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Kabir Bhalla is an associate and barrister in the London office of King & Spalding. A member of the firm’s International Arbitration and Litigation group, Kabir has appeared as counsel before the Privy Council, Court of Appeal, High Court and Employment Appeal Tribunal, and has acted in numerous ICC, LCIA and LMAA arbitrations, in the energy sector and beyond.
Prior to joining King & Spalding, Kabir worked as a barrister at two of the leading sets of London commercial barristers’ chambers; 20 Essex Street and 11 King’s Bench Walk. He has a particular interest in the shipping, oil & gas and commodities sectors, in both arbitration and arbitration-related litigation. He has advised and appeared in significant disputes involving major international energy companies, such as the landmark Ocensa pipeline litigation in the English High Court.
From 2015-2016 he was Judicial Assistant (Law Clerk) to Lord Sumption and Lord Clarke at the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the Privy Council, where he worked on high-profile commercial and public and private international law matters, including the leading cases on penalty clauses (Cavendish Square Holding BV v El Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67), implied terms (Marks and Spencer Plc v BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust (Jersey) Ltd [2015] UKSC 72), and the foreign act of state doctrine and state immunity (Belhaj and anr. v Straw and ors. [2017] 2 WLR 456).
Kabir graduated with a starred first-class degree in History from the University of Oxford, winning a Gibbs Prize for academic achievement. He subsequently undertook the Graduate Diploma in Law and Bar Course at City Law School in London, placing second in his year for commercial law. Awarded a Lord Diplock Scholarship by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, he represented the Inn at the 21st Willem C. Vis. International Commercial Arbitration Moot, coached by Stewart Boyd CBE QC. He has also held a Guest Fellowship at the National Law University of India, Jodhpur, where he has lectured in international arbitration law and practice.
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