Martha Spurrier

Martha Spurrier (born 1986) is a British barrister and human rights campaigner. She was the director of the advocacy group Liberty from 2016 to 2024.

Early life Spurrier was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School in London, and then at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a BA (Hons) in history. She is the author of Freedom to Write: A User's Guide (published by English PEN in 2012), a contributing editor to the Rights and Freedoms volume in Halsbury’s Laws of England (2013 and 2018), and co-authored the second edition of Disabled Children: A Legal Handbook (published by the Legal Action Group in 2016).

She took up her post at Liberty at the end of May 2016, taking over from Shami Chakrabarti. She was replaced as director by Akiko Hart in January 2024.

In 2024, Spurrier was appointed as an independent expert advisor to the McCullough Review, which examined allegations that the Police Service of Northern Ireland unlawfully spied on journalists.