In Conversation with Paul Martenstyn, Co-Founder and CEO of Prosperant LLP
In the latest instalment of our #OfftheRecord series, Nick Rees sits down with Paul M., Co- Founder and CEO of global legal consultancy Prosperant LLP.
Marking 30 years in the legal sector, Paul has experienced the profession from almost every angle: junior barristers’ clerk, senior clerk, managing director, strategist, litigation funder and now trusted adviser to senior leaders across law firms, credit funds and Chambers worldwide. Few people have witnessed the evolution of the global legal market quite so closely.
From cash-in-hand junior clerking days to advising on international launches, consolidation and leadership strategy, Paul reflects on career-defining moments, the importance of listening, and why perspective matters more than ever.
Q: Paul, could you start by giving a snapshot of how your career has unfolded?
“This year is my 30-year anniversary in the legal sector, which still surprises me when I say it out loud. I started straight after my A-levels. I had a place to study law at University but wanted to take a year out – and my mum, who instructed Chambers at the time, suggested I spend it in a clerks’ room. I was offered an opportunity by the infamous Jason Housden – and honestly, it’s all his fault.
I began as a Junior Clerk at Francis Taylor Building, paid cash in hand. My first pay packet was about £80 out of petty cash (is that legal now?), I genuinely thought I was rich. I even signed up to Save the Children with my first pay packet as I left Blackheath train station, and that’s something that’s stayed with me ever since. My professional career and my Save the Children career have been aligned since that first day.
What hooked me was the clerking infrastructure – being the person in the middle, pulling things together with a multitude of skills required from day one. No two days were the same. And I was lucky with the people around me.
Andrew Hutchins was my first Senior Clerk back in the day. David Green, the Senior Criminal Clerk, was on the ground floor of FTB. And the famous Ken Oliver, senior clerk, from the third floor of FTB, really took me under his wing during that first year. I used to collect documents for him as a favour and, in return, he’d let me listen to the do’s and don’ts of the profession! That sounds small, but it wasn’t – those people shaped how I worked early on. I always knew how to listen, which I now realise was (and is) a very important skill.
I declined my University place to read Law and never looked back.
After my time at Francis Taylor Building, I was headhunted, which didn’t really happen then. That came through Paul Hurst, Andrew Hutchins’ friend, who later finished his career at Crown Office Chambers, but at the time was at a very powerful set in Newcastle which had a London office – he believed in me from an early age. That move opened up a whole new stage for me.”
I was then spotted by Nick Salt at Serjeants’ Inn Chambers – Nick was doing things differently. This is where I started working with Tier 1 barristers, John Grace QC, and the now Sir Robert Francis QC. Nick provided one-to-one training for me, and you have to remember this was the late 90’s – BD, Costs, he gave up his own personal time to do that. He would train Tom O’Connor (who is still at Serjeants Inn!) out of his own time every Wednesday at 7.30 am (we were sometimes a little late).
I then got a tap-up from Kevin Mitchell at Hardwicke Chambers. This is where I first met Gary Brown. Gary was then leading the Criminal Team – Gary has been and continues to be an important mentor in my career – he’s now the President of The Institute of Barristers’ Clerks (IBC), and 25 years on, I am lucky to count him as a close friend.
I was around 25 when I moved to Hardwicke, and Kevin said to me, “You’ve got the commercial team.” He believed in me, and it was a ‘sink or swim’ situation, and that was my first taste of the Commercial Bar. There were some amazing practitioners there – Nigel Jones, Paul Reed and Brie (Stephens-Hoare) – a legend in the property market. The culture stood out too – being left to get on with it, practice management, marketing and BD – bringing these in to play. I took the opportunity with both hands.
Chambers supported me in many ways, and this turned in to formal qualification through the CIM | The Chartered Institute of Marketing which was sponsored by my then CEO, Ann Buxton – I remember getting through it (just) – it was tough and especially whilst undertaking a full-time job.
This led to me being asked to contribute articles, sit on panels and provide talks on marketing and business development, especially for the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks (IBC) – which no one was doing at the time. Back in the early 2000’s clerks were not writing articles in counsel magazine or giving talks on BD.
I then made my final move to Fountain Court to work with Alex Taylor – Alex had started life at Fountain Court Chambers, taken detours via 11KBW, Old Square Chambers, and back to Fountain Court – where he is to this day. Alex is another key mentor, not just professionally but in life. We spent 10 years working together between 2008 and 2018 – there were no arguments, none. Very occasional cross words, but nothing more. He is simply phenomenal, and we are to this day very close – we are family. I have spent more time with Alex than anyone else in my life!
