Javier Hernández Valenciano

Full Profile

Javier, is a Partner in the Madrid office and a member of the Energy; Marine & Natural Resources team. He advises Spanish and international energy companies, trading houses, and insurers on a broad range of complex, cross-border claims.

His practice spans intricate matters involving marine and project cargo, offshore operations, ports and terminals, yachting, and wider shipping and commercial disputes -often combining contentious and transactional elements. He regularly represents commodity traders, cargo interests, and energy clients in charterparty and bill of lading disputes across sectors such as oil, gas, refined products, and petrochemicals. He also provides strategic advice on the drafting of sale and purchase agreements, general terms and conditions, and charterparty clauses, drawing on his extensive disputes experience.

Javier, is recognised for his strong litigation expertise in complex insurance and reinsurance matters, including collisions, arrests, salvage operations, hull damage, personal injury, and cargo claims.

He also advises on cyber and IT matters. Javier provides end-to-end guidance on cyber incidents and data breaches, covering liability, business interruption, and insurance coverage issues.

In addition to his client work, Javier is deeply engaged in academic and professional development. He is a member of ICADE’s Cluster of Professors and lectures in the Master in Shipping Business and Maritime Law at both the Spanish Maritime Institute and ICADE Business School.

In 2023, the Asociación de Jóvenes Profesionales del Seguro (AJPS) honoured Javier with the 40 Under Forty award, which annually recognises 40 professionals under the age of 40 who are set to lead the Spanish insurance industry in the coming years.

Experience

• Advising on a coverage dispute concerning damage to various shipments of steel products, amounting to approximately 2,500,000 €, due to the ambiguous assessment of the causes of the damage. 
• Acting for a cruise line in relation to a 98 passengers’ class action and to the separate claims by other passengers after a salmonella outbreak during a cruise in the Norwegian Fiords.
• Acting on a multi jurisdictional claim after a outbreak of a gastrointestinal disease in a hotel.
• Acting on behalf of an international forwarder, in a claim resulting from a logistics contract related to the building of an energy plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Forwarders were sued by the shipper of a dry.
• Advising insurers regarding the allision of a floating deck resulting in substantial material damage.
• Drafting and localising many cyber, Tech PI and other Tech insurance products in Spain for international underwriters and MGAs.
• Advising on the full localisation of a cyber, Tech P&I and D&O wordings from a US template, for the Spanish market.
• Adapting and including new cyber clauses to the Spanish market including supply chain for IT and no IT providers.