federal and state levels, and before arbitration panels. Etienne advises a variety of clients in the maritime and energy sectors from both dispute-resolution and transactional perspectives. His litigation experience spans commercial disputes, insurance coverage issues, vessel seizures, maritime personal injuries, multi- and single-claim limitation of liability actions, third-party state and Outer Continental Shelf platform claims, vessel collisions and allisions, indemnity disputes and applications of anti-indemnity statutes, and cargo claims. His transactional practice includes drafting and reviewing contracts in the maritime and energy sectors, primarily master service contracts, drilling contracts, vessel charter parties, towage contracts, and vessel construction contracts. Etienne also advises clients with respect to regulatory compliance issues, vessel documentation, certification issues, and related issues. In addition to his work for the energy and maritime industries, Etienne also has a highly developed construction practice, representing owners, general contractors, and subcontractors in a variety of construction litigation and commercial disputes, including Louisiana Public Bid Law disputes. He has handled arbitrations and state and federal court cases for a variety of construction clients involving cost overrun, design errors, defective specifications, delay in construction claims, change orders, and payment disputes.