What we were doing together at Fountain Court was game-changing for the Bar – perception surveys, innovation projects, events focused on the junior bar, whilst others concentrated elsewhere. International events, attendance at the IBA (International Bar Association) – we enjoyed significant success. These things were not so common as they are in 2026. By 2018, it felt like I’d done my bit, and the easy option would be to stay, but I needed a new challenge.
I was then headhunted following a business trip to Washington into Litigation Funding, and a lot of people thought I was crazy. I was very comfortable at Fountain Court and could have stayed for the rest of my career – but it felt like I needed to test myself, and I owed it to myself to try.
I moved to Vanin Capital, subsequently acquired by Fortress Investment Group, who were (and are) based in New York and the power players in litigation funding. It was an amazing two years, learning about different components of the legal market – this completely revolutionised my thinking and gave me the confidence to set up Prosperant LLP alongside Jamie White.”
Q: How important were those early years in shaping the way you work?
“They were fundamental. Those early sets outside of the magic circle meant I had to hustle – nothing was guaranteed. It taught me quickly that everything mattered: returning calls, passing on messages, building relationships.
I always say this, but listening and observing was how I started. We weren’t sitting on Tier 1 work back then, so if you were going to compete, your service had to be absolutely on point. I recognised that early, and having that winning mentality was crucial.
I also learned what relationship-building really means. You were dealing with firms and individuals who shaped the market at the time, and many of those names aren’t around anymore. But the lesson stuck: people remember how you make their life easier, and essentially build trust in what you do.
By 20, I was managing diaries and juggling fast-track and multi-track work across multiple locations with the best diary Personal Injury (PI) manager at the time, Paul Hurst. Between three and six in the afternoon, it felt like a trading floor – listings coming in, briefs being returned, everything moving at speed. Try managing 30 diaries when you’re allocating work across the country under pressure… you learn quickly how to stay calm.”
Q: How did the move into managing Tier 1 Barristers’ change your approach?
“For the first time, I was working with a product that didn’t need pushing – the work was already there. That meant I had to adapt from pure hustle to strategic practice management.
Suddenly, I was working around people operating at the very top of the market. Whilst I had worked with individuals, clerks or members at the highest level, being in an environment where every member is Tier 1 forces you to level up. I had no issues with the transition.”
Q. What prompted your focus on strategic BD when others weren’t?
A pivotal moment for me was my time at Hardwicke Buildings, now Gatehouse Chambers, when Anne Buxton, the CEO at the time, said she wanted to champion me and sponsor me to undertake the CIM marketing qualification. It was hard work, but it completely changed the way I think.
That’s when my interest in professionalising business development really took hold. At the time, marketing at the Bar was still seen as slightly taboo; people would genuinely raise eyebrows at it, but I pushed it anyway.
I was invited to speak about how barristers’ clerks could professionalise their approach to marketing. That’s what surprised me, once you start talking about it openly, other people followed. Quite a few clerks went down the CIM route after that, and the session was sold out. At 28 years old, I had made an impact.”
Q: You later took a bold step into litigation funding. What drove that move?
“I needed to challenge myself. Chambers was comfortable, I was thriving and being looked after, and I could have stayed there for the rest of my career. But I wanted to know if I could do it in a different sector.
So I moved into funding. It made the news at the time, and it was a real learning curve. Especially when the business was acquired (by Fortress), who are still a major player globally.
Funding completely changed how I think about disputes: risk, return, costs, proportionality. It gave me a much broader commercial lens and, ultimately, the confidence to set up my own business.”
Q: What is Prosperant and how would you describe it today?
“At its core, Prosperant LLP is a Global Legal Consultancy advising senior leaders on strategy, growth, consolidation and providing solutions to problems. We launch new ventures, provide leadership coaching and advise in all aspects of leadership. It’s broad, but it’s always centred on helping leaders in law make better decisions. We are currently advising senior leaders in the UK, Europe, Africa, New York, Hong Kong, India, Australia, Dubai and Kuwait.
My father-in-law is an entrepreneur, and for years, he said to me, ‘You should build your own business.’ We eventually did it, during COVID, which some people thought was mad, but in many ways, it was the best time. We had time to think, to plan properly. My co-founder, Jamie White, is a McKinsey & Company trained strategist, and he was always my secret weapon at Fountain Court. We were destined to be in business together, and he has advised the best law firms and leaders in the world, including major projects with Allen & Overy, Slaughter & May, White & Case and many more.
