Martin Priestley

Partner

photo for Martin Priestley

What can I do for you

Martin leads our education sector team and heads our South East Asia Desk. Martin specialises in advising clients in the education, government and technology sectors on major sourcing, collaborative and strategic commercial projects. Much of Martin's work is cross-border and includes helping universities to implement their international strategies and guiding government and corporate clients through complex procurement projects. 

What do others say

Martin has been described in Legal 500 as being “highly responsive and personable”, “commercial and pragmatic” and “highly recommended”. A client recently commented about our team that “the support and guidance that you have extended to the [client] team has been exemplary. I believe that collaboratively we have worked really well together as part of an extended team”.

Supporting your ambitions

A highlight for Martin was leading an international team acting for a university client establishing a joint institute in China. The project was complex and involved UK and Chinese regulatory issues. Martin's role was to ensure the team delivered a seamless service to the client, and to ensure that the university’s objectives were achieved.

Another highlight was advising a leading university on the simultaneous implementation of two outsourcing projects with a combined value of around £200 million. The projects were complex, involved the creation of a joint venture company and contributed greatly to the quality of student services on campus.

What else should you know?

Early in Martin’s career, he worked in-house as a legal counsel for Burberry. His time at Burberry taught him how to deliver concise, tailored and commercial advice in a fast moving, dynamic environment. It also gave him a clear insight into how important it is for external counsel to understand clients’ commercial objectives and the sectors in which they operate.

jigsaw

What our clients say about us

“I think Mills & Reeve are a wonderful firm. The support they have provided to us in a really difficult area has been brilliant, collaborative and commercially minded. The team were absolutely wonderful and a joy to work with. Amazing advice and support and a real collaborative effort with us. I can't thank them enough for getting us through some really tough times and doing so with an amazing can-do attitude.”

“They are friendly, fast, always available and always on top of the game. I tend to judge my legal team against the other side's legal team and never doubt Mills & Reeve is the better of the two.”

“All interactions have been very clear. Responses to questions have always been very swift and unambiguous. Our company, and my family, have used various services in Mills & Reeve with the same level of satisfaction.”

“I value the fact that Mills & Reeve are recognised as a good place to work in the UK Best Companies survey. This aligns with the values of our business and means that Mills & Reeve can share what is required to achieve this status with our business.”