Welcome to Graduate Recruitment at BWB
SOME RELEVANT DATES TO NOTE:
Summer Placements 2009: Information on our Summer Placements and the application form can be found below - applications will close on 18th February 2009.
Training Contracts 2011: The application form will be available on this site from 1st May 2009 and close at midnight on Thursday 23rd July 2009.
Open evening: We will be holding an open evening at our offices on 29th June 2009 for students intending to apply for our next training contracts in 2011. Registration will open on 1st March 2009 on this site.
Law Fairs: We will be attending the SOAS Law Fair on 11th November 2008 and the National Law Fair at the Business Design Centre, Islington London on 22nd June 2009. Come along and meet us.
OPEN EVENING
We will be holding an open evening on 29th June 2009 for students who will be looking for training contracts to commence in 2011. There will be short presentations by Stephen Lloyd our Senior Partner and Peter Bennett our Partnership Executive Officer and a chance to meet our current trainees who will give you a tour around the offices. Registration for the open evening will open on 1st March 2009. Places will be limited and allocated on a first come basis. We do not record attendance at these events - except for security reasons on entering the building – and your attendance will have no impact on any application. The open evening is an opportunity for you to meet us, learn more about BWB and to help you decide if we are the right firm for you.
NB: Applying for a Summer Placement does not automatically go forward for the Training Contract application procedure. You will need to apply separately as below.
TRAINING CONTRACTS - 2011
The application procedure for our intake of trainees for 2010 has now closed. We will open applications for 2011 on 1st May 2009. See below for summer placements for 2009.
We offer up to five training contracts each year and over the last three years we have offered a solicitor position to every trainee. We currently pay first year trainees £30,000, second year trainees £32,500 and newly qualified solicitors £45,000. All of these salaries will be reviewed in the summer of 2009.
Bates Wells & Braithwaite 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.
APPLYING FOR A SUMMER PLACEMENT - 2009
We offer a small number of one-week summer vacation placements each year, usually a total of 12 students – 2 per week - during mid June to late July. The dates in 2009 will be 15th June to 24th July. The placement aims to provide an insight into BWB, an understanding of how a legal working environment operates and the types of work we do here. There is also opportunity to socialise with our current trainees.
Applications for our 2009 summer placements will only be considered from those who will be applying for a 2011 training contract - i.e. who are in or are beyond the second year of their university course.
The closing date for applying for a 2009 placement will be 18th February 2009. You must complete the application below by midnight on 18th February 2009 in order to apply. This page will be removed at that time. If there are exceptional circumstances which make it difficult for you to complete this web based application, please write a special covering letter when you send your CV to us.
Letters may be addressed to Peter Bennett.
TO APPLY FOR A SUMMER PLACEMENT
Please complete the following brief form with your contact details
and press
SUBMIT. You will then be required to cut and paste your CV
and covering letter into two areas.
NB: Your letter and CV may lose
any special formatting once inserted in the boxes and therefore please
make allowances for this. If you have problems pasting in your
documents, make sure they are saved in a word format with a .doc
extension (and not .docx or similar).
When you have completed this form and pasted your letter and CV please press submit
What happens next?
You will receive an email by return confirming that you have successfully submitted your application. We will contact you with a decision during March 2009. If selected, you will not be required to attend an interview.
NB: Applying for a Summer Placement does not automatically go forward for the Training Contract application procedure. You will need to apply separately - see above.
If you have any specific questions about Training Contracts or Summer Placements that are not answered on this website, please email us at training@bwbllp.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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 you
We aim to recruit five 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.
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.
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 five Trainees stayed with the firm and we would hope to be able to retain all our current Trainees in the future.
Assistance
We will pay for your LPC fees together with interest on student loans during the period of your Training Contract.
