Mark Andrews
Senior Counsel
fax +1 202.572.8684
Mark Andrews counsels providers and users of transportation services on business, regulatory and judicial matters. With more than 40 years of experience in Washington D.C., Mark focuses his practice on the transportation and logistics industry.
He counsels carriers and their customers of all sizes, acting as advisor and advocate on a wide variety of issues and projects, including:
- Conflicts between federal and state laws
- Transportation mergers and acquisitions
- Transportation safety regulation
- Drafting and negotiation of master service agreements
- Disputes over international transportation services
Mark has extensive experience in negotiating and drafting complex nationwide and international logistics and supply chain management contracts. These agreements have brought predictable pricing and enabled measurable service improvements across a wide variety of industries and almost all transportation modes. Mark also has delivered regulatory and federal preemption opinions required for the closing of transportation mergers and acquisitions worth billions of dollars and has obtained necessary regulatory approvals for such transactions.
Throughout his career, Mark has made presentations before a variety of bar and trade associations as an adjunct law professor and at in-house client seminars on the regulatory changes made by significant Federal transportation legislation. In his current role as co-chair of the federal regulatory committee of the Transportation Lawyers Association (TLA), he helps alert the supply-chain bar on the ever-changing requirements of Federal transportation safety regulations.
Industries
Practice Areas
Education
J.D., Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969
A.B., cum laude, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966
Recognitions
2012-2017: Selected for inclusion in Washington DC Super Lawyers list (Transportation and Maritime Law).
2005: Transportation Lawyers Association Lifetime Achievement Award
2001: American Law Institute – Elected Member
1985: Transportation Lawyers Association – Distinguished Service Award
Memberships
American Bar Association, Section of International Law, International Transportation Committee, Co-Chair (2008-2011)
Transportation Lawyers Association, President (1992-93), Committee on Federal Regulations, Co-Chair (2013-present), Executive Committee Voting Member (1986-1999, 2003-2005)
Association of Transportation Law Professionals, Publications Committee, Member (2010-present)
The District of Columbia Bar, Member
Canadian Transport Lawyers’ Association, Member
Conference of Freight Counsel, Member
State Bar Licenses
District of Columbia
Court Admissions
U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Federal Claims
U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
- Helps clients navigate the procedures and requirements of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), among other Federal agencies.
- Advised for more than three decades a major petroleum refining and distributing company in Eastern Canada on U.S. regulation of its affiliates’ cross-border trucking and logistics operations, and more recently on U.S. Customs issues arising in those operations.
- Handled a series of successful applications to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) for approval of passenger contract carrier acquisitions by a holding company in which a former CEO of a major bus carrier has been a principal.
- Assisted a “top ten” Canadian logistics holding company with the regulatory aspects of acquiring a large U.S. based motor carrier with extensive operations to and from Mexico.
- Advised a variety of motor carriers serving shale energy exploration and development companies, especially with regard to defense of FMCSA civil penalties and safety rating downgrades resulting from vehicle maintenance issues encountered when conducting off-road trucking operations in South and West Texas.
- Assisted a major Houston-based energy company in successfully pursuing a Freedom of Information Act request to the Maritime Administration within the U.S. Department of Transportation, seeking a complete history of waivers granted to foreign-flag vessels for delivery of crude oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
- Assisted with negotiating, drafting and implementing a history-making strategic alliance between a major automobile manufacturer and a provider of global supply chain solutions for manufacturing, industrial, retail, and governmental users. In this alliance, a jointly-owned entity served as the fourth-party logistics manager for the manufacturer’s worldwide movements of parts and finished vehicles until the provider’s ownership interest was bought out by the manufacturer.
- Advised a privately held multinational conglomerate on an auction process for awarding worldwide supply-chain management responsibilities to international freight forwarders; the involved industries ranged from textiles to transportation equipment.
- Drafted lead logistics provider agreements between parties as diverse as an elevator manufacturer with a truckload motor carrier, a nationwide office-supply cooperative with a dedicated truck fleet operator, and a multinational manufacturer of medical devices with an international freight forwarder.
- Created a “reverse logistics” agreement for use by a Houston-based third-party logistics (3PL) provider in structuring the disposal of defective and unsold alcoholic beverages (many of them imported) in accordance with applicable Customs, environmental and excise-tax regulations.
- Represented a multimodal transportation holding company in bringing a multistate unclaimed property audit to closure, by demonstrating that Federal law preempted auditors’ efforts to collect freight overpayments and that the auditors’ other information demands were redundant or internally inconsistent.
- Advised a trans-Pacific 3PL and a major railroad on federal preemption and Constitutional defenses to state unclaimed property audits.
- Assisted a Canadian motor carrier in obtaining refunds of penalties paid to U.S. Customs Service for alleged “cabotage” violations (use of Canada-based trucks to haul U.S. domestic shipments) when the involved truck operations would have been legal after a subsequent change in cabotage rules.
