Born and raised in Bucks, Dom went to Dr Challoners Grammar School in Amersham.
He studied law at Oxford and for a Masters at Cambridge, winning the Clive Parry Prize for International Law. Outside the lecture halls, Dom captained the university karate team and boxed.
Law in the City
Dom started his career as an international lawyer at Linklaters, a law firm in the City, working on project finance, international litigation and competition law. He also spent time on secondments at Liberty (the human rights NGO) and in Brussels advising on EU and WTO law.
Joining the Diplomatic Service
In 2000, Dom joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He advised on a wide range of briefs, including UK investor protection, maritime issues, counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism, the UK overseas territories and the international law of outer space.
In 2003, he was posted to The Hague to head up a new team, focused on bringing war criminals - including Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Charles Taylor - to justice. On return to London, he advised on the Arab-Israeli conflict, EU law and Gibraltar.
House of Commons
Dom left the FCO in 2006, and worked for three years as Chief of Staff to respective Shadow Home and Justice Secretaries, advising in the House of Commons on crime, policing, immigration, counter-terrorism, human rights and constitutional reform.
On 21 November 2009, in one of the largest ‘open primaries’ held to date, Dom was selected to represent the Conservatives in Esher and Walton. On May 6 2010, he was elected MP with 59% of the vote, increasing the Conservative majority by 13% with a turnout of 72%.
In 2011, Dom was voted ‘Newcomer of the Year’ at The Spectator’s annual Parliamentarian of the Year Awards. Between 2010 and 2015, he served on the Joint Committee on Human Rights and Education Select Committee. He also led a range of national campaigns promoting free enterprise, liberty and human rights reform, and in 2014 Dom published The Meritocrat’s Manifesto. Dom was re-elected in 2015 with a majority of 28,616, and made a Justice Minister in David Cameron’s government.
Author
In January 2009, Dom published his first book, The Assault on Liberty - What Went Wrong with Rights (Fourth Estate), criticising Labour’s approach to human rights and making the case for British Bill of Rights.
In October 2011, Dom co-authored After the Coalition, setting out a Conservative vision for Britain. In September 2012, he co-authored Britannia Unchained, setting out the key challenges the country faces to compete in a globalised economy in the twenty-first century. In 2014, he published Britain, Tomorrow - the case for free enterprise, liberty and meritocracy.
Dom has written regularly as a guest columnist for various newspapers - from the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times to The Daily Mail and The Sun on Sunday.
Travel
Dom has visited, studied and worked across Europe, the US, Latin America and Asia.
He is particularly interested in the Middle East, having
studied and worked in Israel and the West Bank, and travelled around Egypt and Pakistan. In 1998, Dom spent a summer at Birzeit university (near Ramallah), and worked for one of the principal Palestinian negotiators of the Oslo peace accords, assessing World Bank projects on the West Bank.
Other Interests
Outside work, Dom holds a black belt 3rd Dan in karate (former UK Southern Regions champion and British squad member). He still trains at his local boxing club, The Foley ABC.
Dom is married to Erika. They live in Thames Ditton, Surrey, with their two sons, Peter and Joshua.