Legal

Your legal career with us

I am Sonya Branch, Executive Director of the Bank of England’s Legal Directorate and General Counsel.

Only a few legal teams can truly say the work they do is unique and cutting edge. Fewer still have a hand in writing the laws they uphold. And only a handful wake up quite so often to hear about their work in the morning’s news.

This – together with the commitment of our lawyers, paralegals and dedicated support staff - is what makes our Legal Directorate the In-House Legal Team of the Year 2022!

I have worked in many interesting places during my career, but I can definitely say the Bank of England is the most diverse, fast-paced and exciting. 

The work we do here is frequently challenging and sometimes demanding, but it is always rewarding.  We work hard to support each other. 

Members of our team come from many different legal and cultural backgrounds. We go out of our way to celebrate our differences and listen to each other, so that everyone’s voice is heard. 

If you would like to join our award-winning team, please read on to find out more about us and our current opportunities. 

Sonya Branch

What we do

We support all policy areas and key statutory committees of the Bank of England, including the Prudential Regulation Authority. We enjoy regular engagement at the very top of the organisation. 

We work closely with legal teams in other central banks internationally, the Financial Conduct Authority and HM Treasury.

Many aspects of our work will be familiar to you. They include financial services regulation, bank and payments, due diligence, insolvency and restructuring, litigation, employment, contracts, procurement and data protection. 

Other aspects may not be so familiar. They include supervision of banks, insurers and market infrastructure, as well as the Bank of England’s activities as the UK’s central bank.

We aim to do as much of our work as possible in-house. This means the breadth, depth and complexity of the legal issues we handle are very unusual for an in-house function. 

One day is rarely the same as another. Some examples of our work include:

• advising our policy committees on effective decision-making in a public law context
• enabling the launch of a new banknote or lending scheme, such as the Covid Corporate Financing Facility
• supporting colleagues when a bank is in trouble or with employment matters
• advising on the impact of new technologies on payments and the future of money
• drafting new rules or binding technical standards
• investigating rule-breaches by firms and individuals, building and preparing enforcement cases

Join our team

We welcome new colleagues with legal experience in any of the above areas and we also welcome those who may not have any directly relevant prior experience but who are seeking a new challenge. 

Our team consists of around 170 colleagues from both the private and public sectors and from many different countries and backgrounds. 

You are not expected to be an expert across all aspects of our work.. We invest in people and their careers. When you join our team, we will provide guidance and support you every step of the way. 

What we all have in common is the pride we share in our strong commitment to the Bank of England’s mission to maintain monetary and financial stability for the good of the people of the UK. 

It is an exciting time to join us as we continue to work hard to support the UK economy not just through a global pandemic, but also in building a new post-Brexit regulatory framework for financial services.

Much of the legal advice we give needs to take account of the public law context and we understand that this may be a new angle for you. Rest assured that you have a thorough induction.

We are looking for new colleagues who are willing to learn quickly, engage openly and rise to the challenge. We share information and insights freely. We are collaborative, not competitive and we do not typically need to record our time. 

Instead, we invest in our people and their careers. And we pride ourselves on our commitment to inclusive and supportive people management. We will encourage you try new things and develop a broad range of expertise.

How to apply

We regularly advertise vacancies for qualified lawyers. Typically, we look for lawyers with 1 to 4 years’ post qualified experience (PQE), or 4+ years’ PQE for more senior positions. 

If you’re interested in joining us, see our current vacancies. If there are no suitable vacancies, please check back soon. 

If you are at the beginning of your legal career, please see the below trainee solicitor scheme .

Search our vacancies

Trainee Solicitor Development Programme