Mark Mears
Partner
I rejoined GA in late 2023 as a solicitor in the family team and was promoted to partner in 2025. I am a specialist in the Care Team working on matters involving cases where social services want to remove children from the parents’ care. I am also an experienced advocate in Magistrates, County and High Courts, and I’m also a former Associate Lecturer in Law at the University of Plymouth, teaching Children Law.
I qualified as a solicitor in October 1996 at Foot & Bowden into the Child Care Team following the completion of my training contract with Foot & Bowden Solicitors.
I studied law at Plymouth University and graduated in 1993. I went on to study the Legal Practice Course (LPC) with a Master’s of Laws (LLM) at the University of the West of England in Bristol and graduated in 1994. I have a BSc in Sports Therapy and Injury Rehabilitation and an MSc in Sports Rehabilitation
Besides law, I have worked in professional sports for several years and was a programme leader of the Sports Therapy and Injury Rehabilitation Degree at Plymouth University. I have also taught on the Law Degree and the Physiotherapy Degree at Plymouth University.
At university, I was awarded the Sweet & Maxwell Law Prize for best student and won the national student Client Interviewing Competition, finishing 2nd in the World Competition in Canada. I have worked for a Law firm in Los Angeles and taught English Law at UCLA as a guest lecturer.
