Get in touch 0117 325 0526
Get in touch 0117 325 0526
Menzies Law is a respected boutique employment law firm based in Bristol. Founded in 2009 by Luke Menzies, an employment lawyer with a background at the Bar and in City, national and regional firms, Menzies Law quickly established itself as a pioneer. At the time it was believed to be the first specialist employment firm outside London.
Within just 4 years the firm was highly ranked in the Legal 500 and Chambers and continues to be recognised for excellence in employment law across the South West legal market and beyond.
Delivering a top-tier service with a really personal touch is always our aim. Our website testimonials and reviews on Review Solicitors and Google demonstrate the difference we make for our clients.
Our core service covers the full spectrum of employment law, of which about 75% is employer/respondent and 25% employee/claimant. We maintain a good balance between advisory and litigation work and enjoy designing and delivering client training sessions too. In addition to employment law, we provide specialist HR project support, investigations, immigration advice and corporate/commercial advice via our network of trusted consultants.
Over the years, a small high calibre team of lawyers, many from leading London and Bristol firms, have cemented our reputation as an unconventional, commercially astute and client-centred firm. We consistently championed home and flexible working when other firms would not.
We have a small office based from Luke’s home in North Bristol. This is where Barney, Luke’s dog (and Head of Bins and Welfare) can be found. He is adept at supporting us through the emotional ups and downs of life as employment lawyers!
If you fear that leaving a more corporate practice and joining a small firm might mean compromising on the quality of your work, we can assure you that’s not the case here. We advise some sizeable clients with their challenging people issues and we’ve benefited from very long-term relationships with many. 10+ years is not an uncommon period for our employer clients to remain with us. Arguably, some of our smaller business and charity sector clients give us work that is just as interesting and stretching as that from our corporate and senior employee/director clients.
We have many employer clients on annual retainers, allowing us to develop deep and enduring relationships. We have also built up an excellent network of referrals and ‘repeat customers’ amongst executives and directors over the years so we’re never short of interesting, high-net-worth individuals amongst our clients.
It is this mix which gives us a stimulating, varied daily workload of contentious and non-contentious matters on both sides of the fence. It is genuinely a well-balanced mix, with no drudgery or silos.
An average week for one of our fee-earners might often involve; ET casework, a couple of COT3s, a settlement agreement or two, a director’s service agreement, advising on TUPE, sexual harassment, DSAR, disability, SOSR, employment status, holiday pay, a bonus scheme, advising on disciplinaries and grievances – for both employers and employees.
There might be some blogs to write or a training session to devise or deliver and twice a year we need to prep for our employment law updates events. These are in-person events designed to keep our clients (and potential clients) abreast of new legislation and cases of note from previous months together with their implications. We may also take a deep dive into an aspect of employment law which clients have asked for. It’s the rewarding breadth of our work that we love, and we strive to keep it that way.
One approach that stands out from other firms, particularly of our size, is that we benefit hugely from very hands-on day-to-day management by Samantha Muirhead, our Head of Operations, who runs a tight ship operationally and financially. She, along with our legal & finance administrator speak to all potential new clients in depth. They assess and filter them, agree terms, risk-assess, get money on account if required and complete file opening, all before our fee-earners first speak to the client. This leaves us to get on with fee-earning and we consistently receive praise from clients for how well looked after and listened to they feel.
We’ve been fortunate to have retained a very stable team for a long period, but the departure in the last year or two of some senior fee-earners means we’re looking for the next generation of lawyers to join us. Luke has an eye firmly on the future and we’re keen to find lawyers who may want partnership or would perhaps take over the firm entirely in the coming years. It’s fine if you don’t have equity ambitions – we’ve still got plenty to keep you interested, but if you do there’s a great opportunity for you here.
We guarantee flexibility and can offer full or part-time roles which are largely home-based. A willingness to spend some time once a week in our office is preferred (but it could be more if that’s your preference) so being within reasonable travelling distance of Bristol would be helpful. Of course, we recognise the need to offer a highly competitive package since we’re keen to attract outstanding lawyers to the firm.
We’re keen to speak with ambitious employment law specialists with c. 8-15 PQE and who can demonstrate:
Our informal culture also means a relaxed and informal recruitment process. Our suggested approach is:
We look forward to meeting you.
5.0/5