Partner Perspectives: Dominic Sharman

From Leeds to Tokyo: Dominic Sharman reflects on his unconventional path from UK training to becoming an international disputes partner in Japan, highlighting the value of curiosity, adaptability, and cross-cultural experience.

The changing face of global disputes: Geopolitical fragmentation, ESG-driven accountability, and rapid technological change are reshaping both the nature of disputes and how they are resolved.

Japan as a growing hub for complex international disputes: Increased outward investment by Japanese companies is driving more high-value, cross-border disputes and elevating the importance of arbitration and strategic forum selection.

Why misalignment causes disputes: Cultural, commercial, and expectation gaps remain one of the biggest obstacles in negotiations—particularly in cross-border contexts involving Japan.

What future-ready disputes lawyers need: Commercial awareness, sector expertise, tech literacy, and strong soft skills are now as critical as black-letter legal knowledge.

The power of front-end analysis: A real-world case study illustrates how early strategic assessment and consistency of position can turn aggressive disputes into successful early settlements.

Advice for the next generation: Building strong legal fundamentals, understanding clients’ businesses, developing advocacy skills, and investing in language and cultural fluency are key to succeeding internationally.

A positive outlook for UK–Japan relations: Growing bilateral investment and collaboration—particularly in semiconductors, life sciences, and technology—signal strong future opportunities, alongside an evolving disputes landscape.

---

As an international disputes lawyer at Baker McKenzie in Tokyo, can you share with us the journey that led you to where you are today?

I trained in the UK originally up in Leeds in the north of England before taking a working holiday and coming out to Japan, not as a lawyer, but as an English teacher originally before then realising that Japan was the country for me and then coming back out here to practise law shortly afterwards.

I think since that time there’s been a real increase in the dispute resolution market here. And I’ve been really lucky enough to be able to work on a number of really highly complex and very high value disputes across a number of jurisdictions, not just Japan, but also other countries in which I help and Japanese companies as well.

From your perspective, what are the top three global trends that are shaping the field of negotiation and dispute resolution?

So I think if we talk about the actual subject matter of disputes, so geopolitical fragmentation is, is really causing some, some big issues and also regulatory divergent related to that.

So we’re seeing big impacts on supply chains and, also cost of goods, for example, that’s causing a lot of issues, particularly with construction projects and large scale projects like the ones I advise clients on LinkedIn.

A way to that is also ESG related disputes. There’s a lot of sensitivity now around ESG compliance, which is causing a bit of an uptick in, in disputes, especially around, again, energy sustainability companies feeling like they really need to hold other companies to account, perhaps rightly so.

And the third thing if we think about the actual practise of dispute resolution and everyone talks about it so much these days is, is AI and technological advances which are impacting the way that the actual conduct of, of for example, arbitration and mitigation works in, in practise.

Why do you think these trends are important?

I mean, I think a lot of it is probably relatively self-explanatory, but with the with the geopolitical point, for example, things put a bigger focus for companies about where they resolve their disputes and how they resolve them as a matter of practise and procedure. But also the countries on which they want to focus, for example.

So we’re seeing a big shift obviously there with me assuring and things like that with ESG, it used to be a bit of a peripheral consideration for a lot of companies and for a lot of countries indeed. But the more that issue comes to, to the fore, the, the more that is shaping and framing disputes, especially very high value disputes, including investor state based disputes.

And lastly on the digitization piece, again, AI in in recent years has really come to the fore. And I think in terms of shaping how we can provide value to our clients, whether it’s in disputes or in, in other areas of practise, AI and digitization will, will have an impact and our have an impact from our perspective.

In light of these trends, what can negotiators and dispute resolution practitioners do now to position themselves well for the future?

So disputes lawyers, I think especially it’s important to be agile, commercially minded and tech savvy. It’s no longer enough, if it was ever enough to be just a good lawyer, you have to be on top of, of all the trends, especially in those key sectors in which you operate. So for myself, construction infrastructure and the like.

And the other thing is, is that issues such as technology as well, we all need to be very forward thinking about that and do our best to adopt it and use it. Obviously with the correct safeguards in place, whether it’s from confidentiality and privacy perspective or just purely for the work product.

I think the last thing I’d say is one thing that’s perpetual and, and, and hasn’t changed is for, for disputes lawyers, the importance of soft skills. Of course, we, we’re all going to be in front of a counterparty at the negotiation table or during an arbitration or a litigation in front of a judge. So those soft skills are really, really important.

Is there anything set to disrupt the business landscape in Japan, and if so, how could this lead to potential disputes?

That’s a really interesting question. I think that if we look at again, going back to the geopolitical piece, the goal posts are constantly moving there, whether it’s as a matter of tariffs or sanctions or the priorities of countries and the and the companies within them, right.

So in in Japan, we see an increasing outward looking in terms of doing business with other countries and wanting to have a base and effectively hedging so to speak by having operations in other countries as well, whether that’s as a matter of currency or otherwise. And that increasing shareholder value is such an important point.

