Law Firm Continues Its Strategic Growth Programme

Leading national law firm Irwin Mitchell announces a further major appointment in its London office with the appointment of Martha Grekos as partner to head up planning in London.
 
Martha, who has over 10 years’ experience in planning practice, was previously a Principal Associate at Eversheds and prior to that at Herbert Smith and Berwin Leighton Paisner.  She has also worked at the specialist Planning and Environmental Bar and has in-house experience gained in local authorities and central government.

Martha practices in all aspects of planning law, environmental law and parliamentary/infrastructure work, with a focus on large complex regeneration projects (mainly in London) and high profile infrastructure projects (mainly transport, energy and aviation).
 
Recent planning experience include: advising Lend Lease on planning issues concerning the Heygate Estate, the centre of the £1.5 billion regeneration of Elephant & Castle, advising London Underground on its joint venture with CapCo to redevelop Earls Court, a 69 acre project site for 6,7700 homes, and advising Transport for London on the infrastructure delivery of the £1 billion Royal Albert Dock development, London's third business district. 

She has also advised on significant national energy and infrastructure projects including advising HS2 Ltd/ the Department of Transport on the hybrid bill to build and operate High Speed Two and advising Transport for London on Crossrail 2. Martha also has experience in nuclear power stations and offshore wind farms.  She is currently listed as one of the top 3 planning lawyers in the UK by Planning Magazine (2014).

Martha is joined by new recruit, Rachel Lee, who is also joining the London office. Rachel joins as an Associate in the Planning department from Brecher where she was a solicitor for 3 years working on redevelopment projects.  Prior to that she was Chief Planning Lawyer for Islington Borough Council.
 
These appointments are the latest in a series of senior appointments at Irwin Mitchell as it drives forward its strategic growth plan for its Business Legal Services (BLS) division. Martha is the eighth business partner to join the firm since the start of 2015. Fourteen new partners were appointed to BLS in 2014.
 
Martha and Rachel join National Head of Planning Oliver Martin, who is based in Birmingham, and leads an already highly regarded planning team which specialises in advising clients on major and complex residential, commercial and mixed-use projects across the country.
 
Planning sits within the Real Estate team at Irwin Mitchell which has seen significant growth over the past four years.  Irwin Mitchell now has 31 real estate partners with 13 partners based in London.  London is at the forefront of Irwin Mitchell’s national real estate practice which also has offices in Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham, and numbers around 80 lawyers.
 
Commenting on Martha’s appointment, Rob Thompson, Head of Real Estate in London said:

Paul Firth, National Head of Real Estate at Irwin Mitchell continued: