Even in an industry of colourful characters, Clay Maitland stands out from the crowd.
So, it made for a packed ballroom at New York’s Union League Club when the Society of Maritime Arbitrators (SMA) hosted a roast of the International Registries Inc (IRI) managing partner, whose company runs the Marshall Islands corporate and ship registry.
A crowd including judges, maritime lawyers, shipping executives and maritime-school officials whooped it up at the expense of the long-time fixture of the New York shipping scene — and characteristically, not without Maitland firing back.
Most of the ribbing was good natured, and as Joe Hughes, long-time chief executive of protection and indemnity insurer the American Club observed, “I can’t say I smell any burning flesh.”
Still, the roasters had their fun with Maitland’s foibles.
'Shrivelled septuagenarian'
Current SMA president Robert Shaw noted that Maitland “is not known for tremendous restraint”.
Vedder Price lawyer Francis Nolan referred to the honoree as “the shrivelled septuagenarian”, and said he had dared speak only because, “I was told that IRI president Bill Gallagher would have you duct-taped to the back of your chair.”
None of the restraints — including the self-restraint — appeared to work, as Maitland himself was at the lectern much of the night, including to receive an honorary merchant marine licence from State University of New York Maritime College president Michael Alfultis.
It was described as a “licence to operate battery powered remote-controlled devices of less than 10 ounces in bathtub water”.
Friends did not seem overly concerned, however, that all the fuss would ruin the former Burlingham Underwood lawyer.
“Please don’t let this go to your head,” Norton Rose Fulbright partner Brian Devine cautioned Maitland. “Because that would be so out of character.”
