Our Barristers

Robert Bellin

Call: 2019

New Square Chambers is a highly regarded and well-known set of chambers with considerable breadth and depth of skill in its chosen areas.” “New Square go above and beyond at all levels. Personable, responsive and cost effective. Juniors are a cut above.Legal 500, 2024
New Square Chambers is an excellent set of chambers and go-to set for contentious trusts and estates work. Both senior and junior counsel are responsive, hardworking and thorough in their preparation.Legal 500, 2024
New Square Chambers have excellent strength and depth in chancery matters, with a good spread of expertise in traditional chancery trusts, company, insolvency, property and increasingly off shore capabilities.Legal 500, 2023
Members of the set are authors of go-to guides and publications, and host notable events including conferences attended by hundreds of practising solicitors and barristers.Chambers UK Bar, 2023
New Square are a first-class set. I use many of their juniors, all of which are extremely experienced and knowledgable.Legal 500, 2023
Counsel provide a prompt and exceptional service. Chambers UK Bar, 2023

Overview
On successful completion of a third six pupillage, Robert became a tenant of New Square Chambers in May 2023.

He completed his 12-month pupillage at Essex Court Chambers. Robert accepts instructions across all areas of commercial, insolvency, company and civil fraud work. From 2021-2022, Robert worked as the Judicial Assistant to Lord Hamblen and Lord Leggatt at the Supreme Court.

While at the Court, Robert assisted on several significant cases, including:
- Guest v Guest [2022] UKSC 27 (proprietary estoppel).
- Gol Linhas Aereas SA v MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities Partners (Cayman) and others [2022] UKPC 21 (refusal to recognise and enforce an arbitral award under article V of the New York Convention).
- Royal Bank of Scotland International v JP SPC 4 and another [2022] UKPC 18 (whether a bank’s Quincecare duty could be extended to a duty of care owed in tort to the beneficiary of an account known by the bank to be a trust account).
Before starting pupillage, Robert taught Contract, Administrative and Roman law at the University of Oxford and was a teaching fellow in contract law at UCL. At the same time, he completed a DPhil with a thesis exploring possible legal methods for regulating stored human genetic material. Robert has a BA in Law (First), BCL (Distinction), and MPhil from the University of Oxford. He also holds an LLM from Harvard Law School. At Oxford, Robert won numerous mooting competitions, including the Shearman & Sterling and Maitland Chambers Intercollegiate Moots, and volunteered with Lawyers Without Borders in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He also won The Times 2TG Moot in 2019.
Commercial Litigation
Examples of the work Robert has undertaken during pupillage include:
- Assisting during the trial of National Bank Trust v Ilya Yurov and others [2020] EWHC 100 (Comm), including notes on several points of law, including proving foreign law in an English court, and drafting a section of the closing written submissions.
- Skeleton arguments in several arbitration cases, including a GAFTA arbitration about non-payment following shipment delivery.
- A multi-party, multi-contract pleading in a case concerning non-payment of operating costs under four separate Joint Operating Agreements concerning North Sea Oil Fields.
- Notes on the prevention principle and the doctrine of good faith in an arbitration concerning breach of contract claims in the construction of a drillship.
- An opinion advising a reinsurer regarding two excess of loss reinsurance contracts where the reinsurer sought to increase its recoveries by reallocating them across its outwards reinsurance programme.
- An opinion advising on an insurance claim arising out of the casualty and subsequent towage of a Panamax bulk carrier.
- A permission to appeal application to the Supreme Court in a case concerning the correct treatment of VAT repayments to VAT Groups in domestic law.
- An advice concerning the ‘wind down costs’ due pursuant to an Insurance Intermediary Administration Agreement.
Insolvency
Examples of the work Robert has undertaken during pupillage include:·
- Appearing for a hearing in the Winders List.
- An opinion regarding the court’s power to remove a voluntary liquidator under s.108(2) Insolvency Act ’86.
- An opinion regarding the anti-deprivation principle in the context of an ongoing dispute between two airlines about take-off and landing slots at an English airport.
- An opinion concerning the administration / liquidation of a failed collective property investment scheme including the doctrine of disclaimer of onerous property, an unauthorised collective investment scheme, and sham transactions.
- A skeleton argument for the disposal hearing of a claim which challenged the validity of a charge secured over a property on the basis that it was a sham arrangement or a transaction designed to defraud creditors.
- An opinion in a bankruptcy case concerning the recovery of assets allegedly hidden in a Luxembourg Family Foundation.
Civil Fraud
- Assisting during the trial of National Bank Trust v Ilya Yurov and others [2020] EWHC 100 (Comm), including notes on several points of law, including proving foreign law in an English court, and drafting a section of the closing written submissions.
- An opinion in a bankruptcy case concerning the recovery of assets allegedly hidden in a Luxembourg Family Foundation.
- An opinion concerning the administration / liquidation of a failed collective property investment scheme including the doctrine of disclaimer of onerous property, an unauthorised collective investment scheme and sham transactions.
- Assisting with a claim for pre-emptive remedies and a worldwide freezing injunction in a claim disputing ownership of significant quantity of Bitcoin.
- A skeleton argument for the disposal hearing of a claim which challenged the validity of a charge secured over a property on the basis that it was a sham arrangement or a transaction designed to defraud creditors.
- A lengthy opinion on potential claims in conspiracy and inducing breach of contract against a company in breach of an arbitration agreement.
- A note on the requirements for granting interim and final injunctions against Persons Unknown.
Company & Partnership
Examples of the work Robert has undertaken during pupillage include:
- Drafting a Reply in a case concerned with claims between different companies in the same family enterprise. The case primarily concerned the law of agency and breach of fiduciary duty.
- Drafting unfair prejudice petitions.
Qualifications / Education
- BA Law, Balliol College, Oxford: First Class
- Bachelor of Civil Law, Balliol College, Oxford: Distinction
- MPhil Law, Balliol College, Oxford
- LLM, Harvard Law School
- DPhil, Balliol College, Oxford
- BPTC, The University of Law: Very Competent
Awards
- BCL Subject Prize for Best Performance
- Arts and Humanities Research Council DPhil Scholarship
- Winner, Gray’s Inn Moot 2009
- Winner, Holdsworth Moot 2010
- Winner, Oxford Maitland (Cuppers) Mooting Competition 2010
- Winner, Shearman and Sterling Moot 2012
- Winner, The Times (2TG) National Mooting Competition 2018-2019
- University of Law Advocacy Scholar
Professional appointments
- Stipendiary Lecturer in Law teaching Contract, Administrative and Roman Law, Worcester College, Oxford
- Stipendiary Lecturer in Law teaching Contract, Administrative and Roman Law, Mansfield College, Oxford
- Teaching Fellow in Contract Law, UCL
- Tutor in Contract Law, Mansfield College, Oxford
- Pupil, Essex Court Chambers
- Judicial Assistant to Lord Hamblen of Kersey and Lord Leggatt at the Supreme Court, 2021-2022