Obituary: Martyn Fisher

It is with great sadness that Birds Solicitors announces that Martyn Fisher passed away on 14th October 2021 after a period of illness aged 67. 

Martyn was much loved by all who knew and worked with him. He was a very kind and gentle man who was always available and willing to help others with advice and guidance.

Martyn was admitted as a solicitor in 1988 and joined Birds Solicitors over a decade ago, initially as a consultant and then as an employed solicitor.

Martyn was inspired to become a lawyer after graduating from Sussex University where he read sociology when working at a Brighton law centre. He found the collaborative approach at the centre, in helping people solve their problems using the law, inspirational. Martyn was highly respectful of the not for profit organisation he worked for and the sector in general and admired the commitment of those working in this field. Whist practicing as a legal aid lawyer, he saw legal aid as another tool to help everyone, including vulnerable people, access justice.

After qualifying as a lawyer Martyn practiced in mental health and criminal law but latterly specialised in criminal work. Before joining Birds Solicitors he worked as a partner at Matillas, Kandlers and Sinclair Taylor Martin.

Martyn really enjoyed his work as a solicitor and representing individuals at the police station and before the Magistrates’ Court. He was a long serving duty solicitor and a talented advocate and we were delighted when he agreed to continue his involvement with the firm as an employed solicitor in 2014, providing the benefit of his experience to others as a supervisor.

Latterly Martyn was the head of our appeals department and brought his enormous attention to detail and meticulous preparation to bear on numerous complex and serious cases in an effort to get them before the Court of Appeal, often via the CCRC. His intelligence and analytical mind were well suited to this difficult area of work, which was epitomised by his tenacious efforts to get the case of Ali Tahery through the European Court of Human Rights, followed by a CCRC application and ultimately a successful appeal against conviction at the Court of Appeal in 2013. The Legal 500 (2021 edition) noted this.

Martyn was really committed to his clients and genuinely cared about them. He always put his clients first and was completely committed to publicly funded work. Martyn has always been well known within the profession, both with solicitors and the Bar, and was highly respected.

He had other wider interests: reading; cycling; cooking; politics; art; bird watching and he loved living by the sea. Martyn was an absolute pleasure to work with and will be very sadly missed by everyone at the firm as a wonderful friend and colleague. Our thoughts are with his partner, Jean, his family and his friends.