Gavin H. Guillot

• 504-620-2010
• Gavin.Guillot@pjgglaw.com

Bio

Gavin Hodges Guillot is a founding member of the firm. He is an alumnus of Tulane University Law School and Louisiana State University. His practice focuses primarily on maritime/energy litigation and transactional work.

Gavin practices in Louisiana and Texas, trying cases in both state and federal courts as well as representing clients before administrative agencies, legislative bodies, and in arbitration. He has represented clients in heavily contested issues before parish governments, and in some instances serving as the spokesman for his clients to the local media and at public meetings on heated issues.

He litigates and counsels clients on matters involving vessel collisions and allisions, contractual claims including defense and indemnity/insurance coverage disputes, Jones Act/LHWCA/905(b) defense, cargo loss, vessel arrests and maritime attachment proceedings, maritime liens, towage, and toxic torts. He and his practice group are regularly called upon to respond immediately to maritime casualties, ranging from fatal platform explosions to collisions to post-hurricane casualty investigation.

Collateral to his maritime and energy practice, he litigates and counsels clients on a variety of other matters, including alleged non-compliance findings before the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as representing clients in U.S. Coast Guard investigations. For many years he has served in an outside general counsel capacity for a number of companies, both large and small, assisting them daily with transactional matters such as negotiating hundreds of master service agreements, charter parties, and other forms of contracts. He has litigated and tried a number of non-maritime matters for clients, including real estate boundary actions and the enforceability of insurance broker covenants not to compete and solicit. On behalf of certain larger clients, he also acts as lead counsel to build teams of attorneys with different specialties in tax, real estate, employment, and bankruptcy to acquire and sell shipyards and other large assets, draft and implement complex contractual arrangements, and achieve other business objectives. He also works with foreign counsel, including in Panama, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Denmark, and the U.K., to further his clients’ international business objectives. His clients include among them offshore operators, recycling facilities, tugboat companies, a Fortune 10 Global Energy Company, labor supply companies, international shipping companies, and various domestic and London-market insurers.

Some of his uniquely complex representative matters include obtaining favorable outcomes in defending an oil and gas operator in a fatal platform explosion which produced eight different lawsuits in three different courts and involved criminal prosecution; representing the largest unsecured creditor in a contentious SDTX bankruptcy proceeding, prevailing to constrain the bankruptcy from a Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 with full restitution of the client’s seven-figure claim, overcoming objections to the client’s prevailing bid at the 363 sale auction involving over $10 million in assets, and enforcing pre-petition contract rights for the sale of certain other property (In re Offshore Specialty Fabricators LLC); serving lead trial counsel on behalf of the vessel Limitation Action petitioners in a complex hurricane maritime casualty concursus in the EDLA stemming from state and federal court lawsuits in multiple different courts in Louisiana and Texas and involving dozens of property damage and personal injury claimants; and litigating parallel lawsuits and injunctions in federal court in Louisiana and in Denmark concerning a dispute over the ownership of offshore rigs.

Having a lifelong sailing background, while in law school Gavin naturally was drawn to studying maritime law. He was a senior editor and published member of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal and earned Tulane’s Certificate of Specialization in Maritime Law. He was also a Director of the Moot Court Board, was elected to the Order of the Barristers, and was the champion of Tulane’s trial competition, earning lasting recognition for trial advocacy by having his name engraved on the marble tablets in Tulane’s Weinmann Hall auditorium with the other champions in the school’s history. Gavin represented Tulane across the country in three moot court competitions, ranking nationally as third among over 200 teams in one competition.

Since graduation, Gavin has authored and co-authored several published articles on various aspects of maritime law ranging from economic loss damages to the ever-expanding LHWCA jurisdiction to the peculiarities of offshore contracts. He has also presented on these topics at seminars in locations ranging from San Francisco to London to Port Fourchon, Louisiana. He has been designated by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in 2015-22 and as a Super Lawyer for 2023 for Transportation & Maritime Law.

Gavin is also active in several bar associations and industry-centered associations, including the Mariners Club of the Port of New Orleans of which he is a former President and Director, the Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute (“SEALI”) of which he is a former Director, and he is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States. Aside from his practice, Gavin volunteers on several boards and works with certain local non-profits, including for several years having taught an undergraduate pre-law studies class at the University of New Orleans. He lives in New Orleans with his wife and five children.