Masters of the Bench

Belinda Bucknall was educated at St. Helen & St Katharine’s School for Girls, Abingdon and St Anne’s College, Oxford,  where  she took Honours in Jurisprudence. While at Oxford she worked for Sir Rupert Cross, the Vinerian Professor of English Law at All Soul’s College, who taught her everything she ever knew about Roman law. She took Silk in 1988 and was elected a Bencher in 1996.

She currently works as an arbitrator from Quadrant Chambers, 10 Fleet Street, London. Her practice as a shipping barrister involved disputes arising out of collisions between ships and between ships and other objects (frequently lighthouses), cargo damage, ship and superyacht construction, ship and superyacht charterparties, shipboard fires, marine insurance, personal injury and death arising from marine accidents and salvage and wreck removal. She also acted as a salvage arbitrator in a large number of cases. In addition to her practice as a barrister she acted as a Crown Court Recorder (crime) and a Deputy High Court Judge (Admiralty & Administrative law).

During her career at the Bar, Belinda participated in a number of shipping inquiries, including those into the loss of the Penlee lifeboat, the MFV Boston Sea Ranger, the tall ship Marques, The Herald of Free Enterprise and the Derbyshire. She has appeared on television to speak on shipping matters. She is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights and a Life Governor of the RNLI. She drafted the first plain language yacht insurance policy and rather nervously insures her own 1932 Thames Conservancy inspection launch on its terms.

Her current arbitration and mediation practice  covers the same areas as her former barrister’s practice.

She cites her recreations as canoeing, camping and white- water rafting,  particularly  in the Arctic regions of Canada where she spent 12 consecutive summers. She was until recently an enthusiastic ice-skater.