Senior Associate

Job Title: Senior Associate

Reports To: Head of Public and Regulatory law

About the Public & Regulatory team at Bates Wells

Our leading Chambers and Legal 500 ranked practice covers a wide range of advisory and contentious work, providing opportunities to work on cutting edge and high profile matters and to contribute to consultations on policy reform. 

The team advises across areas such as equality duties, human rights, safeguarding, public procurement, public sector audits, inquiries and inquests. It acts for a diverse array of regulators and public bodies on the interpretation and implementation of public law obligations and resisting potential challenges, including judicial reviews. It is also frequently instructed to advise charities and non-profits on their regulatory concerns, and advises on professional discipline and fitness-to-practice proceedings.

The role

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Senior Associate to join the Public & Regulatory department.

The successful candidate will need to establish themselves quickly in a busy team and operate with a significant degree of autonomy across a varied caseload divided approximately equally between advisory and contentious work. Therefore a minimum of c. 8 years PQE in public and regulatory law is desirable.

The role requires confidence advising on complex issues, including regulatory matters that involve more than one regulatory regime and inter-disciplinary cases. The successful candidate will be comfortable leading their own matters on a day-to-day basis, supervising other lawyers, and working across a diverse range of clients, including public and private sector bodies, charities, social enterprises and individuals in a variety of sectors including local government, charities, education and health and social care. Depth and breadth of experience in advising organisations on core public and regulatory law issues is essential. Expertise in inquiries and safeguarding is desirable but not essential.  While expertise in professional discipline is welcome this is not the focus of the role.

This is a key role for the department, providing opportunities to lead on business development initiatives and support the partners in the management of client relationships, development of other lawyers and running of the department. We encourage all our lawyers to pursue their personal interests through their practice and to work cross-departmentally through our wide range of exceptionally strong sector groups.

We have an agreed set of values consistent with our purpose and we seek people who are attuned with our purpose and values. Specific tasks may change over time, so we will need you to be adaptable and flexible as we continue to meet our clients’ needs.

Which qualities do we look for?

• 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 will challenge the status quo if you feel it would 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.

Why Bates Wells?

Making a profit is core to all businesses, but doing so while having a social purpose means an organisation can make wiser business decisions, assess the impact of these decisions on others, and protect its interests long-term.

This is how we aspire to run our business, and since opening in 1970, we have been part of the movement that puts profits and purpose on equal footing.

Today, our clients are diverse – from public bodies, regulators and companies, through to household names from the third sector, to individuals and start-ups.  We continue to lead the market we helped to shape. 

As a values-driven firm - we show commitment to our clients, our people, the environment and society. We are the first UK law firm with a B Corp certification.  

What are we like to work for?

For now whilst the pandemic continues to disrupt our lives, the Bates Wells working environment is a bit different. We are mostly working from home and although we are not together in the office, our values and our approach to supporting our people remain strong.

• 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
• Our culture encourages clear and honest dialogue and cross-team support
• We can promote our staff throughout the year   
• 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

Some extra details

• 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

How to find out more about us

You can find out more about Bates Wells and whether we are the right fit for you by reading about us on our website https://bateswells.co.uk/ or if you would like to have a conversation about the role please contact Francesca Evans, Trainee Recruitment & Recruitment Advisor (f.evans@bateswells.co.uk). The role will close on Monday 18 January 2021 but as it is an urgent requirement we will progress applications as they are received, so please apply early to avoid disappointment.