Legal careers at the Bank of England

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. 

You are not expected to be an expert across the all aspects of our work on joining the legal team.  When you join our team, we will show you the ropes and support you every step of the way. 

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

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

Join our team

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

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.

We also make sure that everyone can find a balance that works for them. More than a third of us work part time. And, even before the Covid pandemic, most of us worked flexibly, so we can take care of others or simply to take care of ourselves.

Current vacancies 

Qualified lawyers

We regularly advertise vacancies for qualified lawyers. Typically, we look for lawyers with 1-4 years’ post qualified experience (PQE) for scale F lawyers and 4+ years’ PQE for scale E lawyers. 

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

Latest vacancies

Trainee Solicitors

If you are at the beginning of your legal career, we offer a Trainee Solicitor Development Programme. On the programme, you would study for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) at the same time as working with us, gaining valuable on the job experience at the heart of the Bank of England, in order to qualify as a solicitor at the end of the programme. Read our introduction to the Trainee Solicitor Development Programme. 

Register for our virtual insight day on 21 September 2023.

Applications are currently closed but you can register your interest for our 2024 opportunities.

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