Prominent London Lawyer Killed in Police Shootout
Updated: An alcohol-fueled argument between two married London divorce lawyers may have led to a police shootout last night in which one was killed in their home in the expensive Chelsea neighborhood, stunning fellow practitioners.
Complete details aren’t available, but barrister Mark Saunders is dead, and “it is believed Saunders began firing rounds at police and neighbours from his flat off the King’s Road just after 5 p.m.,” reports the Lawyer.
He was 32, and was educated at Oxford University, reports the London Times. The newspaper article says that Saunders had a severe alcohol problem that had led to difficulties in his approximately one-year-old marriage. Although Saunders had served in the military, he apparently was never in combat in either Iraq or Afghanistan.
Saunders was a member of QEB Chambers, as is his wife, Elizabeth Clarke, the Lawyer writes. She is reportedly 40.
Friends and colleagues say in multiple articles that Saunders was a skilled, successful, socially prominent lawyer who was a pleasure to be around at parties.
The Markham Square apartment in West London in which Saunders died cost the couple approximately $4.5 million in October of last year, according to the Mail.
An unnamed friend told the Evening Standard he was stunned to learn that Saunders hadn’t been caught in the crossfire but was actually the gunman, the Mail notes. “He married Liz just over a year ago and they were family law’s golden couple,” the friend says. “She is a highly regarded barrister in her own right.”
Together the two are estimated to have made between $1.2 million and $2 million annually, the Times reported in a separate story.
A subsequent ABAJournal.com post provides additional details.
Additional coverage:
The Guardian: “Rising star in legal field”
London Times: “Mark Saunders’ father: we are shocked and stunned”
Updated at 2:15 p.m. May 8, to include link to subsequent ABAJournal.com post.
