DOUGLAS W. TRUXILLO is a partner with the regional law firm of Onebane Law Firm in Lafayette, Louisiana where he has practice in the Admiralty Section since 1977. He graduated from Louisiana State University Law School in 1976 as a member of the Order of the Coif. Following graduation, Mr. Truxillo served as a law clerk to the renowned maritime judge, Honorable Edwin F. Hunter, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in Lake Charles. Mr. Truxillo is a member of both the Louisiana and Texas Bar Associations and is admitted to practice in state and federal courts of each and the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has also been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court since 1983. His practice emphasis is primarily civil litigation in state and Federal courts in maritime and oilfield cases as well as the negotiation of oilfield master service contracts, commercial shipbuilding and ship sales and mortgage transactions. He is a member of the Maritime Law Association, the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel and the Defense Research Institute. Mr. Truxillo is presently serving as the President of the Lafayette-Acadiana Chapter of the Federal Bar Association for 2004 to 2005. Additionally, Mr. Truxillo is in the fourteenth year of his appointment as the legal advisor for the Association of DivingContractors International, Inc., an international diving and underwater services trade organization. Mr. Truxillo has co-chaired the Maritime Seminar at Cypremort Point for the last sixteen years for the Lafayette Parish Bar Association and is a frequent speaker on the topic of oilfield and maritime contracts and litigation at seminars put on by Law Schools, Universities, Bar Associations, as well as trade and business organizations.