"She's very hard-working, has exceptional attention and the ability to understand the bigger picture."
Chambers and Partners
Dominique has a particular specialism in disputes concerning large infrastructure and PFI projects, particularly in relation to railways, telecomms, energy projects (including renewables), natural resources and utilities. She regularly deals with issues regarding bonds and guarantees used in projects. She also specialises in professional negligence for and against construction professionals and their professional indemnity insurers. She has wide experience of representing clients in the UK high court and appellate courts as well as in arbitration both domestic and international. She often deals with conflict of laws and jurisdiction issues. She has recently acted in a number of international arbitrations including disputes concerning a Russian oil and gas project (ICC arbitration) and a Dubai skyscraper (ADCCAC arbitration), a Middle Eastern processing plant with power co-generation (UNCITRAL arbitration). She is a qualified TECBAR adjudicator and is co-author of the Construction Adjudication & Payments Handbook published by Oxford University Press.
Dominique has represented contractors, employers, professional advisers, local authorities and government departments in domestic and international disputes relating to the construction of buildings & shopping centres, tunnelling, process plants, earthworks, road building, fires, floods,subsidence. She regularly represents clients both in adjudication and at the high court enforcement hearings.
Dominique has extensive experience of disputes arising out of PFI projects. She represented London and Continental Railways in a great many cases arising out of the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project, the government’s flagship PFI project worth over £8 billion. Since then she has gone on to represent clients in wide variety of PFI disputes concerning the construction and maintenance of hospitals, schools, telecommunications systems as well as acting for London Underground in a series of disputes with its PPP contractor Tubelines. She has acted in disputes concerning the design and installation of new railway lines, facilities and signalling as well as signalling malfunctions, the installation & maintenance of track and trackside equipment, emergency brake failure incidents, asbestos removal on networks, station modernisation and the operation of operator Service Charge provisions. Notably she acted for London Underground in multi million pound claims brought in series of arbitrations concerning the telecommunications system on the entire underground network. Dominique also acted for Transport for London on the construction aspects of the East London Line extension project which is a core element in the transport network for the 2012 Olympics, and acts on other major transport development projects.
She has acted on a number of large cases in this sector. For example she represented Degremont, a French multinational and its UK subsidiary in high court claim for £150m brought by United Utilities regarding the design and build of a water treatment plant. She successfully defended the Coal Authority in claim brought by an insurance company concerning allegations of coal mining subsidence. She has also been instructed to advise on matters arising out of one of the largest offshore wind farm projects in the world.
Dominique has experience in the IT and telecommunications’ field acting for, contractors and users, in the public and private sector. She represented London Underground in a series of arbitrations brought by a consortium engaged under a PFI contract to design install and maintain a new communications network on the entire underground network, for radio, video and data transfer systems.
She has experience in the professional negligence field, acting for claimants, defendants and their indemnity insurers regarding a wide range of construction professionals including architects and engineer designers of M&E systems, process plants and fire safety systems.
She acts in international arbitrations concerning international projects governed by the law of countries other than UK and involving various different dispute resolution rules and procedures. She recently acted in an arbitration in Dubai about the construction of a skyscraper governed by UAE Law and conducted under the ADCCAC rules.
