Ralph J. Mellusi

Ralph J. Mellusi is an experienced maritime personal injury attorney who is certified as a “Proctor in Admiralty” by the Maritime Law Association of the United States.  He is a 1967 graduate of NYS Maritime College, a 1974 graduate of New York Law School and a former U.S. Naval Reserve Officer who served as an engineering officer on merchant vessels during the Viet Nam War, most notably the SS TRANSGLOBE, which was inducted into the Maritime Hall of Fame in 2009 as the most decorated merchant vessel of the Viet Nam War.

As the senior partner at Tabak, Mellusi & Shisha, LLP, Mr. Mellusi represents Admiralty and Maritime personal injury plaintiffs in New York and throughout the United States.  The field of maritime personal injury is a complex blend of law and maritime operations.  Mr. Mellusi has extensive knowledge of the maritime industry which derives from a degree in marine engineering, deep sea experience as a ship’s engineering officer and research undertaken at the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture.   In addition, he is a former adjunct professor of maritime law at the New York State Maritime College, and a former adjunct professor of NYU Graduate School of Continuing Education where he taught “Safety and the Law”. His combination of practical maritime and legal experience have made him a driving force in the industry and have enabled him and his team to successfully recover large verdicts for their clients, - often ship passengers, crewmembers, dockworkers or harbor workers. In addition to his law practice, Mr. Mellusi has contributed and lectured at seminars involving admiralty and maritime law.

Mr. Mellusi has been recognized by his peers and clients in the legal industry. He has since 1991 held the distinguished Martindale Hubbell rating of AV Preeminent *, which is a level of recognition only held by attorneys who's practice exhibits high ethical and professional standards.  Mr. Mellusi has been admitted to practice law in New York, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and in the Southern, Eastern and Northern U.S. District Court's of New York.  He has also been admitted to practice “pro hac vice”  in various federal courts throughout the United States. He is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States; the Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers, the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.

^{*AV Preeminent and BV Distinguished are certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. Martindale-Hubbell is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and the judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell ratings fall into two categories – legal ability and general ethical standards.}