Over thirty years James has arbitrated a wide range of commercial, contractual, and transactional disputes, including insurance indemnity, intellectual property, technology, Internet and ICT, construction law, commercial contracts, partnership, distributorship, negligence, professional regulatory law,

Issues in dispute have included matters of commercial contract and insurance law, construction law, international intellectual property rights, European and International law, International Arbitration Law, ADR, and regulatory matters. His experience spans appointment of arbitrators, issues of jurisdiction and international enforcement.

His work in 2021 includes acting as sole arbitrator in an international professional indemnity insurance dispute arbitration under the Irish Arbitration Act 2010 (UNCITRAL Model Law) and as sole arbitrator in a contract dispute in England pursuant to the English Arbitration Act 1996, between a local authority and a service provider.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Chartered Arbitrator, He is a member of the training faculty for international arbitration of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (“CIArb”) and has delivered training in international arbitration for the CIArb in the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Turkey and Georgia. Each year since 2007 he has convened the Dublin Forum on International Dispute Resolution – a high-level round table on developments in the field and has been designated as  Global Leader in international arbitration by Who’s Who Legal.

James acts as arbitrator and adjudicator in construction disputes. He has been appointed as a member of the Ministerial panel of construction adjudicators (Ireland). In the past three years James has been appointed as adjudicator in 15 construction disputes. He has also been appointed in high-value cases including as a single-member tribunal with over €30 million in dispute.

He holds a Graduate Diploma in Construction Law and Contract Administration (Trinity College Dublin) and has been appointed as member of the teaching faculty lecturing on the law of evidence in that course.

He has regularly been involved in both contentious and advisory matters involving patents, copyright, trade marks, registered designs and Internet domain names.

Since 2001, he has determined over 400 Internet domain name disputes, appointed by institutions including WIPO, NAF, the Czech Arbitration Centre, Nominet UK (gTLDs and ccTLDs) and the International Chamber of Commerce (new gTLDs).

His clients include Irish government departments from whom he has received instructions in patent, copyright, performers rights and trademark matters through the Office of the Attorney General.

Prior to commencing his arbitration practice he was an associate lawyer in a firm of Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys engaged in the prosecution of applications for patents, trademarks and registered designs, drafting and advising on technology transfer agreements and licensing and assignment of intellectual property licensing. He qualified as an Irish Registered Trade Marks Agent in 1992.

He is the author of a number of publications on intellectual property law including most recently the chapter on appointment of arbitrators in Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes Thomas Halkett ed. Juris Publishing Inc. New York. (Juris publishing, New York. March 2021) and the Ireland (.ie) chapter  in Domain Name Law and Practice (Torsten Bettinger ed.) pp. 527-554 Oxford  University Press (2005, 2nd ed 2015]

He is an accredited mediator (MII) and has been appointed mediator in intellectual property, commercial, contract, partnership, workplace and family disputes by appointment of parties and by appointment of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Geneva). His recent cases include assisting the parties to successfully resolve a dispute between a university and a company providing academic courses, and a dispute relating to rights over real property.

He is a past Vice-Chairman of the Mediators Institute of Ireland and is a member of the ADR Committee of the Bar Council of England & Wales and has been listed in The International Who's Who of Commercial Mediation 2013- 2015 as being among the world's leading commercial mediators. (http://whoswholegal.com/profiles/47092/0/bridgeman/james-bridgeman/)

Academic

• Trinity College, Dublin: B.A. (Mod.) History and Political Science
• Kings Inns, Dublin: Diploma in Legal Studies
• Kings Inns, Dublin: Barrister at Law
• Dublin Institute of Technology: Graduate Diploma in Arbitration Law
• Dublin Institute of Technology: Graduate Diploma in International Arbitration Law
• University College Dublin: Higher Diploma in European Law
• Trinity College, Dublin: Graduate  Diploma in Construction Law and Contract Administration [Bunni Medal]

Professional

• 1989 Barrister at Law (Ireland): Called to the Bar of Ireland.
• 1992 Registered Trade Marks Agent [Not presently practicing as a trade mark attorney].
• 1992 Associate Member of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
• 1998 Fellow of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
• 2005 Chartered Arbitrator
• 2010 Barrister at Law (England & Wales: Call to the Bar of England & Wales (Middle Temple)
• 2012 Accredited Mediator, Mediators Institute of Ireland
• 2017 Senior Counsel (SC)(Ireland): patent of precedence from the Government of Ireland
• 2019 Barrister at Law (Northern Ireland)

