Martin Porter KC

Call 1986 | Silk 2006

“A top-class advocate.”

Chambers UK 2025

Expertise

Martin regularly appears in complex clinical negligence actions, most frequently for the defendant. He is recommended by Legal 500 as a leading clinical negligence Silk with the comment that he is “a regular fixture” in the appellate courts, and by Chambers UK as bright and adaptable in defending negligent surgery claims.

Martin also has extensive experience of appearing before the GMC Professional Conduct Committee and advising doctors and dentists facing disciplinary proceedings. He has been appointed a Legal Assessor by the GMC.

A leading personal injury silk with particular experience of high value brain damage cases and industrial disease. With his professional performance noted by the directories for over 20 years, Martin was, for example, complimented on his “amazing capacity to absorb huge amounts of background information”. He has a particular interest in cycling and other sports-related claims.

Martin has extensive exposure of product liability work particularly in relation to bicycles or other mechanical equipment and also medical devices often with a cross border aspect.

Martin is experienced in public law and Judicial Review with particular interest in the liability of public bodies when exercising their statutory functions with expert experience in all cycling and recreational related public law matters with particular experience challenging Public Spaces Protection Orders.

Martin has broad experience of sport-related personal injury claims.

He also has specialised knowledge of sports regulation in relation to cycling and in the application of statute law relating to cycling accidents, in particular, the wearing of helmets, liability and contributory negligence.

In the last two years he has acted for national sporting bodies, sports clubs, individuals organising sports events and people injured whilst playing or participating.

Martin himself competed regularly in cycling road races for many years.

Significant Cases


Brazier v Surrey County Council (2019)

High Court. Fatal cycling claim.


Summers v Richmond LBC (2018)

Admin Court. Challenge to Public Spaces Protection Orders.


Warren v Harvey (2016)

Court of Appeal of Bermuda. Appropriate discount rate.


Lillington v Dr Ansell (2016)

High Court. Successful defence of GP in a hyponatremia case.


FB v Dr Rana (2015)

High Court. Successful defence of GP in a meningitis case.


Chief Constable of Hampshire v Southampton City Council (2014)

Court of Appeal. Limitation in contribution claims.


Downing v Peterborough & Stamford Hospitals NHS Trust (2014)

High Court. Quantum trial. Multimillion claim for a severe pain disorder.


Powell v Ridgeback Bicycles (2013)

County Court. Product Liability. Successful claim acting on behalf of cyclist who sustained injury when his mountain bike collapsed.


Lay v Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust & Shair (2013)

High Court. Injury at work complicated by poor surgery.


Bowden v Homerton Hospital (2012)

Court of Appeal. Liver disease induced by drug therapy.


Spradbury v Humber Mental Health Trust (2011)

High Court. Observations of voluntary hospital patient.


Green v Sunset & Vine (2010)

Court of Appeal. Motorsport.


Ferguson v British Gas (2009)

Court of Appeal. Protection from harassment.


Slevin v Bennetts (2008)

Court of Appeal. Display Screen Equipment Regulations.


Norman v Peterborough Hospital Trust (2008)

Late diagnosis of breast cancer.


Brazier v Wolverhampton (2007)

Court of Appeal. Loss of future earnings and sick pay.


Conn v Sunderland City Council (2007)

Court of Appeal. What constitutes harassment?


Daw v Intel (2007)

Court of Appeal. Stress at work claim.


Smith v Southampton Universities NHS Trust (2007)

Court of Appeal. Standard of duty of a surgeon.


Corbett v South Yorkshire HA (2007)

High Court. Indexation of periodical payments and impact of Working Time Regs on care regimes.


Purver v Winchester & Eastleigh NHS Trust (2006)

High Court.


Keown v Coventry Healthcare NHS Trust (2006)

Duty of care owed by hospital to child trespasser.


Aer Lingus v Gildacroft (2006)

Limitation period in Contribution Act claims.


Thompson v Butler (2005)

Court of Appeal. Brain damage following a whiplash injury.


Sheldon-Green v Coventry NHS Trust [2004]

High Court. Cord prolapse case for NHSLA.


