Mark Potter (judge)

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Sir Mark Howard Potter (born 27 August 1937) is a distinguished British jurist, currently President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice, a position he has held since the beginning of April 2005.

He went to The The Perse School, Cambridge. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1996. He was called to the bar in 1961 and 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.

On 31 July 2006 Sir Mark Potter ruled against Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson, a lesbian couple wed in Canada, on the right to be recognised as being married in the UK. Instead, Mrs Kitzinger and Mrs Wilkinson have been told they must keep their status of 'civil partners'. Sir Mark Potter however, has granted the couple leave to appeal.