Introducing Jessie Elizabeth Shifalo, this year’s winner of Gard co-sponsored writing competition

This year’s winner is Ms. Jessie Elizabeth Shifalo, and her article is entitled:  ‘The Garamendi Amendment: How Four Words Changed the Entire Offshore Wind Industry in America’, which discusses the issue of the cabotage provisions of the U.S. Jones Act statute and how it has wide ranging effects on the future of the U.S. offshore wind industry, which is in the beginning stages of development and expansion. See her article, as it was published by the American Bar Association section newsletter.

At Tulane, Jessie Elizabeth is the Senior Managing Editor of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal and the former President of the Maritime Law Society. Jessie Elizabeth, a 2011 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, holds a USCG Unlimited Tonnage Master’s license and spent eight years sailing on tankers prior to starting law school. She also serves as a mentor in the Women Offshore MentorShip program.

Gard has been pleased to be an active sponsor of this competition, which encourages those interested in pursuing a maritime legal career in the U.S. by rewarding high quality authorship by those students. Ms. Shifalo will receive a cash prize, as well as an invitation to visit the New York office and learn more about our work, and to discuss her paper with our colleagues there. We look forward to her visit which is currently planned for the end of September, 2021.