The Propeller Club of the United States, Port of Washington, DC chapter has honored Emanuel L. 'Manny' Rouvelas, founding partner of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP, with the Helen Delich Bentley Lifetime Achievement Award.

'Manny Rouvelas is well-deserving of this lifetime achievement award,' said Gloria Cataneo Tosi, president of the Washington, DC Propeller Club. 'He has almost forty years in the maritime industry and his contributions are invaluable. He is and will continue to be a strong leader in our industry.'

Rouvelas has played key roles in the development and passage of major maritime laws, both as counsel to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and in private practice. Through his service on the boards of major US shipping companies and in his practice as a maritime attorney, he has also worked diligently to maintain the US-flag merchant fleet and to revitalize the oceangoing US-flag passenger fleet.

'It is a great pleasure to present Manny with this lifetime achievement award,' said Helen Delich Bentley, who officially presented Rouvelas with the award. 'Manny has been a longtime friend and colleague who continues to be an important figure in the US maritime industry.'

Rouvelas is chairman of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP and opened the firm in Washington, DC in 1973 as the sole attorney in the DC office of Seattle-based Preston Gates & Ellis. Initially opened to provide services to the maritime industry, Rouvelas has guided the firm's growth to more than 140 partners and employees, which today is widely recognized as a premier maritime firm and consistently in the top ten of law/lobby firms. Even as the firm has grown ' National Journal magazine recently listed it as the fastest growing lobbying firm in the US in 2005 ' maritime has remained as its core practice.

Prior to beginning Preston Gates, Rouvelas was counsel to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and chief counsel to its Merchant Marine and Foreign Commerce Subcommittees. He has served as an advisor to two US presidential transitions, a bipartisan Congressional Caucus, executive branch reorganizations, several senators and congressmen, and many political campaigns. From 2003-2005, The Hill newspaper ranked him as one of the top 50 lobbyists in Washington, DC from a field of more than 12,000. The Helen Delich Bentley Lifetime Achievement Award is named in honor of Helen Delich Bentley, former US Representative from Maryland, and former chair of the Federal Maritime Commission. Bentley has been a strong advocate for the US maritime industry her entire career, and was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.