About
Rob undertook pupillage at Coram Chambers 2022-2023, supervised by Nick O’Brien, Greg Williams and Bianca Jackson. During his pupillage Rob experienced the full range of chambers’ work including all stages of care proceedings, private children law cases and financial remedy proceedings. Rob was taken on as a tenant in 2023 and became a door tenant in 2024.
Rob is currently pursuing a PhD in Law full-time at the University of Cambridge supervised by Professor Stephen Gilmore. His research explores judicial decision-making in care cases, specifically how judges decide whether or not to separate children from their parents where the section 31(2) threshold has been crossed. He is particularly interested in how judges do, and should, balance children’s best interests with theirs and their parents’ human rights, and in how the increased emphasis on parties’ human rights, post-Human Rights Act 1998, has impacted children and their rights.
Rob previously worked as a research assistant at the Law Commission of England and Wales on their ‘Building Families Through Surrogacy’ project. He has since developed a particular interest and expertise in surrogacy law and policy and has published on this area in the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law and the Modern Law Review.
Rob is also interested in the family justice system more broadly, and has co-authored two pieces on the family courts’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rob’s academic profile can be found here.
Education
PhD in Law, St John’s College, University of Cambridge (2024-2027)
Bar Practice Course, University of Law (Outstanding) (2021-2022)
LLM in Law and Social Justice, University College London (Distinction) (2019-2020)
BA (Hons) Jurisprudence, University College, University of Oxford (First Class) (2016-2019)
Scholarships and Prizes
PhD Studentship, St John’s College – Arts and Humanities Research Council (2024-2027)
Pupillage (‘Ann Goddard’) Scholarship, The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn (2023)
Bar Course (‘Wilfred Watson’) Scholarship, The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn (2020)
LLM Dean’s Scholarship, University College London (2019)
Alan Urbach Prize, University College, University of Oxford (2019)
Finalists’ Scholarship, University College, University of Oxford (2019)
Publications
Rob Marsh, ‘Non-Traditional Families and the Tenacity of Motherhood: Re C (Surrogacy: Consent) and Re Z (Surrogacy: Step-Parent Adoption)’ (2025) 88 MLR 598.
Rob George and Rob Marsh, ‘Keeping the Magic Alive: On Remote Hearings in the Family Court’, Magistrate (Autumn 2024) 33.
Rob George and Rob Marsh, ‘Do We Need Physical Family Courts?’ (2024) 46 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 59.
Rob Marsh, ‘The Significance of Section 20 after Re S and Re W [2023] EWCA Civ 1’ (2023) Family Law Week.
Rob Marsh, ‘Upholding the Dignity of Gay Men who are Prospective Parents: An Analysis of Adoption and Surrogacy Law’ (2022) 44 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 306.
Rob Marsh, ‘Surrogacy Breakdown, Birth Registration and Article 8: A Missed Opportunity in Strasbourg’ (2022) 44 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 529.