James is a member of numerous panels of arbitrators including;

• Panel of Arbitrators ICSID (nominated by the Government of Ireland)
• Panel of 15 arbitrators for the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation to the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Korea (Council Decision 2014/794/EU)
• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Panel of Chartered Arbitrators
• Beijing Arbitration Commission/ Beijing International Arbitration Center (BAC/BIAC) Panel of Arbitrators for International Investment Disputes
• ICDR Panel of Arbitrators
• HKIAC Panel of Arbitrators 
• QICCA Panel of Arbitrators
• Shanghai International Arbitration Commission Panel of Arbitrators 
• Abu Dhabi Global Markets Panel of Arbitrators 
• Arbitrator on the General List of the Court of Arbitration for Sport by the International Council for Arbitration for Sport (ICAS) Lausanne, Switzerland.
• National Contractual Disputes Panel (Construction Industry Federation, Ireland)
• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Irish Branch) Panel of Conciliators for Government Contracts
• Member of the Property Services Appeal Board, appointed by the Minister for Justice (Ireland)
• Member of the panel of adjudicators of construction disputes appointed by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Ireland)
• Law Society of Ireland Panel of Arbitrators
• Commercial Litigation Forum (CLF) Litigation Directory 2022 – Panel of Arbitrators
• World Intellectual Property Organisation, Geneva (Panel of Mediators/Arbitrators)
• National Arbitration Forum, USA. (Internet Domain Name Dispute Panel)
• Nominet UK, United Kingdom (Internet Domain Name Dispute Panel)
• ADNDRC Hong Kong/ China (Internet Domain Name Dispute Panel)
• Czech Arbitration Court, Prague (Internet Domain Name Dispute Panel)

Memberships

• Member of the Bar of England & Wales.
• Member of the Bar of Ireland.
• Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
• Member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).
• Member of the International Council for Civil Arbitration (ICCA).
• Member of the ICC Taskforce on the New York Convention.
• Honorary Member of the Board of the Georgian International Arbitration Centre.
• Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators.
• Freeman of the City of London.
• Honorary Consul of Georgia in Ireland.

Articles

• Arbitrator 101. Toolkit for ADR. Counsel magazine published by the Bar Council of England and Wales. July 2021.
• The Uncitral Transparency Rules 2014 for Investor State Dispute Settlement and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Negotiations. ADR and Arbitration Review Vol 1, Issue 1, November 2015]
• Arbitration or the Commercial Court? End Game Resolution of Intellectual Property Disputes in Ireland. ARBITRATION Vol 76. No. 4 (2010) 626
• The Arbitrability of Competition Law Disputes 19 European Business Law Review (2008) pp. 147-174

Recent eBook Chapter

• Promoting Further Mediation (J El Ahdab, J Tirado ed.) Chapter 5 IRELAND ( eBook) International Bar Association. April 2015.

Recent Book Chapters

• Domain Name Law and Practice (Torsten Bettinger ed.) Ireland (.ie) chapter pp. 527-554 Oxford  University Press (2005, 2nd ed 2015] [ISBN-10: 0199278253, ISBN 978-0-19-966316-3]
• Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes Thomas Halkett ed. Juris Publishing Inc. New York. Contributor. (Juris publishing, New York. March 2021)

Recent Relevant Conference Presentations

• “Should (Sitting) Judges Mediate?”  at the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Commonwealth Mediation Conference 2022, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 18-20 May 2022
• Arbitration in Construction Disputes During Covid and Beyond. Qatar International Centre for  Conciliation and Arbitration conference on Wednesday 30 June 2021
• Keynote Lecture: Current issues in international commercial arbitration, direction of travel and a role for Scotland. Faculty of Advocates of Scotland, Arbitration Conference. Edinburgh 17 May 2019.
• The Status of the CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, a free-trade agreement between Canada, the European Union and its member states), CIArb North America Branch Conference on Investor State Dispute Settlement in Washington DC on 13 September 2018.
• Transparency In Investor State Dispute Settlement – the UNCITRAL Transparency Rules 2014, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Centenary Conference Dublin 9 October 2015

James Bridgeman is listed in Who’s Who Legal – Global Leaders 2021