Dominic’s practice includes commercial, property and personal injury (including credit hire). He is a registered Civil and Commercial Mediator with the Civil Mediation Council, and offers online and telephone mediation services: www.ResolvedOnline.com. Dominic is also the editor of Jus Cogens, the online journal providing news, expert analysis and compelling opinion on public and private international law and arbitration for those with an international aspect to their practice.
HHJ Karen Walden-Smith (Senior Circuit Judge and Designated Civil Judge for the County Court in East Anglia) wrote a foreword to ‘A Practical Guide to the Small Claims Track’ in these terms: “… Dominic Bright has set out all that a practitioner could possibly need to know about how to deal with a small claim …”. District Judge Cridge (South Eastern Circuit) wrote a testimonial: “Dominic Bright has balanced a thorough, careful review of the Small Claims Track procedure with a helpful analysis of the most common areas of law the County Court sees. The wealth of sensible, practical advice for those coming to court helps further set this book apart.”
Richard Pitkethly, Head of Learning and Practice (In-House Counsel) at LawWorks – the pro bono unit with 150 members, including large City and international law firms, fielding over 59,000 enquiries between April 2017 to March 2018, and providing training last year to over 1000 solicitors and advisors – published a Five Star book review in the Law Society Gazette, entitled ‘A pro bono game changer’, concluding in these terms:
‘It seems inevitable that A Practical Guide to the Small Claims Track will quickly become the go-to small claims book for practitioner volunteers (and junior practitioners generally), especially those unfamiliar with handling claims allocated to the small claims track, as well as an indispensable self-help guide to LiPs.’
Dominic can be instructed directly, without having to involve a solicitor. He is registered on the Direct Access Portal. Dominic is also a member of Advocate (the Bar’s national charity), matching him with members of the public who need help, are unable to obtain legal aid, and cannot afford to pay.
Prior to pupillage, Dominic was judicial assistant in the Court of Appeal to Sir Brian Leveson, the former President of the Queen’s Bench Division. He was also researcher in construction law at a leading set of barristers’ chambers, public international law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and national implementation measures (nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation, development and use of chemical weaponry) at the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre. Dominic is an Associate of King’s College London.
For daily case digests, connect with Dominic on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter.
Publications
Dominic assists authors to publish academic articles and professional texts on national and international law. He also publishes in his own right.
Books
Articles
Seminars / training
Dominic accepts invitations to present seminars / training from professional clients. He also attends other professional events.
Recent invitations
- ‘Small Claims Training’ – Seminar One, 8 September 2020 (admissions; interim payments; and remote final hearings); Seminar Two, 30 September 2020 (when, how and benefits of making an oral application for strike out and / or summary judgment; judicial intervention v entering the arena; and departure from fixed costs following a finding that a party has behaved unreasonably); and Seminar Three, 23 October 2020 (appearing against litigants in person)
- Training for a niche commercial and residential property law firm on forfeiture, trespass and assured shorthold tenancies (July 2020)
- ‘Future of International Dispute Resolution’ (discussant analysing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on international commercial contracts with the International Dispute Resolution Group, June 2020)
- ‘Jurisdiction and Choice of Law Clauses in International Commercial Contracts’ (seminar to City lawyers, November 2019)
- Defence barrister in a mock trial following a road traffic collision and claim for credit hire (training for a leading law firm of about 2,500 employees and an insurer with over 166,000 employees, July 2019)
Recent events
- ‘Short Course: Public International Law in Practice’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, September 2020)
- ‘Short Course: Law of the Sea’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, September 2020)
- ‘Collaborative Resolution of Disputes and COVID-19’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, June 2020)
- ‘Meeting in a Post-pandemic World’ (Civil Mediation Council, June 2020)
- ‘Virtual Justice in France, UK and US: Status and Challenges of Remote Hearings and Trials‘ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, June 2020
- ‘Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Regulation – A Conversation with Lord Clement-Jones’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, June 2020)
- ‘Force Majeure and Hardship in Commercial Contracts: Cross-border and Comparative Perspectives’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, April 2020)
- ‘COVID-19 and International Law: What Went Wrong and What Can We Learn From It?’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, April 2020)
- ‘National Security and the Law in the 2020s’ (Middle Temple, February 2020)
- ‘Climate Change Litigation: Comparative and International Perspectives’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, January 2020)
- ‘Civil Mediation Council Annual Conference 2019’ (Hallam Conference Centre, November 2019)
- ‘Property Bar Association Conference 2018: Fraud and Equity in Practice’ (The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, 27 November 2018)
Further information
Dominic holds two postgraduate qualifications, is an active member of various domestic and international professional associations, and enjoys gardening, travelling and learning about geopolitics when time permits.
Qualifications
- Master of Laws (LL.M) in Professional Legal Practice (incorporating the BPTC), BPP University Law School, London Holborn, awarded Distinction
- Master of Laws (LL.M), King’s College London, School of Law, awarded Distinction
- Law (LL.B Hons) with European Legal Studies, King’s College London, School of Law (incorporating an Erasmus exchange at Uppsala University, Sweden)
Memberships
Interests
- Cooking (macaroni cheese with chorizo), drumming (previously in Middle Temple’s ‘Revels’) and gardening (inspired by Ron Finley, the “Gangster Gardener” on Masterclass)
- Domestic (Applecross, North Coast 500, Scotland; Battle Abbey, Hastings, English Heritage; and Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, National Trust) and international travel (Al Khazneh, Petra, Jordan; Templo Dio del Viento, Tulum, Mexico; Mitre Peak, Fiordland, New Zealand)
- National, regional and global threats, challenges and opportunities including the changing nature of geopolitics in relation to sustainable growth, prevention of conflict, and development of the rule of law