Bio

Leo G. Kailas was born in New York City in 1949. He was admitted to the bar in New York in 1974 and is admitted to practice in the Southern and Eastern District Federal Courts of New York and in the First, Second, Seventh and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal. Leo joined Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O’Donnell & Weyher in 1973 as a litigation associate. In 1977, he joined Varet & Fink P.C. (formerly Milgrim Thomajan & Lee P.C.) where he became a member in 1980 and he continued to work as a member of that firm and its successors until 1995 when he joined Piper, Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe L.L.P. Mr. Kailas joined the firm in February, 2000 as a member.

Leo has first-chaired more than seventy-five completed trials and arbitrations before courts and arbitral panels throughout the United States. He handles a wide variety of international, maritime and complex commercial litigation and arbitration. Recently, he represented the prevailing party in a multi-million dollar dispute arising under an electrical power supply agreement and he also recently served as an arbitrator in a major dispute under an oil supply agreement which arose during last winter’s spike in fuel oil prices. Leo also represented a major U.S. defense contractor in the negotiation of a series of vessel construction and sales contracts.

Leo was Chairman of the Admiralty Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from 1985 through 1988 and Secretary from 1984 through 1985. He is also a member of the Panel of Arbitrators for the American Arbitration Association, a member of the New York chapter of the American Inn of Court and a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, where he serves on the Arbitration Committee.