He was educated at the Boys' Grammar School in Ashby de la Zouch, and read modern history at Keble College, Oxford.
He also sang with the local Gilbert & Sullivan pursuing a love of music and singing that continued throughout his life with both choral societies and jazz bands.
Although the injunction was overturned by the Court of Appeal, his judgment was later upheld by the House of Lords and Douglas and Zeta-Jones won substantial damages.
He believed passionately in the importance of an independent professional bar and spent a great deal of his personal time in training of junior barristers.
He also believed in local justice and the James Hunt Library at Nottingham Trent University on the Midland & Oxford Circuit is named in his honour.