Alfred J. Kuffler

• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Supreme Court of the United States
• United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• United States District Court for the District of Michigan
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

• Lead counsel to the owners and insurers of the Athos I Delaware River oil spill, November 2004, the most expensive spill in the United States since the EXXON VALDEZ
• Lead trial counsel for United States based shipowner against government of Iran in proceeding at Iran-United States Claims Tribunal – The Hague, Netherlands – resulting in $30,000,000 recovery. At the time, it was the fifth largest recovery of any contested claim at the Tribunal
• Lead trial counsel in successful ship owner’s defense of $45,000,000 claim for the destruction of a nuclear power plant transmission line crossing the Delaware River; trial saved client $25,000,000
• Negotiated $7,500,000 recovery from an oil company’s insurers for loss of cargo in a ship fire and a $4,000,000 subrogated recovery from ship owner’s insurers. The timing of the latter recovery also saved the oil company client $1,000,000 in future insurance premiums
• Lead trial counsel in insurance coverage litigation which went to the Supreme Court of Georgia. The result of the litigation clarified insurer’s defense obligations under a general liability policy in Georgia and saved the client $500,000 in settlement
• Counsel to ship owner responsible for a spill 120 percent as big as the spill from the EXXON VALDEZ in the first ever Spill of National Significance Exercise held under the National Contingency Plan
• Assisting a major marine insurer in preparation of its internal disaster response plan
• Coordinating a nationwide friend of the court briefing project on recurring questions of insurance coverage for environmental liabilities under general liability policies
• Prevailing counsel in appeal upholding court’s exercise of admiralty jurisdiction involving first ever arrest of negotiable ocean bill of lading for purpose of establishing ownership of bill, and, hence, cargo, as against attempted fraudulent conversion of bill
• First lawyer based outside of New York to regularly represent clients before Society of Maritime Arbitrators panels
• Counsel to Underwriters in the September 1990 sinking of the Tank Barge SARAH FRANK, one of the first cases under OPA-90, which became effective August 18, 1990
• Developed coverage analysis matrix for a marine and energy insurer’s claims department faced with 1,500 onshore pollution, asbestos, and health hazard insurance and reinsurance claims. The matrix provided a prompt, uniform preliminary coverage analysis enabling the insurer to respond in a timely way with its coverage position and highlighted those cases which will pose long term issues for a client
• Drafted multi line, multiyear excess reinsurance casualty and property policy covering captive direct insurer of a Fortune 500 transportation conglomerate – ship, rail, truck, barge and intermodal

• Speaker, “Crisis Response” 2019 Connecticut Maritime Association Shipping Conference, April 4, 2019
• Speaker, “Place of Refuge: Still A Big Problem,” Connecticut Maritime Association, March 22, 2016
• Presenter, “Place of Refuge – Unfinished Business,” American Salvage Association/Marine Log, 2015
• Presenter, “Port of Refuge: A Continuing Problem for the Industry,” Connecticut Maritime Association’s Shipping 2014, March 2014
• Speaker, International Law Seminar 2013: Recent Developments in Maritime Law: A Multijurisdictional Perspective, September 2013
• Prior speaking engagements include: Connecticut Maritime Association (2009) and O’Brien’s Oil Pollution Services (2008) Table Top Exercises on the topics of places of refuge for stricken vessels and the lawyer’s role in crisis management and the 20th Annual Marine Money Conference in New York City where he presented “Issues for Officers and Directors as Seen Through the Lens of a Maritime Litigator.” Kuffler was a lecturer for the Seatrade Academy in New York, “The Business of Bunkering;” and a speaker at the International Congress of Maritime Arbitrators, held in Monte Carlo and Madrid

