Explorer Consulting, LLC ® provides legal and operational advice on the "business of exploration" to companies and individuals engaged in international exploration and adventure travel. Concannon is also the principal attorney in the Law Offices of David G. Concannon, LLC, which advises small to medium-sized corporations and non-profit organizations on corporate matters and commercial litigation.
The company's founder, David Concannon, is uniquely qualified to provide the services demanded by Explorer Consulting's clients. Concannon is a lifelong climber and diver whose love of exploration merged with his career as an attorney in 1996, when he became a member of the prestigious Explorers Club and the Chairman of its Legal Committee (General Counsel). Concannon later served as General Counsel to the X-PRIZE Foundation, the Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences and the Professional Shipwreck Explorers Association.
Concannon has provided legal and operational advice to several international expeditions, including a 1999 expedition to Mt. Everest to test medical equipment for use on the U.S. Space Shuttle; six expeditions to the R.M.S. Titanic; a 2001 expedition to the heart of the Bermuda Triangle, which discovered the world's deepest wooden shipwreck; and an expedition to the Bismarck in 2002.
Concannon has also participated in numerous expeditions to remote parts of the world. In 2005, Concannon led an international expedition to the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic to explore previously unknown areas of the wreck site and film a documentary for The History Channel, Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces. He has climbed mountains in the United States, Africa and Europe; and dived in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, as well as the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Philippine seas. He has made deep submersible dives to depths ranging from 1,000 to 16,000 feet, including four dives to the R.M.S. Titanic, which rests at a depth of 12,460 feet. Concannon is one of only a handful of people to ever dive to a depth in excess of three miles, and he has climbed to altitudes in excess of 17,000 feet.
Concannon was counsel to the X-PRIZE Foundation when it awarded a $10 million cash prize to Scaled Composites for achieving the first privately-funded space flights in SpaceShipOne in 2004, and through its development of the X-PRIZE Cup and new prizes to encourage the private development of new technologies.
Concannon studied international law in the United States, Africa and Europe. He has successfully represented explorers in litigation to restore public and scientific access to the R.M.S. Titanic for exploration and photography, and to avoid liability for incidents involving exploration. He has chartered ships, submersibles and remotely operated vehicles for expeditions. He has negotiated artifact exhibition agreements, corporate sponsorship arrangements, television, film and literary deals, and intellectual property licensing agreements. He also regularly advises clients on establishing corporate structures and fulfilling rules applicable to non-profit organizations.
Concannon is a Fellow and former Director of The Explorers Club, a Member and Director of the Sea-Space Symposium, and an Associate Member of the Deep Submersible Pilots Association. He currently serves as the U.S. legal advisor to the Anglo-Danish Maritime Archaeological Team.
Finally, Concannon has lectured and published extensively throughout North America, the Caribbean, South America and Ireland. He wrote the foreword to The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel, which achieved the No. 4 position on the New York Times best seller list.
