Contributors

Having only recently retired from active practice with Womble Bond Dickinson, following a distinguished career as an admiralty lawyer, Gordon Schreck has accepted an appointment as a Distinguished Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Charleston School of Law (“CSOL”) for the 2018 Fall term, commencing August 21.  He will be teaching a course on “Intermodal Container Transportation Law”, drawing on almost 50 years of experience representing major container shipping lines calling at the Port of Charleston.

CSOL opened its doors some fifteen years ago, as South Carolina’s only other law school, and it’s location in a major port city afforded a unique opportunity for the school to develop a robust maritime law program, which has become one of the most popular legal specialties on campus.

This will not be Schreck’s first involvement with CSOL.  Shortly after the school’s accreditation, he was approached by his friend, Professor Randall Bridwell, who had been recruited by CSOL’s founders from the University of South Carolina Law School, where he had taught admiralty law for many years, with the idea of forming a maritime law institute in Charleston.  Schreck was instrumental in helping Professor Bridwell organize that institute by recruiting a board of advisors made up of both leaders in the maritime industry and prominent admiralty practitioners from throughout the Southeast.  Though Professor Bridwell retired from CSOL several years ago, Schreck continues to chair the Charleston Maritime Law Institute, providing a forum for students, academics and maritime industry leaders to gather and discuss issues and challenges facing today’s maritime industry and admiralty bar.

Though retired from active practice, Schreck remains active in a number of maritime law and industry organizations at both the local and national levels, including: the Maritime Law Association of the United States; the Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute; the Maritime Association of South Carolina; and the Propeller Club of Charleston.  He also continues to serve as an at-large, private sector industry appointee to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Charleston Area Maritime Security Committee, an appointment requiring a national security clearance.

In the course of discussing with CSOL’s administration the subject matter of the class he would be teaching on container shipping law, Schreck was asked what textbook he had in mind for use in his course.  After Schreck noted that a textbook on container shipping law had not yet been written, and that he would be utilizing selected readings and cases he would be selecting, it was suggested that he might consider writing such a casebook.  He quickly responded by pointing out that one of the advantages of being an adjunct professor was that he could concentrate on teaching, without worrying about the “publish or perish” requirement!

Schreck maintains an office at Womble Bond Dickinson’s Charleston location, where he continues to share his knowledge and many years of practice experience with members of the firm’s admiralty and maritime practice group.