Ryan Vechan

About

For more than 15 years, Ryan Vechan has been charting a novel path through the maritime industry that today enables him to apply an unmatched degree of experience to get his clients the best possible outcome.  As one of only a few attorneys in the country who has obtained a USCG unlimited tonnage Masters License, and having worked aboard chemical and clean product tankers for years as a Jones Act seaman himself, Ryan’s background, training, and qualifications set him far and apart from other attorneys. It’s not just the office and courtroom that he knows – it’s the docks, the decks, and the dangers of maritime work that he has witnessed first-hand and fully understands. 

Over the course of his career, Ryan has worked not only as a maritime attorney but also as a Merchant Mariner and as a port captain for a Fortune 500 company. Additionally, Ryan was a Navy Reserve Strategic Sealift Officer (obtaining the rank of Lieutenant and his honorable discharge in 2016).  Most recently, he has served as a professor and interim department head in the Maritime Transportation program at Texas A&M University at Galveston, where he trains the next generation of Jones Act seaman and spends summers working aboard the school’s training ship coaching students on the practical realities of life and work at sea. He has taught classes on marine insurance, dry cargo operations, liquid cargo operations, maritime security, and electronic navigation, and is constantly keeping a weathered eye on industry-specific developments, including but not limited to the Jones Act (both as it relates to cabotage and as well as to personal injury litigation), the Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act, mariners’ rights, pilotage, and the COLREGS/Rules of the Road.

Ryan obtained his Juris Doctorate from the University of Houston Law Center in 2014. While in law school, he served as the Head Senior Articles Editor for the Houston Journal of International Law, clerked for several maritime firms in the Houston area, and interned for the Honorable Judge Ron Clark for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. After graduating, he was hired by a New York City-based maritime litigation firm to counsel clients on a variety of matters, including personal injury claims, port regulations, maritime operations, cargo claims, and charter party disputes. He then joined the Adam Davis Law Firm in 2023 and is currently managing the firm’s Texas office, which is based in Houston. As a mariner himself, it is Ryan’s passion and goal that through his work at the Adam Davis Law Firm, others like him obtain the justice they deserve.

In his spare time, Ryan enjoys watching soccer and spending time with his family. His wife, Emily, is a personal injury attorney as well and they live just minutes from the law school where they first met.  Together, they happily dote on their baby girl, Sephina, and dog, Dama.