Drake Whitmore

Drake Whitmore is an Equity Partner in the firm's Litigation group. His practice centers on maritime and admiralty matters, international commercial disputes, and insurance coverage litigation. He represents shipowners, marine insurers, and cargo interests in cases arising out of Long Island Sound, the New England coastal trade, and the port complexes at New Haven, Bridgeport, and New London. He handles cross-border commercial disputes for Connecticut-based manufacturers shipping into Canadian and European markets, including disputes that require coordinated proceedings in foreign courts or international arbitration forums. Whitmore holds a B.S. from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point (1998) and a J.D. from Fordham Law School (2003). He sailed as a licensed merchant marine officer for four years between graduating Kings Point and starting law school, and continues to serve as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. Before joining Oak, Elm & Birch in 2011, he spent seven years at a New York admiralty firm, working on Jones Act cases, cargo damage claims, and shipowner liability matters. The New York years gave him the maritime-law literacy; the Reserve service keeps it current. He is one of a small number of Connecticut practitioners who can argue a limitation-of-liability petition without needing a refresher on the underlying statute. He made partner at the firm in 2018 and now anchors the Litigation group's admiralty and international-disputes work. He is admitted in Connecticut and New York, and in the U.S. District Courts for the District of Connecticut, the Southern District of New York, and the Eastern District of New York. He is a proctor in admiralty of the Maritime Law Association of the United States and has been listed in *Best Lawyers in America* for Admiralty and Maritime Law since 2022. Within the firm, Whitmore is the principal point of contact for the Litigation group's insurance-carrier clients on first-party marine and inland-marine coverage questions. He also collaborates with the Corporate group on the occasional ship-financing or marine-vessel-acquisition matter. ## Representative Matters - Lead counsel for a Connecticut-based cargo insurer in a § 30706 limitation-of-liability proceeding in the D. Conn. arising from a 2021 allision in Long Island Sound; resolved on favorable terms after jurisdictional discovery. - Represented a New London-area marine services company in a commercial arbitration before a three-arbitrator panel in London concerning a long-term charter dispute with a European counterparty, 2022. - Counsel to an aerospace parts supplier in a cross-border breach-of-contract action against a Quebec distributor, including coordinated proceedings in Hartford Superior Court and the Superior Court of Quebec. - Represented the owner of a commercial fishing vessel in a Jones Act personal-injury claim in the D. Conn. before the Hon. Kari A. Dooley, resolved on favorable terms at mediation, 2023. ## Board Service Whitmore serves on the board of the USS Nautilus Museum in Groton and is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, where he serves on the Committee on Marine Insurance and General Average. He is an active alumnus of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Foundation. ## Beyond the Firm Whitmore sails a small sloop out of Noank in the summers and logs enough Reserve time each year to have missed exactly one of his daughters' school plays — a fact his daughters and his wife both reliably remind him of. He lives in Mystic with his family.