Rude, advocate for domestic shippers, dead

Rick A. Rude, a Falls Church, Va.-based attorney who was a well-known expert in domestic shipping law and advocate for shippers and non-vessel-operating common carriers, died July 12 of a heart attack. He was 59.

I've lost an advocate, a friend and probably one of the most ethical men I've ever met, said Brad Dechter, owner and chief executive officer of DHX-Dependable Hawaii Express, the California-based NVO.

He was a true authority, and he was always taking up causes where he thought the little guy, the small NVO, had been hurt and had been wronged, said Dechter. He wanted to make sure the little guy didn't get wronged by these big behemoths. He was a true David, in the David and Goliath sense.

Dechter said Rude had represented his company in proceedings before the Surface Transportation Board with Matson and Horizon Lines and in a pricing lawsuit against Horizon.

He represented Florida-based companies involved in the Puerto Rico trade and the Caribbean Shippers Association.

He also advised companies involved in international trades such as the Barrington, Ill.-based NVO North American Logistics Inc., whose principal business is moving import boxes from the Far East. President Tim Cummings said Rude was more of a consultant to his company, advising it about federal legislation and regulations.

He was a fair-minded, loyal and hardworking person -- really a friend -- if you had a question he was always there to help you even if it was evenings or weekends, said Cummings, who recalled talking to him on July 4.

Rude, who lived in McLean, Va., is survived by his wife, Susan, and sons, Jonathan and Matthew. A funeral service was held last week.

Jonathan said his father, a graduate of the George Mason University School of Law, worked as sole practitioner most of his life and built his practice around cases where he truly believed in the cause of the clients he worked for. Working on his own, he immersed himself in the details of their cases.

He was a teacher, Dechter said. He was the kind of guy where he would start talking on something and he knew so much that a simple question would turn into a lecture about the history along with a discussion of what I sometimes thought were arcane subjects, but which were germane to the case. And then he would follow-up it with three-inch-thick case studies trying to teach what you needed to know.

Peter Gatti, executive vice president of the National Industrial Transportation League, recalled that Rude was vocal about policy issues having to do with shipping companies operating in the so-called Jones Act trades between the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska. He was not shy about calling me up and giving me his opinion about various issues. He was definitely a shipper's advocate.

Recently, Rude was closely following a Department of Justice investigation of pricing by Jones Act carriers and class action lawsuits that some shippers have filed against lines.