Job Title: Corporate Associate (4-years PQE)
Reports To: Partner and Head of M&A and Corporate Finance Team
Why Bates Wells?
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 making a positive social and environmental impact as well 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 role
This is an excellent opportunity and will cover a broad range of corporate law; in particular mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, venture capital and private equity deals. The focus of the role will be handling a broad range of corporate matters.
We encourage all our lawyers to pursue their personal interests through their practice, develop management skills through supervising junior fee earners, contribute to business development and work cross-departmentally through our wide range of exceptionally strong sector groups.
Lawyers are provided with career development support, for example encouragement to co-manage client relationships with partners, support the development of recently qualified lawyers and be involved in the development of the department’s strategy.
Our team structure ensures a supportive environment coupled with the opportunity to work collaboratively with colleagues across the department and with other teams in the firm.
Specific tasks may change over time, so we’ll need you to be adaptable and flexible as we continue to meet our clients’ needs.
About the Corporate and Commercial team
Our Corporate & Commercial team specialises in the small to mid-cap market advising across a range of sectors including technology & media, financial services, healthcare and the Impact Economy.
The corporate side of the team works extensively on corporate advisory and transactional work including investments, mergers, acquisitions, shareholders’ agreements, joint ventures, group reorganisations and corporate fundraising.
The commercial side advises on the broad range of contractual matters, from advising on multi-million pound outsourcing projects to supply and distribution agreements of all kinds. However, this is a corporate focused position.
Our clients include multinational corporations, quoted companies, financial institutions, private companies of all sizes, partnerships, high-net-worth individuals and not-for-profit organisations, many of which operate globally.
The team are a close group of individuals and they are not the kind of lawyers who relentlessly quote the law – as they know that clients want straight answers.
About you
- You will be a UK qualified lawyer with around 4-years PQE working in a law firm.
- You see the value in Bates Wells as a career choice and view Bates Wells as a high quality employer.
- You share our values and want to make a difference.
- You want to feel that you are a part of the Bates Wells experience and ‘belong’.
- You are not afraid to test assumptions and challenge.
- You want exposure to a variety of challenges that will allow you to innovate.
- You are technically excellent, commercially minded and have great people skills.
About us
- A one firm approach means working together and improving to achieve common goals and to provide a consistent Bates Wells experience.
- As a values-driven firm we show commitment to our clients, our people, the environment and society. We take into account the Climate Emergency and Biodiversity Crisis in developing our business strategy.
- We work with exceptional clients to offer the very best work.
- We want to have a positive impact on our people who are our greatest asset so that they can have a positive impact on others. Purpose is baked into our partnership deed.
- Looking for better ways of working is always our priority.
- We promote a strong work/life balance with 25 days holiday with the opportunity to buy more and a ‘Summer in the City’ early-Friday-finish.
- 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 if you are in the office. We are currently reviewing our policies to enable a hybrid model moving forward.
- Our culture encourages clear and honest dialogue and cross-team support
- The firm review salaries annually as part of the appraisal process in July of each year. However, we encourage our staff to engage with their supervisors throughout the year on feedback and objective setting.
- 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, subsidised gym memberships, lifestyle discount scheme and a firm-wide profit sharing scheme.
- 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.
- 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.
How to find out more about us
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. |
