5 Paper Buildings

Crime – corporate fraud and regulatory law; crime – general; civil – intellectual property and arbitration.

Expert in serious organised crime and fraud cases (especially those involving trademark and copyright infringement), murder, sexual offences and drug importation cases.

2017 saw Mark instructed in a series of high profile cases including;

• The Charlie Alliston ‘cycling case’ appearing on behalf of the Defence. This was a landmark case that lead directly to a review of the law. Alliston was acquitted of unlawful act manslaughter.
• The New Order case. Mark appeared on behalf of the bassist Peter Hook making a successful application for leave for a derivative claim in the Chancery Division regarding the trade mark for the pop group New Order.
• Operation Cleo – re HMRC ‘copycat’ type website. Mark appeared on behalf of the defence.

Appearing for the defence in a series of high profile murder cases;

• R v Field (acquittal of murder).
• R v Cameron (acquittal of murder).
• R v Piktorov (subject of an unsuccessful AG’s Reference).

Mark is an expert in serious organised crime and fraud cases (appointed as an approved Queen’s Counsel prosecutor with the Serious Fraud Office) and conducts trials for both defence and prosecution involving VAT frauds, murder, sexual offences and drug importation cases. Mark is an ‘Accredited Advocate’ for complex criminal cases (VHCC) with the Legal Services Commission.

Called 1983; Inner Temple; Silk 2009; founder and head of Chambers 2 Paper Buildings, Temple 1988-98; London Law Consortium programme organiser with American Bar Association accreditation 1991 to date; Visiting Professor of Law University of Iowa, College of Law 1995 to date; committee member Bar Standards Board 2006-10. 2010 – wrote the ADR scheme for the Music Publishers Association. Chair of the Disciplinary Appeals Committee, CIPFA (Accountancy regulatory body) 2010-13.

French.

Bar of England & Wales; Bar of Northern Ireland; Criminal Bar Association; Kent Bar Mess; MCI (Arb).

Abbotsfield School, Middlesex; Leicester Polytechnic (1982 BA Hons); Inns of Court School of Law (1983 Bar Finals); LSE (1988 LLM Commercial Law); ACI (Arb) (1988).

Founder of Club Ska Records and Films, bass player on numerous recordings including Laurel Aitken, curator of the Laurel Aitken exhibition New Walk Museum, Leicester, Executive Producer – ‘Football Factory’ [2005] and ‘Reign of the General’ [2014], writing sleeve notes for various music CD and DVD releases, writing articles for various sport and music periodicals, season-ticket holder at Chelsea Football Club, full member of the MCC and OMT’s.