Matthew Turner

Background

About Matthew Turner

I am a human rights and civil liberties barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in inquests, clinical negligence, actions against public authorities, and Human Rights Act claims. Day in, day out, I hold powerful state institutions and private companies to account for operational and systemic failures that have led to serious harm. My work usually begins where systems have broken down — in prisons, hospitals, or police stations — leading to tragic and avoidable outcomes. I’m ranked as a leading barrister for Inquests & Inquiries (Chambers & Partners, Legal 500), Clinical Negligence (Legal 500), and Police Law (Legal 500). My role is to give a voice to bereaved families and seriously injured victims — to get answers, to get accountability, and to get justice. I believe passionately in using the law to help people. Every case I take on matters—not just for the individual client, but for what it reveals about how institutions operate and where they fail. Before coming to the Bar, I trained at Freshfields and practised as a commercial solicitor before moving into human rights law. I now appear regularly in complex and high-profile inquests and trials across the country. I write about justice, institutional failures, and reform in my LinkedIn series Inside the Walls, Inside the Wards, and Inside the Force—exploring what my cases teach us about how and why systems fail, and the changes that can prevent those failures from happening again.