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George Alfred Carman (6 October 1929 – 2 January 2001), a leading barrister of the 1980s and 1990s, first came to the attention of the general public in 1979 when he successfully defended the former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe when he was charged with conspiracy to murder, despite having been appointed as a QC (Queen's Counsel) eight years previously.

Born in Blackpool, Lancashire on 6 October 1929, Carman attended a Roman Catholic boarding school and Balliol College, Oxford. He graduated in 1952 with a first class honours degree in jurisprudence (law). Called to the Bar in 1953, he practised as a barrister on the Northern Circuit in Manchester, doing mostly criminal and personal injury work.

After successfully defending Jeremy Thorpe in 1979, he became involved in a number of significant criminal trials during the 1980s including the successful defence of the British comedian Ken Dodd on charges of tax evasion. During the 1990s, he appeared in many prominent libel trials on behalf of British newspapers, including the successful defence of The Guardian against a libel case brought by the Conservative politician, Jonathan Aitken. He became known for his celebrity clients, attracting headlines for his robust cross-examination, colourful one-liners in court and for winning difficult cases against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Carman's reputation was built through representing The Sun against Sonia Sutcliffe, Richard Branson against G-Tech and Mohammed Al-Fayed against Neil Hamilton.

Carman was head of chambers of New Court, Temple for the latter part of his career. He died of prostate cancer on 2 January 2001.

He was married three times and had a son, Dominic Carman, who wrote the controversial biography No Ordinary Man.

• George Carman: The Bar's 'silver fox', BBC News, 2 January 2001.