Now we’re 17 people across three jurisdictions. We work with law firms and Chambers in the UK, Europe and internationally. We are focused on what 2030 looks like and how to achieve it, whether that’s driven by economics, talent, sector focus, or wider market conditions like geopolitics. We have the best advisers on our bench and deploy them whenever needed. Focusing on growth is a key aspect of what we focus on.
We bring in specialist expertise depending on the mandate. We have a geopolitical analyst, Tina Fordham, one of the best in the world, who was with Citi Group and has advised prime ministers and government heads. We work with M&A experts too, including Andrew Roberts, who has completed over 140 law firm M&A deals.
One of the things I’m proudest of is international launches. We launched a Barristers’ Chambers in Hong Kong from scratch during COVID, with 24 barristers, built over Zoom. That enquiry came from a chapter I wrote in The Independent Bar, where David Barnes was the contributing editor and invited me to be part of it. At the time, I was the youngest contributor by a considerable margin. I was invited to draft the chapter on practice management and BD, which is now a leading textbook in all universities. The Hong Kong team contacted me off the back of that chapter. It’s a good reminder that the extra work you do – writing, speaking, contributing- can come back in a big way.
We also helped launch the first Middle Eastern law firm in London, Meysan. Jamie (my co-founder) has launched around 40 boutiques globally over his career; I’ve done eight since we started Prosperant.‘’
Q: From the outside, what do you think surprises people most about the legal profession?
“One thing that still surprises me is how often brilliant lawyers are promoted into leadership roles with no training and are simply expected to figure it out. They are great lawyers, but what happens when you don’t have an MBA or any leadership experience to back it up?
You see it in big law firms all the time, technically exceptional lawyers who know how to win cases and manage clients, whether in disputes or transactional work. But then they’re parachuted into management roles on the assumption that being a great lawyer is enough.
Some adapt naturally. Many don’t. In most other industries, leadership is taught. In law, technical excellence is often assumed to be sufficient, and it isn’t always.”
We shouldn’t complain. It’s why we have a job!”
Q: Is there a question you wish more leaders would ask?
“Yes – they don’t ask their teams enough questions or involve them at the right time. Strategy is often treated as a solo responsibility when it should be collaborative. It shouldn’t be a secret. I also feel in a Law firm M&A situation that the leadership team should involve the key stakeholders i.e. the people, sooner.
Leaders can feel they need to have all the answers. Listening more would solve a lot of problems”
Q: When things get busy, how do you keep perspective?
“Perspective comes from outside the law. My long-standing involvement with Save the Children keeps me grounded, and time with my family is non-negotiable. It’s my 30th year with Save the Children, as a former chair of the African advisory board, and now an elected global Vice President. Having now raised £22.7 million to help save children’s lives during my time puts everything into perspective for me. Once I am retired, I will continue to do more.
I’ve seen too many people burn out, or worse, by losing sight of what matters. During COVID, I realised that working hard doesn’t have to mean working inefficiently.
I still work intensely, but I’m much clearer about boundaries. Starting the day with my children and sitting down together for dinner in the evening matters to me. That time doesn’t come back.
Success without health or relationships isn’t success.”
Q: Has your definition of success changed over time?
“Completely. Earlier in my career, success was defined by numbers, titles and milestones.
Now it’s about quality, the quality of the work, the quality of the relationships and the quality of life around it. I’m far more selective about whom I work with. If the chemistry isn’t right, I’d rather walk away.
Becoming a parent changes your perspective in a way that nothing else really does. My children are 10 and 12 now, and I’m very conscious that time is the most important asset we have.
I’ve taken advice from people I respect, including my mentors, Gary Brown and Alex Taylor, and made a conscious decision to prioritise presence over pace.
My career used to be defined by a number. Today, it’s defined by the quality of my interactions, both professionally and personally, and the people I choose to build things with.”
Q: Finally, what excites you most about what’s coming next?
“Disruption. Consolidation. Technology done properly.
The market has already changed – now it’s about who’s brave enough to adapt. For us, that’s where the opportunity is.”
The Verdict
Paul’s career mirrors the evolution of the legal profession itself, moving from traditional clerking roots to a modern, global advisory role shaped by strategy, leadership and perspective. What stands out most is his emphasis on listening, trust and long-term thinking, which is underpinned by his drive to innovate. Also, as a former clerk, he has bravely set up his own global business rather than continuing to work for others. His belief that leadership should be collaborative rather than isolating feels especially timely as the legal market continues to shift through consolidation, technological change and evolving expectations.
Thirty years in, Paul’s focus is no longer on numbers or titles, but on the quality of the work, the people around him and what he helps others to build and achieve. It has been a compelling journey – and one that looks set to continue for some time yet.
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