Where is the Criminal Defense Barrister Today?

It was between June 2015 and June 2016 when the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England, faced an alarming increase in their infant mortality rate for seemingly no good reason. The board contacted local authorities as they believed something was amiss, as explored in Netflix’s ‘The Investigation of Lucy Letby,’ which led to the arrest, trial, and conviction of the titular neonatal nurse. However, a Criminal Defense Barrister by the name of Marc McDonald has been in her corner since the summer of 2024, fighting for her freedom under the belief she is completely innocent.

Marc McDonald Was a Man of Many Hats Before He Took Up Law

As an only child raised by a single parent in a crime-ridden area of Birmingham, England, Marc McDonald realized the significance of money, hard work, integrity, as well as resilience at an early age. However, because of circumstances, he had to drop out of school at the tender age of 16, following which he made the best use of his limited qualifications and began work in a sheet metal factory. He worked hard at every step of the way, resulting in him landing a job as a hospital porter on a youth placement scheme a year later, enabling him to enroll in a training program and hone his skills.

According to records, it took Marc some time to rise up the ladder, but he eventually worked his way up to work in the emergency room and then the operating theatre. That’s when he realized how important good healthcare service providers are and how there is just more than one path to establishing a stable, happy life if you are ambitious and resolute enough. Thus, when the government announced that it would be making cuts in the NHS around the late 1980s/early 1990s, the thriving shop steward decided to campaign against it to the best of his abilities.

Marc was 25 when he realized that maybe he could evolve into a lawyer, driving him to start attending night school to earn his degree before he continued his studies. He subsequently attended university, trained as a Barrister, and earned all the necessary qualifications, all the while continuing to work in the operating theatre of a local hospital. It hence comes as no surprise that once he did establish himself as a lawyer, he chose to remember his roots by dedicating himself to helping the disenfranchised, poor, and vulnerable individuals across the UK and overseas.

Marc McDonald Continues to be a Proud Advocate for Equity and Justice

It was in 2007 when Marc McDonald really started being recognized as he established the London Innocence Project, a non-profit legal resource clinic dedicated to helping exonerate those wrongfully convicted. He carefully led a team of barristers and bar student volunteers who were committed to the mission until they were able to really expand operations and provide high-quality legal representation to those who had long maintained their innocence. As if that wasn’t enough, he soon also launched Amicus, a UK-based human rights charity working with inmates on death row in the US.

In the years to follow, Marc evolved into a Trustee for Amicus, created a training program to better assist and represent death row inmates, and even worked in Palestine with the Bar Human Rights Committee. The latter later inspired him to set up a group by the name of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, which is one of the most influential Labour parties across England, owing to its vision. Moreover, based solely on his work as an unwavering criminal defense barrister as well as human rights advocate, he has even been featured in several news outlets over the years. These include BBC, CNN, Sky, the Today programme, and many other mainstream publications.

Marc has never wavered from his roots and initial goals, so on paper, he was a great Parliment Labour Party Candidate for the Stoke-on-Trent South constituency, but he lost the general election in 2019. Since then, he has primarily focused on his work in international law and human rights, whether through court cases like that of Lucy Letby, university lectures, or published works. In fact, apart from having chaired and spoken at seminars as well as having given numerous interviews to the media at a global level, he is an advocacy trainer for Lincoln’s Inn, London. The 59-year-old Vulnerable Witness Training Course handles all kinds of cases involving murder, assaults, rape, organised crime, and terrorism, and he is a proud bench holder at Lincoln’s Inn Court for barristers.

Read More: Dr. Dewi Evans: Where is the Professional Expert Witness Now?