Fiona Murphy KC > Doughty Street Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Doughty Street Chambers Offices
53-54 DOUGHTY STREET
LONDON
WC1N 2LS
England
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Fiona Murphy KC
Work Department
Position
Fiona Murphy is Joint Deputy Head of Chambers and is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers & Partners 2020 in Police Law and Band 2 in Inquest and Inquiries work.
Career
2013 (1993 – Solicitor, England and Wales)
Fiona Murphy is Joint Deputy Head of Chambers and co-chair of our management board.
Fiona specialises in regulatory work including civil claims against public authorities, judicial review and inquest and inquiry work. She has expertise in both private and public law and represents individuals who seek redress for violations of their human rights.
Many of Fiona’s cases are high-profile: she is currently instructed in the ongoing inquests and public inquiries into the controversial deaths following police restraint of Dalian Atkinson, Darren Cumberbatch and Shane Bryant and the police shootings of Jermaine Baker and Anthony Grainger. She represented 70 individuals in relation to phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and is currently representing several women deceived into entering abusive sexual relationships by undercover police officers in relation to their civil claim and before the Undercover Policing Inquiry. She acted for 77 of the families bereaved by the Hillsborough Disaster at the new inquests and is a member of the claimant counsel team in the ongoing group litigation for misfeasance in public office against South Yorkshire Police.
Fiona has a particular interest in remedies to address violence against women and is currently instructed in a number of cases concerning failures by the police to protect victims.
Fiona was one of the founders of leading police law specialist solicitors’ practice, Bhatt Murphy and gained 20 years’ experience as a solicitor conducting complex litigation before transferring to the bar in 2013.
Outside the courts, Fiona has contributed to various inquiries and reviews including the 1997 Butler Inquiry (concerning the handling of deaths in custody by the CPS), the 1997 European Committee on the Prevention of Torture’s investigation into the United Kingdom’s compliance and the United Nations.
Fiona co-presents the annual advanced Actions Against the Police and advanced Inquests Law courses run by the Legal Action Group.
Memberships
Police Actions Lawyers Group
Inquest Lawyers Group
Association of Personal Injury Lawyers
Education
LLB, London School of Economics
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Inquests and inquiries
(2023 Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Fiona Murphy KC – Doughty Street Chambers ‘A very effective advocate for her client’s interests: forensically smart and a class act.’
With a ‘reputation as leaders in their field’, the members at Doughty Street Chambers have longstanding experience representing bereaved families: Nick Brown is instructed for the family of the deceased in the inquest touching the death of Aliny Godhino, a woman stabbed to death by her husband in the street outside her children’s school after reporting her fears to the police. Tom Stoate is instructed as senior junior counsel to the Covid Inquiry. Alison Gerry is particularly experienced in inquests concerning deaths following contact with police, also an area of expertise of Fiona Murphy KC. Farrhat Arshad KC took silk in March 2024.
London Bar > Police law (claimant)
(2023 Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Fiona Murphy KC – Doughty Street Chambers ‘Fiona is a powerful advocate with a huge knowledge of the law, tenacious and determined. One of the stand-out individuals in actions against the police practice.’
‘One of the leading sets in claimant police law’, Doughty Street Chambers draws on its wealth of experience in human rights and public law to handle the most complex police law cases, both at first instance and on appeal. A number of members represent core participants of the high-profile Undercover Policing Inquiry, which continues to unfold this year with opening statements and the second phase of evidence. In June 2024 Nicholas Bowen KC will appear before the Supreme Court in Tindall v Thames Valley Police, with the outcome determining if the Court of Appeal erred in finding the police did not owe road users a duty of care to protect them from harm. Adam Straw KC is ‘one of the best claimant silks out there’ and represents the family of Sean Fitzgerald, who was fatally shot by a police officer, in the on-going inquest and civil claim for damages against the police. Fiona Murphy KC and Nick Brown remain involved in the Hillsborough Victims Misfeasance Litigation.