Dawn M. Cardi has nearly 30 years of litigation experience including contested and uncontested matrimonial, custody and family law cases in state Supreme and Family courts, as well as state and federal criminal defense cases in the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She has also conducted numerous civil trials in various other areas of the law, as well as domestic violence cases in both the criminal and civil arena.
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Chad L. Edgar joined Dawn M. Cardi & Associates in 2006 where he practices criminal defense and civil litigation. Before joining the firm, Mr. Edgar worked as an associate at Gerald B. Lefcourt, P.C. where he assisted in the defense of mostly white-collar criminal defendants who were accused of securities fraud, tax evasion, economic espionage among other crimes. He also worked as a litigation associate at a large New York law firm, where he concentrated primarily on trademark, employment and securities disputes.  Read more >

Dawn M Cardi, Esq.

Cardi began her career in 1979 as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society, Criminal Division, where she eventually served as supervisor of trial attorneys until 1987.

In 1987, she was appointed Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Department of Law, in the division of Investor Protection and Security Fraud, where she received the New York State Special Achievement Award for her trial expertise after successfully completing a six-month, $34 million security fraud trial on behalf of the New York State Attorney General's Office.

From 1990 to 1992, Cardi practiced corporate law and began her practice in matrimonial and family law while serving as associate counsel for Baden, Kramer, Huffman, Brodsky & Go.

In 1992, Cardi opened her own firm, specializing in the practice of matrimonial, and family law, and state and federal criminal defense as a trier of her own cases and as trial counsel for other attorneys.

From 1992 to 1994 she served as General Counsel to Advanced ImmuniT Inc. and E”xpression College for Digital Media.

She is appointed by the Appellate Division, First Department, to the 18B Screening Committee for Criminal Law and is a member of the Homicide, Appellate and Felony Panels. She was also appointed and has served as a certified Law Guardian in the First Department of the Appellate Division, and was an arbitrator for the NASD.

Cardi served as co-chairperson of the Matrimonial Committee of the Women’s Bar Association of New York and was recently named a Director of the Association. Cardi is also a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and was recently appointed to the Matrimonial Law Committee. She is also a member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, Family Law Section, the Women's Bar Association in New York County, the New York State Criminal Bar Association, and a member of New York County Lawyers Association. She has served on the Women in the Court’s Committee and the Children in the Law Committee, and has also served on various sub-committees in the area of matrimonial, family and criminal law.

Cardi is regularly invited to teach courses and lecture on topics related to trial advocacy, criminal and matrimonial law (including Fathers Custody Litigation, Rape Trauma and Battered Women’s Syndrome, etc.) in such forums as bar associations and law schools, where she also conducts NITA trial advocacy programs. She performs extensive pro-bono work for Network for Womens' Services and Sanctuary for Families Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services.

She has served on the Board of Directors for Brooklyn Philharmonic, and on the Board of Directors for the Maternity Center Association (now called the Childbirth Connection) and was a member of Community Board 6, and its various committees, in Brooklyn, New York where she lives with her husband and family.

Cardi received her B.A. from Fordham University cum laude and her J.D. from Pace University Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review.

A frequent commentator on national television, newspapers, magazines, and radio programs, she has provided expert opinion on such high profile cases as the O.J. Simpson trial, the Duke rape case, the “Nanny” case, Anna Nicole Smith and Brittany Spears. She lectures frequently on a variety of topics in the field of matrimonial, family, and criminal law.

Chad Edgar, Esq.

Mr. Edgar received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin Law School after receiving his B.A., cum laude, from Bates College. After his first year of law school, Mr. Edgar spent a summer interning at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Remington Center providing a range of legal assistance to inmates within the State of Wisconsin Prison system. Mr. Edgar was a member of the University of Wisconsin Law Review and one of its Note and Comment editors. He also had an article published entitled “Expanding Employer Liability for Sexual Harassment Under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act: Jim Walter Color Separations v. Labor & Industry Review Commission,” in 2000 Wisconsin Law Review 885 (2000).

Mr. Edgar has a Ph.D. in English Literature from New York University and has taught literature at various institutions, including the University of Wisconsin, Edgewood College and New York University.

Mr. Edgar is a member of the New York State Bar and is admitted to practice in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.