Mark was one of the leading barristers of his generation, as well as an inspirational Head of Chambers for 10 years. 

He was called to the Bar in 1979. He quickly established himself as a brilliant junior, both defending and prosecuting, and his practice encompassed traditional crime and heavy fraud.  He was appointed Junior Treasury Counsel in in 1994, a role in which he excelled. It is difficult to think of any criminal barrister whose approach was more calm, measured and effective.  While his practice as Treasury Counsel and, in due course, as First Senior Treasury Counsel included prosecuting the most serious and sensitive cases of the day, he was always sure of his ground, fair, robust and unflappable. It is no exaggeration to say that he was, by common consent, the most respected and admired prosecuting barrister of his generation.

Mark was also one of the most efficient lawyers you could ever hope to engage. He never postured, showed off or wasted time. Whether in preparation or in court, his aim was simply to understand his brief and to get to the point, qualities which are as undervalued as they are rare. It has been said of Mark that the cases he did, despite their scale, sensitivity and import, always turned out not to be very complex in the end. They seemed to present huge complexity – the Guinness fraud, the successful prosecution of two of the murderers of Stephen Lawrence, the first prosecution for statutory corporate manslaughter – and others would certainly have found them complex, but in Mark’s hands they somehow always ended up being quite simple. Such an unerring ability to locate what really matters and cut out the noise, valuable in every context, is perhaps most precious when prosecuting before a jury.

He brought the same focus and clarity of thought to his management of Chambers, first in a five year term as Chair of the Management Committee and then, from 2011 to 2021, as Head of Chambers. For those fifteen years he provided stability, guidance, wisdom and leadership. He laid the foundations for QEB as it is today, and we are all conscious of his legacy.

We will miss Mark enormously. We wish him a very happy retirement, together with Kate, their four children and their growing band of grandchildren.