• Quoted, “How One of the World’s Biggest Ships Jammed the Suez Canal,” The New York Times, July 2021
• Author, “Responder Immunity: Protecting the Salvor in “Bet the Company” Responses,” Maritime Reporter and Engineering News, June 2020
• Co-author, “Maritime Bankruptcies in the US during the Coronavirus Pandemic: An Introduction for Creditors,” May 2020
• Co-author, “Dismantlecon: BIMCO’s Form Offshore Decommissioning Contract,” Soundings, Spring 2020
• Noted, “Law360’s Weekly Verdict: Legal Lions & Lambs,” Law360, April 2020
• Co-author, “$73M Judgment in Maritime Case Upheld by SCOTUS,” March 2020
• Noted, “Justices Won’t Let Citgo Off Hook for $133M Oil Spill,” Law360, March 2020
• Author, “No Blood From a Stone!” Soundings, December 2018
• Noted, “3rd Circ. Won’t Revisit Citgo’s $100M Oil Spill Liability,” Law360, May 2018
• Quoted, “Cargo ship’s months-long stay is about to end,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2014
• Author, “Place of Refuge – Ongoing Challenge,” Soundings, Summer 2014
• Noted, “Filipino crewmen stranded on ship ask for ‘humanitarian parole’,” Inquirer.net, August 2014
• Quoted, “In limbo on the Delaware,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 2014
• Quoted, “Sanity and sanctuary needed on refuge response,” Tanker Shipping & Trade, June 2014
• Author, “Exxon Valdez Legacy,” Sea Venture (Steamship Mutual Newsletter), December 2012
• Co-author, “Charterers’ Potential Liability for Oil Pollution in the United States,” The Charterer (The Charterers’ P&I Club Newsletter), October 2012
• Co-author, “The Deepwater Horizon Sets OPA-90 Precedents,” Currents (The American Club Newsletter), June 2012
• Author, “Built It, But Will They Come? – Port Development as a Harbinger of Growth in Shipping and the Gamble Ports are Making,” Marine Money, January 2012
• Quoted, “BP Clean-Up Costs to Soar, Experts Say,” Financial Times, April 2011
• Quoted, “BP, Drilling Partners Sued by U.S. Government Over Gulf Oil Spill Damage,” Bloomberg, December 2010
• Co-author, “The Authority of the Arbitrators to Interpret the Rules Under Which the Arbitration is Conducted,” The Arbitrator, April 2010
• Author, “Nobody Should Be Happy: A Cautionary Tale for Judicial Sales in the United States,” Marine Money International, 2010
• Additional publications include: “Professionals Are Covered Under CGL Products-Completed Operations Hazard,” Mealey’s Emerging Insurance Disputes (co-authored, 2007); 2007 – Speaker “Marine Money” “Issues for Officers and Directors as Seen Through the Lens of a Maritime Litigator,” “The Real Question of Punitive Damages: When Does Punishment Reach the Level of Deterrence,” The Legal Intelligencer (2005); “Criminal Investigations Cast An Even Darker Shadow,” The Swedish Club (2005); “Prosecution of Maritime Environmental Crimes Versus OPA-90’s Priority for Response and Spill Prevention: A Collision Avoidance Proposal,” 75 Tulane Law Review 1623 (2001); “Liability Wordings for the Wise,” Global Reinsurance (2000) co-author of “Double Double – Oil and Trouble,” the varying definitions of “oil” under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and International Conventions, Global Risk Manager (1996); “The Absolute Pollution Exclusion that Doesn’t Always Exclude,” Global Risk Manager (1996); “Superfund and the ‘Passive’ Landowner – Where is the Harbor of Refuge?,” Global Risk Manager (1995); “Enforcement of Forum Selection Clauses by the Courts of the United States and the Right to Seize Property Outside the Selected Forum,” Cargo Claims Analysis (1984); “The Water Pollution Control Act – The United States’ Response to Water Pollution Caused by Ships,” Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly (1978); “Discovery and Maritime Arbitration – An Idea Whose Time Has Come,” Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly (1978); and “Products Liability Afloat,” Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly (1976)

• Selected to the Best Lawyers in America© – Admiralty and Maritime Law list in 2007-2023. This list is issued by Best Lawyers and a description of the selection methodology can be found here.  No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
• Selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers – Transportation/Maritime Law list in 2006, 2009-2010, and 2015. This list is issued by Thomson Reuters and a description of the selection methodology can be found here. No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
• Martindale-Hubbell “AV” Rated and awarded Top Rated Lawyer in Transportation Law in 2013. The “AV” rating is issued by Martindale-Hubbell and a description of the selection methodology can be found here. No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
• Selected as one of “New York Area’s Top Rated Lawyers” in 2012 and 2014. This award is issued by ALM and a description of the selection methodology can be found here. No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

No aspect of these advertisements has been approved by the highest court of any state.

• Mediator for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and is a participant in its seminar on mediation skills and settlement conference advocacy
• Serves as a judge pro tem in the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court’s Commerce Court system
• Served as an arbitrator and is a member of the Maritime Law Association (MLA) of the United States
• MLA member, Kuffler is the former vice chairman of the Standing Committee on Maritime Arbitration
• Former member of the MLA’s Committees on Continuing Legal Education and Long Range Planning board of directors from 1997 to 2000; from 1997 to 2005 he chaired the Ad Hoc Study Group for Environmental Crimes
• Member of the American and Philadelphia Bar Association
• Resident associate member of the Association of Average Adjusters in the United States
• Member, American Salvage Association

• Honorary Danish Consul in Pennsylvania, 1991-2012

Law School

• Cornell Law School

Undergraduate School

• Princeton University