Legal Cheek Careers sits down with Hill Dickinson’s Dominic Bulfin to talk career journey, commercial awareness and what it’s like working with billionaires
“I knew from the start that I wanted to go into maritime law,” says Dominic Bulfin, a legal director at Hill Dickinson who specialises in superyacht law focused on transactional work, including superyacht sale and purchase, construction and refit.“With a sailing background it was either work on boats or work close to boats — so I chose the latter.” Having grown up sailing, Bulfin was determined to keep boats in his life through his career. Breaking into this niche area of law, however, was far from straightforward.
He finished law school in 2013 without a training contract and was forced to double down on networking and seize opportunities wherever he could. One such opportunity arose during London Shipping Law Week. Bulfin attended various events with the aim of meeting people in the industry. With his confidence at a low, he forced himself to go to one final event and, as he was leaving, quite literally turned around and collided with an associate from Hill Dickinson. They struck up a conversation which led to a successful interview and starting work as a legal administration assistant at the firm. “It was pure luck that I bumped into the one stranger with a job opportunity, but it only happened because I’d made the decision to go in the first place,” he reflects. The chance encounter proved that simply showing up can sometimes lead to a major break.
That first role gave Bulfin a foot in the door at Hill Dickinson, but after a year in the job he was unsuccessful in securing a training contract at the firm, due to the requirements of the process at the time. Rather than abandoning maritime law, he leaned on his growing network and identified a paralegal opportunity at Clyde & Co. Bulfin took the risk of leaving a permanent role for a temporary contract assisting in the final months of a large shipping arbitration matter, but the risk paid off as he soon secured a training contract there in 2015.
At Clydes, Bulfin gained broad maritime training and worked on his first yacht transactions. After qualifying, however, his work remained focused on traditional shipping and finance, with less access to yachting matters than he had hoped. About a year post-qualification, he made the leap to Bargate Murray, a boutique firm where his practice became “100% yacht” almost overnight. He spent five years there refining his expertise before an opportunity arose in early 2024 to return to Hill Dickinson.
Asked why he returned, he points to the firm’s superyacht team, which he describes as “the market leader worldwide”. The breadth and quality of work on offer proved impossible to resist.
Since coming back, Bulfin has been pleasantly surprised by how supportive the firm’s culture is. “People don’t believe me when I say how pleasant and respectful a culture there is here,” he says, noting the common assumption that top-tier work must come with a cut-throat environment. “People think high-end work must mean a really fierce atmosphere… It simply isn’t the case here at Hill Dickinson.” He adds that the culture has become even more positive over time, thanks to colleagues who have grown with the firm and preserved a “very friendly atmosphere”. While delivering for the client is a given, Bulfin is clear that excellence does not require hostility. “To be the best at something doesn’t mean you also have to be difficult. You can do it in a friendly and respectful way.”
That ethos is reflected in the firm’s day-to-day working life. There is little stuffy formality and a strong sense of mutual respect across all levels. Bulfin has encountered more “old-school mentalities” elsewhere, where senior lawyers who endured tough training feel compelled to put the next generation through the same experience. Hill Dickinson has consciously broken that cycle. “Here it’s the very opposite,” he stresses.
When hiring trainees and junior lawyers, Bulfin says “technical ability” is only the starting point. “Those criteria are not what matter once you’re in,” he explains. “What interviewers really want to assess is whether someone is hard-working, collaborative, a team player with good values and cultural fit”. Each new hire shapes the team’s dynamic, so alignment with the firm’s values matters.
In the superyacht sector in particular, lawyers must also have the confidence to work with ultra-high-net-worth clients and their representatives. Bulfin did not enter the superyacht industry with any family or personal connections in the ultra-high-net worth space. “You don’t need to be someone’s son or daughter” to succeed, he says, but presentation and substance does matter. Lawyers may find themselves networking at events like the Monaco Yacht Show, attending meetings in some of the most exclusive venues in the world and representing the firm to billionaire clients. “It’s not about being posh or coming from a wealthy background. You can be whoever you are, but you have to understand how to conduct yourself and interact appropriately in the different environments you might find yourself in,” he explains.
Alongside professionalism, basic decency is non-negotiable. “In the firm more generally, it is: are you nice?” Bulfin says. By this, he does not mean being a pushover but treating colleagues with respect and staying calm under pressure. He has worked under exceptionally talented lawyers whose behaviour became toxic as work pressure increased, an attitude Hill Dickinson does not tolerate. As Bulfin puts it, “I had to go through it; I don’t want you to go through it!” Supportiveness and respect are part of the skillset, not optional extras.
The conversation then turns to the well-worn concept of commercial awareness. In the context of superyacht law, Bulfin’s definition is simple. Lawyers must know their industry. “The background knowledge in this particular industry is as important as anything else,” he says. Aspiring yacht lawyers should understand who the key players are, which shipyards are active, and what technologies are emerging. This kind of soft knowledge builds credibility as a trusted adviser. The primary job is to provide legal advice, but that can only be done effectively with a solid understanding of the client’s world.
“At the very least you’ve got to have an idea what the dollar is doing. You’ve got to be up to speed on global business and geopolitics,” Bulfin adds. Global events can have a direct impact on the superyacht market. The war in Ukraine, for example, had a “huge footprint”. Around 10% of superyacht owners were Russian, and most people in the industry would have had some nexus to at least one Russian-owned yacht; sanctions effectively froze that segment of the market, forcing lawyers to approach due diligence with even greater caution than before. By contrast, Covid unexpectedly fuelled a boom. With mainstream travel restricted, yacht sales between 2020 and 2022 “shot through the roof” as the ultra-wealthy sought privacy at sea.
Superyacht law might be seen by some as what Bulfin refers to as “toys for super rich people”, but those clients “live in a different stratosphere to the rest of us”, meaning global events inevitably shape their decisions, and their decisions can shape global events. Lawyers in this field quickly learn to keep a close eye on the wider news agenda.
Bulfin’s own journey into law highlights the importance of persistence, networking and staying true to personal interests. Having worked alongside leading figures in his field, he believes technical ability and hard work are only the foundation. To truly thrive, “it’s the soft skills that make the difference.”
Dominic Bulfin will be speaking at ‘Commercial awareness trends for 2026: Cross-industry insights with Hill Dickinson’, a virtual student event taking place THIS WEEK on Thursday 8 January. APPLY NOW!
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