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Mr. Abaunza has more than 30 years of experience in admiralty law, and his practice includes a wide range of complex litigation and international disputes. He has been lead trial counsel in maritime issues, products liability, oil and gas casualty matters, contract disputes, construction litigation, insurance matters and various tort and personal injury actions. First party insurance disputes are a significant part of his practice background.Mr. Abaunza advises clients in drilling and completion accidents, insurance claims, well blowouts, reservoir damage, pipeline accidents and other oilfield tort claims. In other maritime related matters, he handles offshore contract drafting and review, offshore drilling, personal injury, vessel collisions, vessel construction and repair litigation and vessel construction contract drafting and review.He routinely handles first party insurance disputes, and he has significant experience both as an arbitrator and as counsel for parties in arbitration matters.He has served as an arbitrator in commercial disputes, contract issues, construction cases, maritime disputes and oil and gas casualty cases.Presently, Mr. Abaunza is defending a company in a case involving an accident in the Philippines which resulted in over 4,000 deaths. His other notable representative matters include counseling defendants in the Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea and the Ocean Ranger 1982 incident in Canada.Mr. Abaunza has years of experience conferring with corporate clients on their contract and insurance issues. He provides legal advice in drafting and negotiating contracts, especially offshore contracts, insurance policies, master service agreements, drilling agreements, joint venture agreements and other industrial and corporate contracts.A leader within the profession, Mr. Abaunza served as the managing partner and president of Liskow & Lewis from January 1996 through April 2003. He supervises a number of the firm's associates and partners in litigation matters. Mr. Abaunza frequently speaks at meetings of trade associations, law schools, bar associations, defense counsel groups and corporate managers on ethical issues, arbitration and insurance-related matters. | 