It is with very great sadness that chambers has to announce the death of Mark Cannon Q.C. after a short illness. Mark was a bencher of the Middle Temple, head of chambers from 2017 to 2021, and was chairman of the Professional Negligence Bar Association from 2009 to 2011.
Mark joined chambers in early 1987 after a distinguished first-class degree in Modern History from Lincoln College, Oxford University and studying Law at Robinson College, Cambridge and at the conclusion of a third six pupillage with John Powell Q.C. He rapidly established himself at the heart of what was then regarded as the engine-room of chambers, among four or five busy juniors whose core work centred on chambers’ then main specialism of professional liability, as well as pure insurance and construction. Mark was soon recognised as a leading junior in each of those fields, rising to silk in 2008. By then he had already edited and contributed to several chapters of Jackson and Powell on Professional Negligence (now Professional Liability, and in its ninth edition), and in 2010, with Brendan McGurk, published his monograph on Professional Indemnity Insurance, now in its second edition (OUP, 2016). By the time of his untimely death, he had a thriving first instance and appellate practice particularly in construction and insurance. He was sitting as an arbitrator shortly before he died.
Outside chambers Mark had many and varied interests. He was a fine skier, a talented pianist whose five-bar blues never ceased to impress, and a dedicated collector of Italian culture. His samizdat mini-guidebooks to the treasures of Siena or Palermo or wherever, were invaluable resources which he happily shared with his many friends in chambers and beyond. He was a convivial and generous host of annual Christmas and summer parties, so many of which will live long in the memory. The gentlest and kindest of men, he will be sorely missed.
A fuller obituary is in preparation, and it is planned that at an appropriate future date chambers will hold a wider celebration of Mark’s life.