- Assisted providers of “customer pack/carrier haul” services in defeating proposals for additional regulation by the STB and the FMCSA.
- Spearheaded due diligence on FMCSA, export and import compliance matters in connection with a multimodal U.S. holding company’s acquisition of a large motor carrier with operations in Mexico.
- Advised a multinational 3PL on how to avoid being regulated as a “railroad” in connection with its incidental rail car switching operations within large industrial complexes in Texas.
- Assisted two motor carriers in drafting interline agreements with Mexican motor carriers.
- Actively participated in obtaining STB approval of initial and amended pooling applications by motor carrier clients.
- Advised an ocean transportation intermediary on restructuring options under recent amendments to applicable FMC regulations.
- Retained as expert witness on U.S. cargo liability law in Canadian litigation arising from US$ 7 million in damages to a cross-border shipment of alternative energy equipment.
- Retained to assist a New York Stock Exchange company in regulatory compliance and due-diligence activities in connection with a series of acquisitions of trucking and pipeline companies, for the purpose of establishing client’s leadership in water supply, recycling and disposal services to shale energy development projects in Texas, neighboring States and the Marcellus Shale belt of the Northeastern United States.
- Advised a variety of clients, ranging from specialized 3PL providers to multinational manufacturers, on appropriate motor carrier selection criteria in light of a new FMCSA safety initiative known as “Compliance, Safety, Accountability” (CSA).
Articles
- Quoted, Airlines, Railroads Wary Of Biden Competition Order, Law360, July 9, 2021
- The Transportation Lawyer Newsletter, “Export Controls, Economic Embargoes and Other Exotica of International Trade Regulation: Why Forwarders and Carriers Should Care,” February 2006
- American Trucker, “Getting Due Process from the FMCSA,” October 2017
- Law360, “Biz Turns to Feds for Certainty on Automated Truck Rules,” October 2017
- Co-author, “Food Safety Magazine, “Sanitary Transportation of Food: Contracts and the New Rules,” June/July 2016
- Strasburger Transportation & Logistics Blog, “Carriers & Brokers: Info You Need NOW on FDA’s Food Transport Rule,” April 2016
- Strasburger Transportation & Logistics Blog, “Four States’ CDLs No Longer Valid at Federal Facilities,” January 2016
- Law360, “Congress to DOT: Use Rulemaking and Clean Up Your Data,” December 2015
- Strasburger Transportation & Logistics Blog, “USDOT vs. Trucks: The Regulatory Firestorm Continues,” July 2015
- Strasburger Transportation & Logistics Blog, “USDOT’s Latest Announcement on Mexican Trucks: A Turning Point or Another Non-Event?” January 2015
- Strasburger Transportation & Logistics Blog, “Higher and Broader Transportation Insurance Requirements Are Now in Play at USDOT,” December 2014
- Co-author, Strasburger Transportation & Logistics Blog, “FDA’s Proposed Rule on Sanitary Food Transportation: Implications for Freight Carriers,” March 2014
- Strasburger Transportation & Logistics Blog, “Not just Bakken: USDOT Emergency Order Applies to All Shipments of Crude Oil by Rail,” March 2014
- 78 J. Transp. L. Logist. & Pol’y 129 [2], “CSA and Motor Carriers: the ‘Intervention’ Really Needed is a Stiff Dose of Administrative Due Process,” 2011
- 77 J. Transp. L. Logist. & Pol’y 241[3], “Construing the Skeleton: What’s Left of Antitrust Immunity and the Filed Rate Doctrine for Motor Carriers?” 2010
- Contributing Editor, The International Lawyer, “Year in Review,” 2005-2010
- Safety Fitness Determinations: What Is FMCSA Measuring?
Presentations
- “The Sad State of Due Process and Data Quality at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration,” Canadian Transport Lawyers’ Association, October 2017
- “Risk Management in a Regulatory Fog: How the Government Really Could Help,” Supply Chain Cargo & Security Summit, June 2017
- “FMCSA vs. Trucks: Regulating Like There’s No Tomorrow?” 2016 Annual Conference of the Transportation Lawyers Association and Midyear Meeting of the Canadian Transport Lawyers’ Association, April 2016
- Guest Lecturer, “The FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability Program – What You Must Know Now!” Collin College, Preston Ridge Campus, July 2013
- Guest Lecturer, “Logistics,” Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2008, 2009, 2011
- Guest Lecturer, “Transportation Law,” Intermodal Transportation Institute, University of Denver, 2014
- Panel Chair, “Multimodal Update,” Transportation Law Institute, November 2011
- Co-presenter, “Transportation Intermediaries,” Transportation Lawyers Association, April 2011
- Panelist, “Regulatory Burdens on U.S.-Canada Commerce: A Titan in Chains,” American Bar Association Annual Meeting, 2011
- Panel Chair, “Federal Preemption Developments in Transportation,” Transportation Law Institute, 2008