J. Ben Segarra ’08

Before joining the foundation in 2023, Ben Segarra was an admiralty lawyer for almost 15 years on the Gulf Coast, representing shipowners, operators and charterers in nearly all facets of maritime law, from OPA 90 liability to Jones Act matters. 

Segarra graduated from UVA Law in 2008 and clerked for Judge William E. Cassady of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. During his time at the Law School, Segarra was the recipient of the Virginia Law Scholarship, the executive editor of the Virginia Environmental Law Journal and co-captain of his softball team. At Duke University, he was the secretary of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and the founding president of the Duke Outdoors Club. For a year between Duke and UVA Law, Segarra was the live-in personal caretaker of Reynolds Price, the American Book Award-winning author and James B. Duke Professor of English. Segarra also holds an LL.M. in Admiralty Law from Tulane University Law School, where he was the Maritime Law Fellow.