Flight Path | Episode 5 | Year in Review
11 December 2025
Chris is an Australian qualified Legal Director in London’s Aviation Liability department with extensive international experience representing airlines and their insurers in contentious aviation claims.
Direct Lines
+44 207 876 6646 +44 780 233 8644 chris.smith@clydeco.comMain Office
London, The St Botolph Building
+44 (0) 20 7876 5000 +44 333 3000 232Regional experience
Full Profile
Chris is an Australian qualified Legal Director in London’s Aviation Liability department. He manages a large and complex caseload for a number of international airlines and their insurers, primarily focusing on defending personal injury/death, baggage, delay and cargo claims, both within the UK and across the rest of the world, applying international treaties and/or domestic law as applicable. Chris’ experience includes co-running all aspects of significant past and current international major losses, including the passenger and ground victim claims, inquests, criminal investigations/subpoenas, and extensive Court-ordered disclosure exercises.
Chris also has broad experience acting for a number of airlines and their respective insurers in the recovery or defence of both insured and uninsured losses resulting from damage to aircraft.
Chris is also an accomplished presenter, speaking at numerous conferences worldwide on significant issues within the aviation liability and insurance landscape.
Experience
- Advising on a major loss involving 21 deaths and 169 injuries to passengers and crew.
- Acting for an international airline and their insurers in the defence of high profile multi-million-pound claims brought in the UK from the death of UK passengers in a major loss in 2015
- Co-ordinating an international airline’s response to a subpoena to produce a number of documents, served on them by the US Department of Justice, following a high-profile major loss
- Acting for several major international carriers and their insurers in responding to and defending claims for, inter alia, bodily injury, baggage and cargo damage and/or delay, and damage to aircraft.
- Successfully concluding a complex personal injury claim involving the traumatic amputation of the claimant’s legs, brought against two related airlines and their insurers.
- Advising insurers on coverage issues for two aircraft, which were suspected of being used for illegal purposes, after they were totally destroyed by missile fire
- Providing assistance to an airline trade association in intervening in a judicial review application challenging the UK government's Covid-19 quarantine restrictions