Mark Potter (judge)

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The Rt Hon Sir Mark Howard Potter (born 27 August 1937) is a British judge. He is currently President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice, a position he has held since the beginning of April 2005.

Contents 1 Education 2 Legal career 3 Cases 4 Controversy 5 Life

[edit] Education

The son of the distinguished legal academic Professor Harold Potter, he went to The Perse School in Cambridge and on to read law at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He is now Honorary Fellow of Caius.

[edit] Legal career

He was called to the bar in 1961 and practised in commercial law at Fountain Court chambers. He took silk in 1980.

From 1988 to 1996 he was a Judge of the High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division and from 1991 to 1994 he was a Presiding Judge on the Northern Circuit.

Sir Mark was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1996.

Throughout his judicial career, Sir Mark has sat on various committees overseeing the direction of the Bar. He has been Chairman of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education (1998-1999) and Chairman of the Legal Services Advisory Panel.

He was elected Treasurer of Gray's Inn for the year 2004/05, during which time he persuaded the then Interior Minister and subsequent Prime Minister of France, Dominique de Villepin, to become an honorary Bencher of the Inn. De Villepin accepted the honour in person with a speech in Gray's Inn.

[edit] Cases

In July 2006, Sir Mark ruled against Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson, a lesbian couple who had wed in Canada, in their case to have their same sex partnership recognised as "marriage" under English law.

Sir Mark held that, in withholding from same sex partnerships the title and status of marriage, Parliament had not interfered with or failed to recognise the right of same sex couples to respect for their private or family life; nor had it discriminated against same sex couples in declining to alter the deep-rooted and almost universal recognition of marriage as a union between a man and woman. However, Sir Mark granted the couple leave to appeal.

[edit] Controversy

It was reported in 2007[1] that Potter provided a character reference for barrister Bruce Hyman after Hyman pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in the Family Court.

[edit] Life

Sir Mark is a Trustee of Somerset House in London. He is married and has two children.