DAC Beachcroft
Interesting selling points
- DAC Beachcroft is a full-service law firm, with a strong reputation for its work involving the health and social care and insurance sectors.
- Chambers and Partners has awarded the firm Band 1 rankings for its Administrative & Public Law: Mainly Public Sector & Charities, Clinical Negligence: Mainly Defendant, Healthcare: Public and Third Sector, Life Sciences: Product Liability and Mental Health: Providers departments.
- Carries out a broad range of private client work, including work relating to personal injury, medical negligence and immigration, as well as work for organisations, indicating there is more variety on offer for trainees than at many other City firms.
- Notable clients include Sainsburys, the Metropolitan Police Service and NHS England.
- The firm has its own in-house advocacy service, branded 8 DAC (see here).
- DAC Beachcroft has a unique training contract built around the O-shaped Lawyer principles, suggesting lawyers benefit from a holistic professional development programme.
- Trainees participate in a “trainee shadow board”, which involves working on real business development projects. Trainees take tailored client relationship management modules and learn more about how the firm’s business operates through a series of placements into Business Services teams.
- Commitment to D&I demonstrated by the firm's recognition as a Stonewall Diversity Champion.
- The firm developed its own research and development hub, where it collaborates with colleagues, clients and industry stakeholders to design, prototype and test new ideas for commercial products and services.
We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.
Practice areas / services
DAC Beachcroft is a full-service law firm which has a number of practice areas including:
- Banking, Restructuring and Insolvency
- Commercial
- Corporate
- Data, Privacy and Cyber
- Dispute Resolution
- Employment
- Insurance Claims
- Real Estate
- Tax
Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded DAC Beachcroft its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Administrative & Public Law: Mainly Public Sector & Charities, Clinical Negligence: Mainly Defendant, Healthcare: Public and Third Sector, Life Sciences: Product Liability and Mental Health: Providers. See here for more information
Key sectors / industries
DAC Beachcroft works with a range of clients, with its most notable clients operating in the following sectors:
In addition, DAC Beachcroft services the following sectors: Aviation, Charities, Construction and Engineering, Education, ESG, Government and Public Sector, Infrastructure and Projects, Leisure and Hospitality, Manufacturing, Retail and Consumer, Sports Law, Transport and Logistics and Technology.
Work
DAC Beachcroft works with a number of high-profile clients, including:
- Sainsburys: The firm retained its place as one of eight law firms on Sainsbury’s UK legal panel following a competitive tender process.
- Metropolitan Police Service: DAC Beachcroft supported the Met to ensure the continued servicing and maintenance of its fleet of light commercial vehicles.
- NHS England: The firm advised NHS England on a high-profile judicial review, R (Gardner and Harris) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England.
Offices / global footprint / expansion
Headquarters: London, 25 Walbrook.
Offices: The firm has 34 offices, including 11 in the UK. Its international offices are in locations including Auckland, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Mexico City, to name but a few.
Insights, internships and other opportunities
The firm runs a combined application process as its vacation scheme forms part of the assessment process for a training contract. The vacation scheme gives participants an opportunity to attend client meetings and social events, as well as undertake real work.
DAC Beachcroft also offers the opportunity to join as a paralegal after university, which can enable individuals to build strong foundations for a legal career. Paralegals can also apply for funding to undertake qualifications like CILEx. Alongside these opportunities, the firm also runs workshops, mentoring schemes and work experience, in part through partnerships with Aspiring Solicitors and the Social Mobility Foundation.
Training contract
DAC Beachcroft has a unique training contract built around the O-shaped Lawyer principles. Trainees undertake four six month seats, whilst also taking a data analytics diploma and participating in a “trainee shadow board”, which involves working on real business development projects. In addition, trainees take tailored client relationship management modules and learn more about how the firm’s business operates through a series of placements into Business Services teams.
Seat options include clinical risk, corporate and commercial, corporate finance, commercial litigation, employment, healthcare regulatory, professional indemnity, professional negligence, property casualty and real estate. Trainees are supported by a supervisor throughout each seat (see here for more information).
Secondments
Client secondment opportunities may be available depending on client need, but these are not guaranteed.
Technology and innovation
DAC Beachcroft stresses the importance of innovation, and currently and focuses on innovations with the potential to benefit its clients. Examples of these innovations include:
- DAC Beachcroft Innovations Lab: the firm developed its own research and development hub, which involves collaborating with colleagues, clients and industry stakeholders to design, prototype and test new ideas for commercial products and services.
- ACE: The firm, with InsurTech Automated Insurance Solutions, launched ACE, an automated digital solution for gathering evidence and quickly preparing complainant witness statements, aimed at enabling motor insurers to dispute liability via the Official Injury Claim portal.
- BAIL: this is the firm’s own AI-powered liability assessment and decision tool, designed to assist with the process of gathering and assessing liability data in relation to motor accidents.
Corporate social responsibility
The firm is focused on being a responsible business in recognition of its “role in wider society”. This recognition is mirrored in the firm’s broad range of pro bono work, examples of which include:
- Pro Bono Steering Committee: the firm formed a partner-led Pro Bono Steering Committee to support the firm’s pro bono efforts.
- Aviva: the firm has helped its client Aviva in its efforts to develop sustainable communities in the UK through the Aviva Community Fund, which has involved publishing a series of know-how blogs on charity law issues that could potentially impact thousands of small charities.
- Personal Support Unit at the Royal Courts of Justice: the firm provides training on compiling bundles and completing court documents for volunteers at the Personal Support Unit at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Diversity and inclusion
The firm’s policy on diversity and inclusion is “designed to ensure” that the diversity of the communities in which it operates is reflected in the firm itself. Examples of increasing diversity and inclusion within the firm include:
- Internal Networks: the firm has a growing number of internal networks which are designed to increase inclusion. These networks include Access (BAME London & Bristol), Christian Network (Bristol & London), Spectrum (LGBT+), Women+ Networks (London, Bristol, Leeds, Newport, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham) and Parents & Carers’ Forum.
- Reconnect Programme: The firm runs a returners programme focused on mentoring and support. This is aimed at lawyers who have taken time away from the law.
- Attracting and supporting underrepresented groups: the firm works with a number of organisations including Aspiring Solicitors, the Black Solicitors Network, Disability Confident Scheme and Working Families to help attract and support various underrepresented groups.