Working with us
As specialists in our area of law, and given our success in complex cases, often against high-profile and well-resourced opponents, we are justifiably proud of our ability to provide high quality advice to clients who are at the top of their field.
At the centre of our ethos is our committment to treat clients fairly, act with integrity and add real value. To achieve this, we consistently seek to ensure our team is made up of people who are not just technically excellent, but also personable and emotionally intelligent.
BDBF is a dynamic business, with a collegiate atmosphere. We all stem from different backgrounds, but share the same goals: to make BDBF a great place to work and to make a real difference for our clients.
Employees at all levels are encouraged to share knowledge and ideas. We believe that every person who works at BDBF should feel as committed to the success of the firm and our values as the founders are.
To ensure that we are all aligned, everyone who works in the firm is entitled to their own allocation of the firm’s profits and participates in the firm’s decision making. Importantly, each person in the firm has the opportunity to help shape the business and its strategy.
For a deeper insight into our culture, the reasons behind founding BDBF as an employee-owned firm focused on integrity and real client impact, and what makes our team truly collaborative, listen to this episode of The BDBF Podcast:
BDBF is growing — and we are looking for exceptional employment lawyers (1+PQE)
Join our top ranked team based in the City of London shaping the future of employment and partnership law.
About BDBF
We are a specialist employment and partnership law firm, recognised consistently as market-leading:
- Band 1 in Chambers and Tier 1 in Legal 500 for advising senior executives in London
- Ranked in the directories for partnership work and our work for employers
- Home to leading Partners recognised by Chambers, Legal 500 (where all 6 partners are individually ranked), Super Lawyers, The Lawyer Hot 100, Doyle’s Guide and Lexology Index
- Current holders of the IEL Senior Executive Team of the Year and ranked as a Times Best Law Firm
We advise on high-stakes, often contentious workplace issues involving complex disputes and litigation in the Employment Tribunal and High Court, defending disciplinary allegations, leading settlement negotiations and advisory work. We also act for employers seeking proactive, practical solutions to avoid employment conflicts before they arise and to resolve them when they do. We are also often brought in by employers facing high-stakes litigation.
Whilst we predominantly work with senior executives and partners in financial services, our practice spans multiple sectors, including the legal sector and other professional services, giving our lawyers an opportunity to gain invaluable, varied experience and grow their careers and reputations.
Role Description
We are looking for dynamic, ambitious employment lawyers (1-4 PQE) to join our team.
This is an opportunity to:
- Work with sophisticated clients from the outset in a fast paced and exciting working environment
- Develop broader skills by tackling varied and high quality employment and partnership work
- Learn from some of the best lawyers in the field surrounded by a growing team at all levels of qualification
We offer a collaborative environment where lawyers, including those at the start of their career, are trusted, supported and challenged.
What we offer at BDBF
- You will have a genuine and active role in influencing the direction of the firm through firm-wide strategy processes (including through an off-site annual team strategy day), open channels of communication and regular team meetings in which anyone in the firm can (and does) add agenda items, share ideas and achievements
- The support of two exceptional knowledge lawyers, access to cutting edge IT and AI, as well as online legal resources, and freedom to access relevant training without the need to ask for permission
- We offer hybrid working and value work/life balance and respect your time outside work. That said, we are a high-performing team, and there will be times when client demands require extra commitment, and we support each other in doing so
- We offer excellent career development, with a strong track record of internal promotion and supporting professional growth
- Competitive pay – each employee has an equity stake in the firm in addition to base salary, an individual bonus scheme and a competitive benefits’ package. We also offer perks including regular team socials, breakfast at weekly team meetings and lunch on our anchor days of Tuesday and Thursday
- Freedom to develop business on your terms, with every member of the team given a BDBF credit card that does not require partner approval to use beyond a reasonable limit. We also have lower hours targets than most firms in the top tier recognising that our lawyers need and want time to develop business
What we are looking for
We are looking for lawyers who are:
- Keen to develop a practice acting predominantly for senior executives and partners (with the opportunity to do high quality employer work)
- academically strong and intellectually curious
- excellent communicators, with strong written and oral skills
- commercially aware, with relevant employment experience
- dynamic and confident engaging with sophisticated clients
- tenacious, empathetic, emotionally intelligent and adaptable
- self-aware, conscientious and proactive
- entrepreneurial in mindset and natural business developers
- tech savvy and keen to embrace the latest in legal tech to the advantage of our clients
- well-suited to contentious work and strong negotiators
- collaborative team players
You should also share our commitment to our core values: Brilliance, Integrity and Openness.
BDBF is growing — and we are looking for exceptional experienced employment lawyers (5+PQE)
Join our top ranked team based in the City of London shaping the future of employment and partnership law.
