Keith B. Letourneau

CO-CHAIR, HOUSTON OFFICE
CO-CHAIR, MARITIME PRACTICE GROUP

Keith Letourneau is a member of our Maritime Emergency Response Team (“MERT”).

Keith Letourneau focuses his practice on maritime and energy transactions and litigation matters, including:

• Contract negotiations and disputes
• Vessel arrests and attachments
• Collisions and allisions
• Oil and hazardous materials pollution
• Complex commercial litigation
• OCSLA transactions and disputes
• Oilfield contracts
• Insurance coverage opinions
• Cargo damage

Keith’s government contract experience includes shipyard bid protests, labor standards disputes, and appeals of contracting officers’ final decisions before boards of contract, as well as solicitation and bid reviews and evaluations. He has also defended document-intensive shipyard and oil rig repair contract disputes.

He is co-chair of the firm’s Blockchain Working Group. He has published recent articles about the industry, specifically as it relates to maritime matters, and presented on Blockchain issues at the firm’s Litigation Department CLE program in Philadelphia in November 2017.

Keith served as a trial attorney for both the U.S. Coast Guard’s Procurement Law Division and the Admiralty Section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division. He is a retired commander of the U.S. Coast Guard. His military service included assignments as a deck watch officer aboard a medium-endurance cutter that engaged in drug law enforcement efforts in the Caribbean Basin and as commanding officer of a Coast Guard patrol boat stationed along the southeast Texas coast.

Keith is a member of the Order of the Coif, an honorary academic society that recognizes law students, teachers, judges, and lawyers for their scholarly or professional achievements.

Keith is ranked by Chambers USA for his work in shipping litigation matters, which notes that clients describe him as a “very steady and thoughtful attorney” and that he is “very studious, measured and looks at the overall structure of a case, and what may happen several steps down the road.”

• 2026, “Lawyer of the Year” in Admiralty and Maritime Law in Houston, listed in Best Lawyers in America© (Woodward/White, Inc.)
• 2020–2027, Admiralty and Maritime Law in Houston, listed in Best Lawyers in America© (Woodward/White, Inc.)
• 2026, “Leading Lawyer in Maritime, Admiralty & The High Seas,” listed by Lawdragon
• 2025, “Maritime Attorney of the Year,” presented by Texas Lawyer
• 2016–2026, Transportation: Shipping/Maritime: Litigation Law, listed in Chambers USA
• 2017–2026, listed in The Legal 500 United States
• 2024–2027, Thought Leader: USA in Shipping, listed in Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal)