Doran has over 40 years of experience as an English-qualified legal practitioner in London and Moscow. He has wide-ranging experience including as an in-house adviser during the formative years of international oil and gas industry legal practice in the UK from 1975 to 1985, the financial services regulatory restructuring in the City of London following Big Bang in 1986 and the hurly-burly years in the early and mid- ‘90s in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His experience includes being managing partner of the Moscow offices of two of the largest international law firms (Allen & Overy and Dentons). He has worked in civil law as well as common law jurisdictions and has long experience of dealing with business-related legal problems in transition

He has experience of M&A in the UK and Russia, including some of the largest M&A deals in Russia in 2004 (tobacco) and 2015-16 (oil). During the ‘00s, he managed one of the leading banking and finance legal practices in Russia. In March 2019, he reverted to his original profession as a barrister and returned to London to practice as an international arbitrator.