About BDBF
We are a specialist employment and partnership law firm, recognised consistently as market-leading:
- Band 1 in Chambers and Tier 1 in Legal 500 for advising senior executives in London
- Ranked in the directories for partnership work and our work for employers
- Home to leading Partners recognised by Chambers, Legal 500 (where all 6 partners are individually ranked), Super Lawyers, The Lawyer Hot 100, Doyle’s Guide and Lexology Index
- Current holders of the IEL Senior Executive Team of the Year and ranked as a Times Best Law Firm
We advise on high-stakes, often contentious workplace issues involving complex disputes and litigation in the Employment Tribunal and High Court, defending disciplinary allegations, leading settlement negotiations and advisory work. We also act for employers seeking proactive, practical solutions to avoid employment conflicts before they arise and to resolve them when they do. We are also often brought in by employers facing high-stakes litigation.
Whilst we predominantly work with senior executives and partners in financial services, our practice spans multiple sectors, including the legal sector and other professional services, giving our lawyers an opportunity to gain invaluable, varied experience and grow their careers and reputations.
Role Description
We are looking for dynamic, ambitious experienced employment lawyers (5 PQE+) to join our team.
This is an opportunity to:
- Work with sophisticated clients from the outset in a fast paced and exciting working environment
- Broaden skills by tackling varied and high quality employment and partnership work
- Learn from some of the best lawyers in the field surrounded by a growing team at all levels of qualification
We offer a collaborative environment where lawyers are trusted, supported and challenged.
What we offer at BDBF
- You will have a genuine and active role in influencing the direction of the firm through firm-wide strategy processes (including through an off-site annual team strategy day), open channels of communication and regular team meetings in which anyone in the firm can (and does) add agenda items, share ideas and achievements
- The support of two exceptional knowledge lawyers, access to cutting edge IT and AI, as well as online legal resources, and freedom to access relevant training without the need to ask for permission
- We offer hybrid working and value work/life balance and respect your time outside work. That said, we are a high-performing team, and there will be times when client demands require extra commitment, and we support each other in doing so
- We offer excellent career development, with a strong track record of internal promotion and supporting professional growth
- Competitive pay – each employee has an equity stake in the firm in addition to base salary, an individual bonus scheme and a competitive benefits’ package. We also offer perks including regular team socials, breakfast at weekly team meetings and lunch on our anchor days of Tuesday and Thursday
- Freedom to develop business on your terms, with every member of the team given a BDBF credit card that does not require partner approval to use beyond a reasonable limit. We also have lower hours targets than most firms in the top tier recognising that our lawyers need and want time to develop business
What we are looking for
We are looking for lawyers who are:
- seeking to act predominantly for senior executives and partners (with the opportunity to do high quality employer work)
- academically strong and intellectually curious
- excellent communicators, with strong written and oral skills
- commercially aware, with relevant employment experience
- dynamic and confident engaging with sophisticated clients
- tenacious, empathetic, emotionally intelligent and adaptable
- self-aware, conscientious and proactive
- entrepreneurial in mindset and natural business developers
- tech savvy and keen to embrace the latest in legal tech to the advantage of our clients
- well-suited to contentious work and strong negotiators
- collaborative team players
- willing to share their knowledge and time supervising up and coming associates
You should also share our commitment to our core values: Brilliance, Integrity and Openness.
Knowledge Lawyer (Maternity Cover)
Term: 12-month fixed-term maternity cover contract beginning in mid-August 2026.
Location: Hybrid working with some office attendance in London required.
Full/part time: Part time, 3 days per week – we are open to discussion as to how this would be structured.
Supporting our Principal Knowledge Lawyer with the following tasks:
Team focused tasks
- Staying on top of relevant legal developments and communicating them to the team in a timely and accessible way.
- Updating existing precedents and guidance notes and preparing new ones as required.
- Promoting the contribution of know-how and adding contributions to the Knowledge area of our intranet.
- Assisting fee earners with technical and research queries in connection with their client matters.
- Devising, drafting and delivering technical training sessions to the team.
- Liaising with partners, other fee earners and Counsel on the delivery of training to the team and managing the training calendar for the year.
- Assisting with the management of our fortnightly know-how meetings.
- Assisting fee earners with identifying suitable external training sessions to meet their development needs.
- Identifying and implementing innovative approaches to help streamline our work and assisting with identifying and trialling new AI tools, software and other products.
- Working with the Partners and Head of Operations to ensure our firm’s compliance with new employment laws.
Business development focused tasks
- Drafting articles and case summaries for our monthly client newsletter.
- Drafting commentary, articles and thought leadership pieces for external publications and media outlets.
- Devising, drafting and delivering client webinars.
- Assisting with the delivery of in-person client seminars and round table events.
- Drafting, preparing and delivering bespoke training sessions for clients (including for in-house lawyers, HR professionals and line managers).
- Drafting speaking notes, conference papers and slide decks for Partners speaking at external conferences.
- Drafting technical content for our website and keeping it up to date.
- Collaborating with our Head of Marketing to identify and deliver thought leadership opportunities and preparing content to support such initiatives.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Excellent academic credentials.
- Admitted as a solicitor in the UK.
- Minimum 5 years post qualification experience as either a practising employment lawyer or knowledge lawyer.
- Excellent verbal and written English language skills.
- Excellent legal research and drafting skills.
- Experience of delivering training and presentations.
- Self-starter with strong time-management skills.
- Able to multi-task and move different projects along at the same time.
- Innovative and client-focused.