Robert Watt

Robert joined Maitland in September 2024 following the successful completion of his pupillage under the supervision of Oliver Phillips, Jonathan Allcock, Gabriella McNicholas and Tim Calland. He is developing a broad commercial chancery practice and accepts instructions across all of Chambers’ practice areas, including company and insolvency, property, commercial litigation and civil fraud.

Before coming to the Bar, Robert worked as a university lecturer and researcher in philosophy. Between 2012 and 2016 he was a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford. Between 2016 and 2019 he was a lecturer at the University of Cambridge and between 2019 and 2020 he was a lecturer at the University of Oxford, attached to Trinity College.

During his legal studies, Robert discovered a passion for oral advocacy. He won the Inner Temple Intervarsity Moot, the ESU/Essex Court National Mooting Competition and the Landmark Chambers Judicial Review Mooting Competition, all in the same year. He went on to represent the United Kingdom in the Commonwealth Law Moot, defeating the Indian team in the final.

Robert took a first-class undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford. He then moved to Balliol College, where he passed the BPhil (the University of Oxford’s flagship postgraduate degree in philosophy) with distinction and the DPhil with no corrections.