Welcome to Graduate Recruitment at BWB
NEWS FROM BWB:
BWB have updated their training contract package to include payment of both the CPE/GDL and LPC fees and payment of interest on loans taken out during both.
SOME RELEVANT DATES TO NOTE:
TRAINING CONTRACTS - Applications are now closed for 2012 training contracts. Please return to this website later
in the year for details of 2013 applications - which are likely to open in May 2011.
VACATION PLACEMENTS: VACATION PLACEMENTS: We are looking to offer vacation placements in future at Christmas
and Easter as well as Summer (although not for this Christmas vacation 2010). These placements will be paid
and details of these will be posted on this website shortly.
ABOUT BWB
Our history
Bates Wells & Braithwaite, London was set up by Andrew Phillips on the 1st January 1970. It is one of only a handful
of new firms established in the City since then. Today the London office has grown to 23 Partners, 53
Assistant Solicitors and 10 Trainee Solicitors plus a full complement of back-up staff.
Bates Wells & Braithwaite was founded over 100 years ago in Sudbury, Suffolk.
About Us
Starting the London office from scratch enabled us to shape the practice to suit our interests and strengths.
When we started we saw an opening for a firm attuned to the business client who wanted a personal service - but a
firm which also could act for charities, institutions and individuals. Over the years, we have maintained that mix
as we have grown steadily from two individuals to our current level of 150.
Yet while we cover an ever increasing area of individual, institutional and corporate endeavours, we still make
sure that we are able to provide our clients with a personal professional service based on long continuity of staff
and mutually rewarding relationships.
We recognise that law is a business where people matter most of all and we ensure that clients know the person who
is working for them. We are still small enough to be able to do this, but large enough to be able to provide the full
range of services which our clients need.
Areas of Practice
- Charity & Social Enterprise Law
- Competition Law
- Corporate / Commercial
- Dispute Resolution
- Education Law
- Employment
- Environment
- Film & Television
- Health & Social Care
- Immigration
- Insolvency
- Intellectual Property
- IT & Information Law
- Private Client
- Property
- Public & Administrative Law
- Sports Law
- Theatre & Arts
- Trade Associations
The international dimension
We were co-founders in 1971 of the PARLEX GROUP of European lawyers, which now consists of a network of law firms
throughout Western Europe. We have always had a policy of welcoming foreign law students and lawyers as observers.
The Parlex Group was registered as the first EEIG in Britain and is its oldest such group.
Our purpose
We have certain beliefs about how we should go about our work which we call our Ethos. This is set out below.
Ethos
To do worthwhile work for clients we respect to the best of our ability in a highly competitive environment.
We will, at all times, seek to value everyone in the firm and provide secure and enjoyable employment. We will
strive to preserve a balance between work and home.
We will encourage a diverse and open culture which also fosters trust and loyalty both within the firm and with
clients. All this we endeavour to achieve in the context of making a reasonable living and always with a commitment to
justice and the public interest.
ABOUT OUR TRAINING CONTRACTS
We aim to recruit four Trainees a year. We are always looking to retain Trainees at the end of their Training
Contracts as we strongly believe in building the firm on sound foundations from the bottom with an emphasis on
finding and developing home grown talent. We are not looking for the person who for whatever reason has failed
to get the big-firm training contract they really want.
Amongst our current partners, we have a number of former trainees including William Garnett, now Head of our
Employment Department, Philip Kirkpatrick, Rosamund McCarthy, Julian Blake, Abbie Rumbold and Thea Longley all
in our Charity & Social Enterprise Department, Dinah Tuck in our Public & Administrative Law Department and Rob
Oakley in our Dispute Resolution Department.
Many of our assistant solicitors are former trainees and on their way to being the partners of the future. Last
year all four Trainees stayed with the firm and we would hope to be able to retain all our current Trainees in the future.
What we are looking for
BWB has a unique profile. We want to attract the best possible potential commercial lawyers who understand the work
we undertake, the clients we work for and who are committed to our ethos. We are also looking for candidates with
interests outside work which we would expect to be maintained if not developed
We are not looking for the person who for whatever reason has failed to get the big-firm training contract they really want.
We expect an applicant to have a sound academic background (a minimum 2.1 degree is required) plus an ability to
communicate clearly and effectively. But most important we want an applicant who is positively looking to join a
firm with our work mix and approach. We are also looking for candidates with interests outside work which we
would expect to be maintained if not developed.
Trainee current seat arrangements are 2 six month seats in the first year and 3 four month seats in the second
year. All trainees do seats in Charity and Dispute Resolution. Other seats are Immigration, Company Commercial,
Employment and Property.
We aim to train and educate all Fee Earners and Trainees both in specific work areas and in general skills to
maximise potential and we run a programme of courses, internal and external, that cover topics of relevance for the whole firm.
We currently pay first year trainees £31,000, second year trainees £34,000 and newly qualified solicitors
£45,000. All of these salaries are reviewed annually. We pay GDL and LPC course fees plus interest on loans
taken out during these courses will be paid from the signing of a training contract to the contract end.
Note for BVC/BPTC Students
From 1 September 2010 BVC/BPTC students who have not completed pupillage will not be eligible to become solicitors
without undertaking the LPC.
Students who have completed the BVC/BPTC course and want to become a solicitor (but have not undertaken pupillage)
must apply to the Solicitors Regulation Authority before 1 September 2010 for a Certificate of Eligibility to
undertake the conversion under the old regulations.
BVC/BPTC students who do not have a Certificate of Eligibility or will not have one before the implementation of
the new regulations should not apply for a training contract.
Further information is available at
http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/qltt/qlts-faq.page.
If your questions are not answered on this page, please email
training@bwbllp.com.
Telephone calls may not be returned.
