Solicitor

Our values are important to us, they shape our decisions and our working life.

Making a profit is core to all businesses but our goal is to combine this with a real social purpose. Since opening in 1970, we’ve focussed on positive social impact as much as we have on being a successful law firm and we were the first UK law firm with B Corp certification.

Today, our clients are diverse – from corporate household names, to public bodies, to start-ups. We’re also the firm of choice for thousands of charities and social enterprises.  We continue to lead the market we helped to shape. 

As a purpose and values driven firm we show commitment to our clients, our people, the environment and society.  We see it as our purpose to create a positive impact. The impact we have on our people, our communities and our planet does more than inform our work - it gets us up in the morning.

Bates Wells challenges what is possible in legal expertise delivery.

The successful candidate will need to establish themselves quickly in a busy team and look to contribute to a supportive environment across a varied and interesting workload.

We encourage our junior lawyers to take on early responsibility, enjoy a high degree of client contact and be enthusiastic and contribute to business development. A positive and pragmatic problem-solving approach is key to thriving in the department. The successful candidate will need to be able to prioritise between a range of matters and tasks with the ability to work autonomously.

Our clients include commercial and other organisations, social enterprises, organisations in the sports, education and retail sectors as well as charities, with a particular focus on the not-for-profit sector.

To thrive in this role you will display the following attributes:

• excellent technical ability;
• ability to think creatively, particularly when advising clients with more limited budgets, and to offer options;
• a clear and accessible writing style; and
• ability to prioritise between a varied range of matters and tasks with different degrees of urgency.

Specific tasks may change over time, so we’ll need you to be adaptable and flexible as we continue to meet our clients’ needs.

• The ability to build, maintain and nurture relationships
• A client-centric approach
• Teamwork – there is a place for individual effort but we highly value a collaborative approach
• A results-focused mentality – we hope you’ll challenge the status quo if you feel it’ll benefit our work
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills 
• A genuine interest in the work we do
• We encourage questions about the business and invite you to test assumptions and propose ideas

Finally, we want people whose values reflect our own and who feel inspired working in a firm with a strong social purpose.

• Our purpose and values both guide and drive us
• We promote a strong work/life balance
• We have an agile working environment – this means you might sit next to a different colleague every day or choose to work from our rooftop garden and we actively encourage people to work from home once a week.  During this period of social distancing this is of course much higher, and we are likely to review our policies to enable greater home-working during 2021.
• Our culture encourages clear and honest dialogue and cross-team support
• We can promote our staff throughout the year and there are annual salary reviews
• We recognise success and contribution at any time of the year through our Recognition Scheme
• Our benefits and wellbeing package includes firm matching pension contributions, private medical insurance plus a medical benefit cash plan, discretionary bonus arrangements, life assurance, 25 days holiday with the opportunity to buy more, subsidised gym memberships, lifestyle discount scheme, firm-wide profit sharing scheme, on site café, and Summer in the City early-Friday-finish
• Everyone gets a bonus if there is one - a proportion of the LLP profit is distributed to our people when we exceed our financial thresholds

Our Real Estate practice provides expertise across all aspects of the property sector from typical transactions such as acquisitions, disposals and leases to funding, finance, litigation and dispute resolution. There are a total of 29 of us, acting for an impressive array of clients, from the charity sector where we are market leaders; to commercial firms and our experienced team are always looking for new and cost-effective ways to provide the best solutions to meet the needs of our clients.

• Bates Wells is a B Corporation.  B Corporations are profit-making, purpose-driven organisations unified by one goal: to redefine success in business
• Our people rate us and we made it into the Sunday Times’ ‘Top 100 firms to work’ for in 2018
• Bates Wells provides legal documents to clients through ‘Get Legal’ – an innovative online documentation portal, which provides an affordable suite of legal documents drafted by sector-leading experts for tailoring by individual users
• We are committed to your wellbeing and offer physical and mental support in the way of subsidised gym membership, private health care and in-office Mental Health Awareness Ambassadors.
• We strongly believe that everyone should have the opportunity to reach their full potential whatever their background and believe a diverse team is integral to our success
• We are signatories of the Halo Code Agreement, Race at Work Charter and Race Fairness Commitment

Don’t forget to review our website (https://bateswells.co.uk/) and ask around about us to find out more and whether we’re the right fit for you.

NB We will normally have at least 2 interviews – to test your skills and competencies to work with us and to see if your values align with ours.