Graduate Recruitment
SOME RELEVANT DATES TO NOTE:
Summer Placements 2008: Applications now closed
Open evening: Wednesday 25th June 2008 (Numbers are limited and taken on first come first served basis) Please register below by midnight on Tuesday 24th June.
Training Contracts 2010: Apply by midnight on 24th July 2008
Law Fairs: College of Law - Birmingham.
OPEN EVENING
We will be holding an open evening on Wednesday 25th June this year for students who will be looking for training contracts to commence in 2010. 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. If you wish to attend, please fill in the registration details below – places are 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 your 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.
SUMMER PLACEMENTS
Our summer placements are now complete for 2008. Please revert to this website on 1st November 2008 for placements in 2009.
If you applied for a summer placement for 2008, please note that this does not automatically enter your application for a 2010 training contract. You will need to apply separately as below.
TRAINING CONTRACTS - 2010
We are inviting applications for trainee positions with Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP for commencement in September 2010. The application procedure is on-line only – see below.
You must complete this application by midnight on 24th July 2008 in order to apply. We require all candidates to use this web-based (but simple) application process. This page will be removed at that time. If there are exceptional circumstances which make it difficult for you to do so please write a special covering letter when you send your letter and CV to us.
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 £28,000, second year trainees £30,000 and newly qualified solicitors £41,000. All of these salaries will be reviewed in the summer of 2008.
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. If you are about to complete this application with a standard CV and letter, however strong your academic record, you will receive a rejection. We want to receive applications from candidates who want to work for us and reflect that in their letter and CV. Letters can be addressed to “Graduate Recruitment Manager” with “Dear Sir or Madam”.
PLEASE ENTER YOUR DETAILS HERE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO REGISTER FOR AN INVITATION TO OUR OPEN EVENING – Numbers are limited and allocated on a first come basis.
please repeat your e-mail address
We do not record attendance at these events which will have no impact on our decisions. They are an opportunity for you to learn more about BWB, to help you decide if we are the right firm for you.
TO APPLY FOR A TRAINING CONTRACT
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.
The next formal communication you will receive from BWB will be shortly after 1st August 2008 when we will give you a decision on whether you will be one of the 30 candidates being invited for a first round interview.
Following the first round interviews 10 candidates are invited for a final interview, chaired by our senior partner. All communication will be by email but with those successful at each stage receiving a confirmation letter.
Please note that first and final round interviews will be held in August 2008, with offers being made on 1st September 2008. You must be available for interview during August.
If you have any specific questions about Training Contracts or Summer Placements that are now answered on this website, please email us at training@bwbllp.com
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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 24 Partners, 40 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 both 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 and Julian Blake in our Charity & Social Enterprise Department, Dinah Tuck in our Public & Administrative Law Department and Rob Oakley in our Dispute Resolution Department, Rosamund McCarthy and Abbie Rumbold and Thea Longley in our Charity and Social Enterprise 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 again this year we have been pleased to also offer positions to our qualifying trainees. 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.