Elmes v Hygrade Food Products Ltd [2001] EWCA CIV 121

Court of Appeal. Service of Claim Form.

Privacy Policy

Martin Porter KC Privacy Policy

My contact details:

ICO Reg No: Z5527958 
Address: 2 Temple Gardens, London, EC4Y 9AY
Email: clerks@2tg.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7822 1200

The type of personal information I collect

To enable me to provide you with legal advice and representation in courts, tribunals, arbitrations and mediations, I currently collect and process the following personal information:

Personal identifiers, contacts and characteristics (for example, name, date of birth and contact details), bank and financial details, your background and circumstance and education.

Other personal data relevant to, or included in instructions to provide legal services, including data specific to the instructions in question and data included in documents provided to me as part of instructions or otherwise.

Such information may include personal information relating to family members, associates, agents, employees, shareholders or beneficial owners. By providing such personal information to me, you automatically confirm that you are authorised to do so. It is not reasonably practicable for me to provide the information set out in this Privacy Notice to those individuals. Accordingly, where appropriate, you are responsible for providing this information to any such individuals.

Where necessary, I may also need to process Special Category data about you including

  • racial or ethnic origin;
  • personal data revealing political opinions;
  • personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs;
  • personal data revealing trade union membership;
  • genetic data;
  • biometric data (where used for identification purposes);
  • data concerning health;
  • data concerning a person’s sex life; and
  • data concerning a person’s sexual orientation.

How I get the personal information and why I have it

Most of the personal information that I process is provided to me directly by you or via the professional you have instructed such as a solicitor or consultant or other professional adviser who instructs me on your behalf to provide legal services.

I use the information that you have given me in order to

  • provide legal services to you, my client, including the provision of legal advice and
  • representation in courts, tribunals, arbitrations, and mediations
  • keep accounting records and carry out office administration
  • take or defend legal or regulatory proceedings or to exercise a lien
  • respond to potential complaints or make complaints
  • check for potential conflicts of interest in relation to future potential cases
  • promote and market my services
  • carry out anti-money laundering and terrorist financing checks
  • train other barristers and pupils, and when providing work-shadowing opportunities
  • publish legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals as required or permitted by law.

I may share this information with

  • other professional advisers such as other legal professionals and consultant experts and other witnesses
  • courts and tribunals
  • the staff in my Chambers
  • prosecution authorities
  • pupils and mini pupils
  • lay clients
  • family and associates of the person whose personal information I am processing
  • in the event of complaints, the Head of Chambers, other individuals nominated by Chambers who deal with complaints, the Bar Standards Board, and the Legal Ombudsman
  • other regulatory authorities
  • current, past or prospective employers
  • education and examining bodies
  • business associates, professional advisers and trade bodies, e.g. the Bar Council
  • professional indemnity insurers or brokers
  • the general public in relation to the publication of legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals
  • If you have engaged other professional advisers to instruct me on your behalf on the matters on which I am providing legal services to you, I shall assume that I may disclose your personal information to them unless you tell me otherwise.
  • I may be required to provide your information to regulators, such as the Bar Standards Board, the Financial Conduct Authority or the Information Commissioner’s Office. In the case of the Information Commissioner’s Office, there is a risk that your information may lawfully be disclosed by them for the purpose of any other civil or criminal proceedings, without my consent or yours, which includes privileged information.
  • I may also be required to disclose your information to the police or intelligence services, where, acting in good faith, I consider it required and permitted by law.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful basis I rely on for processing this information is

  • The processing is necessary for a contract I have with you, or because you have asked me to take specific steps before entering into a contract.
  • You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting me.
  • It may be necessary for me to share your personal data to comply with legal obligations to, for example, HMRC.

How I store your personal information

Your information is securely stored in Chambers or at my home. I use reasonable technical and organisational security measures such as password protection and encryption of computer generated data and keeping paper data secure to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or destroyed, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way.

In this connection, Chambers, as data processor, acting on my behalf, will only process your personal data on my instructions and is subject to a duty of confidentiality.