Now, with that in mind, doing business in in in a bigger number of countries means that naturally there’s going to be a higher exposure to disputes, especially cross-border disputes involving those countries. That then shapes questions of forum and how best to resolve disputes.

Of course, arbitration, the New York Convention is signed in in by almost all countries around the world. So that remains the safest invert commas way of getting enforceable remedies at the end of a dispute. But there also are considerations of the need for local courts, for example, with injunctive relief and stuff like that. So yeah, they’re kind of increasing globalisation, you might say, of of Japan and its large corporations.

What do you think are the biggest challenges that people face in their negotiations and conflicts, and what can people do to effectively overcome these?

From my experience here in Japan, a massive, massive roadblock with negotiations is usually misalignment. There is a massive place, I think for people to, to, to be thinking more about cultural sensitivities, what people commercially want to achieve and otherwise that can often, whether it’s a matter of language or expectations and there can be a breakdown there.

That continues to be, in my experience, a massive roadblock when it comes to these negotiations. Now, the way to get over those is, is another challenge. Obviously there’s the language piece, which is less and less an issue these days due to technology, but really understanding your counterparty’s cultural background and their commercial goals is, is really important.

And also when, when you are negotiating, thinking about, well, what is our bottom line here? What is their bottom line? And being very frank when it comes to these conversations, right? So not really holding back. We can, we can see with parties from some countries that they’re a little bit less frank. And what we see is that some kind sometimes that can lead to disputes later on down the line, whether that’s as a matter of the contract not reflecting what they actually wanted from the deal or AJV for example, when post M&A disputes around again a misalignment on objectives.

What advice would you offer to those who are just starting their careers in the legal field?

There always has to be a real foundation in contract and procedural law. I think that’s supposed supposedly and should be the given really. But I think to any young lawyer, especially those who are looking to practise internationally, really investing time in, in your commercial awareness, really getting to understand the clients that your firm work for and that you wish to work for is a really big thing.

In terms of then the international piece, that’s not, wasn’t my background before I came to Japan, but I’d say to anyone who, who is interested in that or was already in that process, being genuinely curious about other cultures and other business cultures as well as the just the, the, the culture of the country itself.

And also learn a language if you can. I wasn’t a languages guy before I moved to Japan. I’m now a semi fluent Japanese speaker. And then it’s hugely beneficial in terms of arbitration specifically though I would say really invest time as well in your advocacy, both written and an oral advocacy.

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped clients?

Sure. The the one that always springs to mind for me was really very complex and very high value dispute I dealt with not that long ago in which our client, the Japanese party was faced by a very, very aggressive counterparty. What happened is there have been a breakdown in the commercial relationship between the parties such that they were basically operating under a zombie contract, just a totally inoperative contract.

Both parties were very much entrenched in their position, obviously with a bit of bias towards our client’s side. There was a lot of toing and froing in correspondence, quite bad-tempered correspondence between the parties before we were instructed. At that point what we did and something I would always advise clients to do is conducted some real strong front-end analysis on both contracts and the background of the case just to make sure that that the position was both a strong one but also a consistent one through that.

We ended up then taking that position in correspondence and going on the record for the client. The tone never really changed from the counterparty who were who were represented again by a very aggressive legal counsel. Eventually however, and I think as a bit of a change from the the norm, our client came to a position where they just weren’t willing to tolerate the back and forth and they commenced arbitration at our behest for declaratory relief. So that is to say that their reading of the contract, our clients reading of the contract was correct as opposed to the other parties around six months into the litigation.

So fairly early on in the scheme of things, we received a very generous settlement offer from the counterparty for us to withdraw the arbitration. And the result of that settlement was exactly what our client was looking for in the 1st place, which was a termination of, of the agreement receiving their initial investment back and also an element of their legal costs. So again, this is to me a real testament to what happens if you do that proper front end analysis and yeah, and you have consistency in your position instead of going from pillar to post.

As an English lawyer in Japan and with your role with UK-Japan connect in mind, how do you see the outlook for UK-Japan relations moving forward.

So I’m very lucky through my role as the, the head of UK-Japan Connect on the Tokyo side, along with my counterpart, James Heller on the London side, to have a lot of engagement with both the private and public sector in Japan and really understand first hand from, from both governments what their priorities are in terms of trade between the countries These days.

Again, there’s a lot of talk of geopolitics, Japan and the UK, we, we’re both island nations. We have a very long history with one another and there’s a very long history of investment predominantly from Japan into the UK in, in the past, including outside of Tokyo. So if we think of Osaka and Manchester as a good example of that, everything that I hear and all the numbers I see suggests that there is increasing investment both into the UK from Japan and now out of the UK into Japan, which is really a positive thing. There is a desire on the Japan side for the current trade imbalance to be rectified and the Japanese government are looking to double investment in in from overseas into Japan in the coming years.

In terms of the UK and Japan specifically, as I say though, there are some certain areas where there is massive potential moving forward, whether that is in semiconductors, healthcare and life sciences, anything involving tech generally. So if we think of semiconductors as one example and there are huge partnerships to be had there. So we expect for the numbers to keep looking bright in the near future.

---