Douglas Ralph Williams

Douglas R. Williams was raised in a military family. After retiring from the armed forces, his father sailed as the chief medical officer with several of the world’s prominent cruise lines, including Holland America Line, Carnival Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line. Doug spent a good part of his youth—when not in school—living in crew quarters aboard ships, sailing with his father. These experiences shaped his career by giving him firsthand exposure to the maritime industry from an early age.

Doug attended Washington & Lee University in Virginia, where he studied history and played NCAA football. He went on to earn his Juris Doctorate, magna cum laude, from Florida State University. As a law student, Doug achieved the highest marks in his Admiralty Law and Civil Practice courses. He graduated in the top ten percent of his law school class, earning membership in the Order of the Coif. Doug spent much of his final year of law school clerking for Judge Padovano of the Florida First District Court of Appeal.

Out of law school, Doug accepted a position in Tampa, Florida, with the leading maritime litigation firm in the Southeast. Doug handled commercial disputes, such as actions on charter parties, enforcement of maritime liens, vessel attachments, and arrests, but his practice was primarily focused on defending shipping companies in casualty litigation. Doug’s work took him to various ports on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean to investigate accidents on behalf of shipowners. During his tenure in Tampa, Doug worked on the most important seamen’s case to reach the United States Supreme Court in the last thirty years, Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, which equips injured seamen with the punitive damage remedy for maintenance and cure claims.

In 2011, Doug and his wife relocated to Washington State, and Doug joined a downtown Seattle maritime firm where he defended Seattle-based commercial fishing companies, cruise lines, and their insurers against personal injury and wrongful death claims arising under the Jones Act, LHWCA, DOHSA and general maritime law.

Doug joined BoatLaw in 2012. Since then, he has litigated maritime injury cases at law and in admiralty in state and federal courts from Los Angeles to Anchorage. Doug is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States and the Chairman of the Maritime Section of the Washington State Association for Justice.