The data will be held in line with any regulatory obligations and generally be kept for 6 years but may be 12 years, or longer where, for example, the case includes information relating to a minor, from the date of completion of instructions. At this point any further retention will be reviewed and the data will be marked for deletion or marked for retention for a further period.

All data will be securely deleted or securely shredded after this time without reference to you. I will store some of your information which I need to carry out conflict checks for the rest of my career. However, this is likely to be limited only to your name and contact details and the name of the case. It will not include any information that is “sensitive information” for GDPR purposes.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

  • Your right of access – You have the right to ask me for copies of your personal information.
  • Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask me to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask me to complete information you think is incomplete.
  • Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask me to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask me to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to object to processing – You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that I transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
  • You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, I have one month to respond to you. Please contact me at 2 Temple Gardens, London, EC4Y 9AY or clerks@2tg.co.uk if you wish to make a request.

Transfer of your information outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

This privacy notice is of general application and as such it is not possible to state whether it will be necessary to transfer your information out of the EEA. If I do transfer your personal data I will use safeguards to ensure the data is fully protected as required by the UK Data Protection Regulations.

Changes to my Privacy Policy

From time to time, I may need to make chances to my privacy policy. If so, the changes will appear on my entry on the 2TG website.

Marketing

As above, I may share your personal data with Chambers who may in turn use that data to notify you by email, or post about an invitation to seminars and similar events. You may opt out of receiving any such marketing communications at any time by using the “unsubscribe” link in any emails. In relation to how Chambers uses such data, please see Chambers’ privacy policy. Other than sharing personal data with Chambers as described above, I will not share your information with any other third party for marketing purposes.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about my use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to me or to my Senior Clerk, Lee Tyler at 2 Temple Gardens, London, EC4Y 9AY or clerks@2tg.co.uk. You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

© Briefed Ltd 2021. All Rights Reserved.

“Has an enormous intellect and laser focus”


Legal 500 2025

"A powerhouse when it comes to high-value claims"


Legal 500 2024

"A tremendous intellect"


Chambers UK 2024

"A superb and go-to KC."


Chambers UK 2023

"Excellent at cycle cases. His depth of knowledge is so impressive."


Chambers UK 2023

"A leading choice for cycling claims."


Legal 500 2023

"A top-notch negotiator."


Legal 500 2023

"He is very approachable and has an excellent command of the facts and issues."


Chambers UK 2022

  • Queen’s Counsel (2006)
  • Secretary of the Specialist Bar Working Party on Clinical Negligence Reform
  • Legal Assessor for the General Medical Council
  • Chairman of the Thames Velo Cycling Club

  • Major Scholarship, Inner Temple
  • Postgraduate Award, The British Academy

  • MA Law, Cambridge University
  • LLM Public Law, Cambridge University

  • British Association for Sport and Law
  • Common Law & Commercial Bar Association
  • LawInSport
  • Personal Injuries Bar Association
  • Professional Negligence Barrister Association
  • Western Circuit

Articles:

“Tangled marriage of Church and State” The Times 13.06.2000.

“Human Rights One Year On” New Law Journal September 2001.

“Reasonable Costs in Insured Conditional Fee Claims” All England Legal Opinion October 2001.

“Mesothelioma: An Impossible Burden” and “Mesothelioma: The Impossible Burden lifted” commenting on the Court of Appeal and House of Lords decisions in Fairchild for All England Legal Opinion in 2002.

Numerous personal injury updates in New Law Journal

“Blame the Victim” March 2009 NLJ commenting upon cycle helmets

Broadcasts:

BBC’s Law in Action (2005) on Constitutional and Human Rights Law

ITV Meridian News on cycling (2012)

BBC The One Show on cycling (2011)

Featured in Legal 500 and Chambers UK each year from 1997 to date, with particular recommendations for judgment and performance in court.

