John Domingue

General Experience and Corporate Advising Work

John Domingue comes from a business background and possesses experience in resolving real-world business problems and issues.  Mr. Domingue has a broad range of legal experience.

He began his legal practice in employment law, and has a working understanding of employer-employee issues and currently represents a number of clients in this area almost exclusively on the employer side.  Mr. Domingue has also practiced extensively in the areas of business, real estate, and trust litigation.

For over 25 years, Mr. Domingue has handled a broad range of litigation matters with a focus on high-level cases.  He has handled multiple eight-figure trust, construction, business, and real estate matters. He has notable deposition, law and motion, and trial experience, as well as experience in negotiating settlements without litigation.

After doing litigation almost exclusively for the first 15 years of his practice, Mr. Domingue has transitioned a large portion of his practice to transactional work.  His litigation experience brings a valuable perspective that many transactional attorneys do not have. Representative clients include property owners, general contractors, established Silicon Valley businesses, and start-ups for which Mr. Domingue provides employment and drafting of key documents commonly needed by established and early-stage companies.  In addition, Mr. Domingue has specific areas of expertise with construction and many real-estate-related transactions.

The combination of Mr. Domingue’s transactional and litigation background within a broad range of contexts has positioned him well for advising work, which is a growing area of his practice.  He has served and currently serves as general counsel for a number of privately-held companies that lack a legal department.

Specific Experience

Mr. Domingue has handled a broad range of litigation cases.  If there is a wrong to be righted or a cause to be defended, he is anxious to take it on aggressively.  While Mr. Domingue has experience in all areas in which the firm practices litigation, there are a few areas where he has extensive experience.  These include general business litigation, trust litigation, adjoining landowner disputes, construction-related disputes, and real property cases.

In addition to his work in the courtroom, Mr. Domingue is a Professor of Law at Lincoln Law School where he has taught Civil Procedure and Advanced Legal Writing.  He is well-versed in both state and federal procedural laws, compliance with which is critical to the successful outcome of any lawsuit.

Alternative Dispute Resolution Experience

For over ten years, Mr. Domingue has served as an alternative dispute provider (arbitration/mediation) for the Santa Clara County Bar Association and the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Mr. Domingue has experience adjudicating cases as a binding arbitrator or assisting parties in reaching an informal settlement of their dispute.  As an arbitrator, Mr. Domingue is able to use his litigation and other experience to quickly understand the essence of the dispute, fairly hear the evidence, and render a reasoned decision. In several instances, litigants have accepted his findings as a final resolution of their case even though the process was non-binding.  As a mediator, Mr. Domingue favors an evaluative approach (where the parties receive an assessment about the strengths and weaknesses of their case), but uses his case analysis in a facilitative way to help the parties arrive at an acceptable resolution.

ARTICLES/PUBLICATIONS

• A feature article on Judge William Martin which includes several quotes by Mr. Domingue

ACTIVITIES/MEMBERSHIPS

• Santa Clara County Bar Association, Fee Arbitrator, 2000 – present