Dominic Kay KC is a specialist regulatory law practitioner and is one of a very small number of King’s Counsel to be listed by the legal directories as a leading individual in each of his three areas of practice: Health & Safety, Environmental Law and Inquests & Inquiries.
Dominic has been nominated this year as ‘Health & Safety – Silk of the Year’ at the 2023 Chambers UK Bar Awards. He won the title in 2020, was nominated for the award in 2018 and won Junior of the Year in 2011.
Dominic has particular experience in representing VLOs and has advised and represented some of the UK’s most prominent companies and organisations including Lidl, Tesco, Aldi, Arcadia, Sunseeker, BUPA, Royal Mail, Thomas Cook, BAE Systems, Kier, Amey, Mitie, Ikea, DHL, Arla, Virgin, St Gobain, Mornflake, Calor Gas, JJB Sports, Universal Music, EDF and a number of NHS Trusts.
In relation to his Environmental Law work, in the past couple of years alone he has represented several of the UK’s main water and utility companies including Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, Severn Trent Water, South West Water and Anglian Water.
Dominic has significant experience in Judicial Review proceedings relating to criminal cases (both in relation to Health & Safety and Environmental prosecutions) and inquests.
He has been ranked consistently throughout the last decade by the various legal directories as a leading or ‘Star Individual’ most recently he has been described as being:
“by far the best of the young silks in this area…a heavyweight practitioner…renowned for his top-level work…a barrister with a nationwide practice…with a strong grasp of clients’ commercial and legal requirements and excellent communication skills…very confident before the Bench and when handling opponents”
and as having
“outstanding knowledge and experience of this niche area of law. He is an excellent advocate, down-to-earth and with a common-sense approach…he takes a dynamic approach and is always looking for an innovative solution”.
Chambers & Partners 2020 describes him as “exceptional in every way…brilliant in court and gets the results for his clients”.
Dominic is in high demand and is currently instructed to represent/advise in relation to several of the country’s most prominent Health & Safety investigations and environmental prosecutions including the Didcot Power Station collapse, the investigation into the fire at Grenfell Tower and for several of the UK’s water companies in relation to multiple, large-scale water pollution prosecutions.
Dominic regularly provides emergency advice in relation to HSE, EA and Police investigations into serious incidents such as corporate and individual manslaughter or large-scale pollution incidents.
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Recommendations
“Dominic is a formidable advocate with the legal intellect, court presence and personality to bring something unique to the cases he works on.”… “He gets excellent results and provides first-class strategic advice and representation based on his considerable experience in this area.”
Chambers & Partners, 2024
“Dominic grasps the technical detail of cases quickly. He is friendly and calm as well as authoritative.”
Legal 500, 2024
“He is superb with clients and is a first-rate advocate. He knows the law inside and out and is strategically very astute.”
Chambers & Partners, 2022
“Very polished and a technically strong, clear and concise communicator, he is superb at setting and executing a strategy.”
Legal 500, 2022
“Dominic is instantly impressive with his knowledge of the law, analysis of the evidence and the gift of presenting arguments in straightforward terms.”
Legal 500, 2022
“A very strong advocate who is excellent with clients and easy to recommend.”
Legal 500, 2021
“He is technically superb but his impressive strength is seeing the big picture and being a very talented strategist. He manages clients expectations superbly. Senior judges sit up and listen when he speaks.”
Legal 500, 2021
“He is one of the leading health and safety barristers in the country.”; “He’s extremely intelligent and really gets into the detail on cases. He’s very good both on paper and on his feet in court.”; “He is absolutely amazing – fantastic in court and his wealth of knowledge is second to none.”
Chambers & Partners, 2021
“He truly understands environmental law and the technical detail, and he is an outstanding advocate who presents a compelling case.”
Legal 500, 2021
“Exceptional in every way. His approach towards clients is always absolutely on point, and he knows the law inside out yet manages to translate complex issues to something easily digestible to clients. He is brilliant in court and gets the results for his clients. I take any opportunity I can to put him on my teams’ cases as I know he will get the job done to the highest possible standards.”
Chambers & Partners, 2020
“Outstanding and in high demand.”
Legal 500, 2017
“By far the best of the young silks in this area.”
Chambers & Partners
