Martin Griffiths QC
Born: 1962
Call: 1986 (Inner Temple)
Silk: 2006
Contact
Essex Court Chambers
24 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3EG
Tel: 020 7813 8000 Fax: 020 7813 8080
mgriffiths@essexcourt.net
Contact my clerk
About
Martin Griffiths has a versatile general commercial practice including but by no means limited to employment law. Although many of his clients are from the financial and banking sectors, he is also instructed in cases from the worlds of sport, media, stolen antiquities and other diverse sectors. His principal practice is in London; however, he has also fought cases all over the world, including the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong etc.
He was born in 1962, called to the Bar in 1986 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2006. He is a member of the Bar Council and on the Committee of the Employment Law Bar Association. He was appointed a Recorder in 2009 and sits as a part time judge in the Crown Court. He is Chairman of the Professional Conduct Sub Committee of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association.
His many reported cases include leading authorities on the law of directors' duties and trusts (Ultraframe [2005] EWHC 1638 (Ch)), PAYE taxation and share options (McCarthy v McCarthy & Stone plc [2008] 1 All ER 221 Court of Appeal), garden leave and injunctions (William Hill v Tucker [1999] ICR 291 Court of Appeal), the duty of trust and confidence (Reda v Flag Ltd [2002] IRLR 747 Privy Council), repudiatory breach and restrictive covenants (Cantor Fitzgerald v Bird and others [2002] IRLR 867 The Times 30 July 2002; also The Independent, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, etc), Formula 1 sports sponsorship (Jordan Grand Prix v Vodafone Plc [2003] 2 Lloyd's Rep 874), European law (Alabaster v Woolwich Plc and the Secretary of State for Social Security [2004] IRLR 486), diversion of business opportunities (Crown Dilmun v Sutton and Fulham River Projects Ltd [2004] 1 BCLC 468) and costs (Utraframe (UK) Ltd v Fielding and others (No 2) [2007] 2 All ER 983 Court of Appeal).
Martin Griffiths QC is regularly recommended in Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession and The Legal 500 and other independent publications, where he has been described as someone who "balances intelligence and aggression," and presents a "well-rounded performance" in the courtroom. Clients find him "very easy to work with, good on his feet, clear, sensible and brilliantly intelligent." He is an "on the ball" advocate who "has it all." "User friendly" and "very very clever". He has "a brain like a bacon slicer" according to The Lawyer. Other descriptions (from Chambers Guide) include "Highly analytical, quite awesome", "an absolute terrier", "quietly spoken but has a spine of steel" and "first class". The Insiders Guides described him as "clever and tenacious".
Education
- MA, New College, Oxford
- Dip Law, City
- Inns of Court School of Law
Languages
French (Fluent), Italian (Working Knowledge)
Areas of practice
