Christopher Cardona is a London-based English solicitor qualified in England and Wales. He works as a consultant in the insurance and reinsurance team of HFW, specialising in international dispute resolution with a focus on Latin American markets. A Cambridge graduate, he was earlier a partner of Theodore Goddard.
Background
Cardona was admitted in England in 1984, the earliest dated step in his documented professional life. He is qualified in England and Wales and is bilingual in English and Spanish, skills that frame much of his later cross-border practice.
London has long been a centre of the insurance market, and the British Insurance Law Association, formed in 1964, is predominantly focused on that market. Cardona's professional life developed within this London-based legal environment, which connected English legal practice with international insurance and reinsurance work.
Education
Cardona is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, where he took the degree of Master of Arts.
Cambridge is a collegiate university in England, in which semi-autonomous colleges admit students and provide tutorial teaching alongside the central university. At Cambridge the MA is conferred on graduates after a set period following their first degree, rather than on the basis of further examination.
Career
Cardona's documented legal career begins with his admission in England in 1984. He was a partner of Theodore Goddard, a London firm founded in 1902 by John Theodore Goddard, a solicitor who first practised as a litigator on the London court circuit. The firm developed as a general practice with an emphasis on high-profile private client work, and it merged with Addleshaw Booth & Co on 1 May 2003 to form Addleshaw Goddard.
In 2015 he joined the London office of Holman Fenwick Willan as a partner, with effect from 29 August 2015, as the firm expanded its insurance and reinsurance practice. Holman Fenwick Willan was founded in 1883, and its early expertise lay in representing maritime clients after shipwrecks and collisions. The firm later broadened into six core sectors, including insurance and reinsurance, and changed its name to HFW in June 2017.
At HFW, Cardona's practice centres on high-value international dispute resolution in insurance and reinsurance, with a particular focus on Latin American markets. He advises clients on policy issues, product development and policy wordings, and he regularly lectures on insurance and reinsurance topics. He is a key contact for the firm's Latin America Insurance Map, an interactive guide to (re)insurance law that covers 16 jurisdictions and was co-authored with Geoffrey Conlin.
In October 2017, when he was described as HFW's Head of Insurance, Cardona chaired the formal presentations at a London event on the impact of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria on the United States and the Caribbean. The event drew more than 100 clients and members of the press.
Cardona has co-authored a leading textbook on reinsurance law and a practitioner's textbook on the UK Insurance Act, which was enacted in 2015. He has also contributed to textbooks on conflict of laws, property risks and mass torts. He is currently a consultant in HFW's Insurance & Reinsurance team.
Membership
Cardona is a member of the British Insurance Law Association, which was established in 1964 to promote interest in and understanding of insurance law, both nationally and internationally, and to encourage the exchange of information and ideas on insurance law and practice. The association is the British chapter of the Association Internationale de Droit des Assurances, an international body formed in 1960 to promote knowledge of insurance law.