“Martin is superb. He is trusted implicitly with the highest value, most complex cases. He gets straight to the heart of the issues in a claim and is accessible and a delight to work with.”
“Martin is a team player. He is incredibly prepared and nothing is too much trouble. He gives excellent advice and carries the confidence of the client.”
“Martin is an intelligent barrister who is popular with clients. He has an impressive ability to get to the heart of issues quickly and is always on top of things.”
“Martin is a top-class advocate. In court, he is absolutely engaging and excellent.”
“He is known as the cyclists’ silk and is very well known and established in that niche. He’s very helpful in terms of lay witness evidence and provides very valuable input.”
Chambers UK 2025

“Martin has an enormous intellect and laser focus – his ability to see straight to the heart of a complex case and to get quickly on top of all the key legal principles is impressive.”
“His advocacy in the court room is superb; he makes the art of advancing difficult submissions look easy and elegant.”
Legal 500 2025

“He’s got a tremendous intellect and laser focus and he understands the medicine very well.”
“Martin is detailed, easy to work with and good at resolution.”
“He is effective in court and good with the judge and clients.”

Chambers UK 2024

“Martin has an enormous intellect and a laser focus. He quickly identifies the key points in a case and plans his strategy accordingly.”
“Martin is a powerhouse when it comes to high-value claims. His knowledge and expertise is rivalled by few and having him in your corner is a real cushion of stability.”
Legal 500 2024

“Martin is extremely impressive when navigating the evidence but never loses the ability to demonstrate empathy when dealing with clients and witnesses.”
“He is incredibly well prepared and incredibly hard-working.”
“Martin is a superb and go-to KC.”
“Martin is excellent at cycle cases. His depth of knowledge is so impressive.”
“What sets him apart is how incisive he is on liability and risk.”
Chambers UK 2023

“Martin is a leading choice for cycling claims; having carved out a niche in the field of cycling litigation.”
“A top-notch negotiator.”
Legal 500 2023

“He is very approachable and has an excellent command of the facts and issues.”
“He argues his cases extremely well and is a superb trial advocate.”
“He is meticulous in his preparation for a case.”
Chambers UK 2022

“A top-notch negotiator.”
“Martin has carved out a niche for himself as a top bicycle accident silk – he argues difficult points fearlessly and is inventive in his approach to litigation.”
Legal 500 2022

“He is very approachable and accessible, well read in his subject area and able to provide realistic opinions.”
“He is incredibly astute and intelligent.”
“He’s a very technical lawyer, and his written advocacy is second to none.”
“Excellent on his feet and tirelessly tenacious.”
“He has forensic attention to detail and is very good at tricky quantum cases.”
Chambers UK 2021

“A very clever and intuitive lawyer with a direct and effective style of advocacy”
“Has outstanding knowledge of and passion for cycling-related work, and never fails to add value to a case”
Legal 500 2021

“He’s enormously experienced and has a lot of gravitas. He’s someone you listen to.”
“A brilliant barrister.”
Chambers UK 2020

“He is a no-nonsense performer who gets quickly to the point”
“His knowledge of coronial process/law is vast”
Legal 500 2020

“He’s a go-to counsel for high-value or difficult liability cycling cases”
“Very hard-working and extremely practical”
“Calm, analytical and extremely well prepared”
Chambers UK 2019

“Very user friendly”
“He is very approachable and prompt with his advice. He has a niche specialism in cycling injury cases”
Legal 500 2018

“A fount of knowledge for cycling incident cases”
“Hardworking and trustworthy”
“A brilliant advocate who gets to the issues very quickly”
“Very approachable and easy to work with. Clients like him”
Chambers UK 2018

“His client care is excellent…”
Legal 500 2017

“He has a really high level of advocacy”
“He is very thorough and at the same time highly pragmatic”
“He’s great in negotiations and is exceptionally thorough. He gives people a great feeling of confidence, which is exactly what you want in leading counsel”
Chambers UK 2017

“An excellent advocate, who is able to deal with difficult judges”
“He is an excellent advocate and thorough in his preparation”
Legal 500 2016

“He is an impressive advocate”
“Martin is very good at standing his ground, and remains calm and cool”
“He is a thorough and tenacious barrister who brings great value to any case, but particularly those involving injured cyclists”
“He brings confidence and the gravitas without being overbearing”
Chambers UK 2016

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