The Right Honourable Sir Mark Potter FKC |
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President of the Family Division | |
In office 7 April 2005 – 5 April 2010 |
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Nominated by | Gordon Brown |
Appointed by | Elizabeth II |
Preceded by | Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss |
Succeeded by | Sir Nicholas Wall |
Personal details | |
Born | 27 August 1937 (age 80) |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
Sir Mark Howard Potter PC FKC (born 27 August 1937) is a retired English judge who was President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice for England and Wales from 7 April 2005 to 5 April 2010.
The son of the legal academic Professor Harold Potter, he attended The Perse School Cambridge and read law at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He is now an Honorary Fellow of Caius.
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. Potter was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1996 and became President of the Family Division in April 2005. Throughout his judicial career, Potter sat on various committees overseeing the direction of the Bar. He was Chairman of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (1998–1999) and Chairman of the Legal Services Consultative Panel.
Potter was elected Treasurer of Gray's Inn for the year 2004/05.
Potter retired as a judge of the Court of Appeal, President of the High Court Family Division and President of the Court of Protection in April 2010. He returned to the field of commercial Law as an arbitrator at Fountain Court chambers, with appointments in areas such as insurance, international share purchase agreements including Bermuda form and energy disputes.
In July 2006, Potter ruled against Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson, a lesbian couple who had married in Canada, in their case to have their same-sex partnership recognised as marriage under English law.