Gateley
Interesting selling points
- Gateley is a professional services firm, offering both legal services and other specialist professional services. It continues to grow by acquiring new businesses and integrating them into its group. In 2022, it acquired Adamson Jones Holdings Limited and Smithers Purslow Limited.
- It was the first UK law firm to become listed on the London Stock Exchange’s growth market, a decision that was made to “support and enhance growth” (see here). This perhaps demonstrates the firm’s ambition.
- Chambers and Partners has awarded the firm a Band 1 ranking for its Restructuring/Insolvency department.
- Notable clients include Gymshark, Salboy, Great Places Housing Group and Byron Burger.
- Carries out a broader range of work than many other large City firms, including not only the usual commercial transactional and contentious work, but also family law, business immigration, residential real estate, private wealth, and so on.
- Services interesting industries, including sports, shipping, hospitality and charities.
- Services not only large corporates, but also entrepreneurs and early stage start-ups, suggesting its lawyers have exposure to businesses across the spectrum of different corporate life cycles.
- Gateley’s commitment to innovation is demonstrated, in part, by its a flagship client management system known as Stellar, which enables clients to access a dedicated non-lawyer account management team, a tailored added value package and a client dashboard,
We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.
Practice areas / services
Gateley offers the following services:
- Anti-bribery & corruption
- Arbitration, adjudication & mediation
- Asset finance & leasing
- Asset management
- Asset tracing & fraud investigation
- Asset-based lending
- Auto-enrolment
- Banks
- Business defence
- Business immigration
- Business ownership disputes
- Co-investments & deal-by-deal
- Commercial contracts
- Commercial litigation
- Competition litigation
- Compulsory purchase
- Construction
- Construction disputes
- Consumer credit
- Consumer protection & trading standards
- Corporate real estate
- Credit & debt fund formation
- Data protection
- Debt advisory
- Digital currency & assets
- Directors' duties & corporate governance
- ESG for funds & asset managers
- EU & UK, competition & state aid
- Employee benefits & employee incentive schemes
- Employee ownership trusts
- Employment litigation & tribunals
- Environmental
- Equality, diversity & inclusion
- Equity capital markets
- Family
- Financial services disputes
- Financial services regulatory
- Fire safety & cladding
- Food safety & product recall
- Franchising
- Fund finance
- Fund regulation
- HR advisory
- Health & safety
- IP disputes
- IT & telecoms disputes
- Insolvency litigation
- Insurance
- Insurance disputes
- Intellectual property
- International arbitration
- International private wealth
- International property investment
- Investment funds & asset management
- Investor representation
- Landlord & tenant
- Leveraged finance
- Licensing & brands
- Litigation funding facility
- Media & entertainment
- Mergers & acquisitions
- Not-for-profit & philanthropy
- Occupational pension schemes
- Offshore litigation
- Party wall & boundary advice
- Pension scheme documentation
- Pension scheme risk management
- Pensions disputes
- Pensions regulatory support
- Personal immigration
- Planning
- Private equity
- Private equity fund formation
- Private wealth
- Private wealth disputes
- Professional negligence
- Public procurement
- Real estate development
- Real estate dispute resolution
- Real estate finance
- Real estate fund formation
- Real estate fund investment
- Reputation management
- Residential development
- Residential property & conveyancing
- Restrictive covenants
- Restructuring
- Risk & crisis management
- Safeguarding
- Secondaries
- Shipping & commodities
- Shipping disputes
- Sports law & disputes
- Surety
- Tax
- Technology
- Telecoms infrastructure
- Trade marks
- Transaction support & due diligence
- Venture capital fund formation
- Workforce restructuring, outsourcing & redundancy
- Workplace investigations
Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Gateley its highest ‘Band 1’ rankings for its Restructuring/Insolvency department. See here for more information
Key sectors / industries
The firm works with a variety of clients from different industries. However, its most profitable clients operate in the following sectors:
- Housebuilders
- In-house lawyers & general counsel
- Lenders & financial institutions
- Sports businesses & governing bodies
In addition, the firm works with clients in the following sectors: charitable organisations, international businesses, pensions trustees, retail & hospitality businesses, sureties, turnaround & insolvency professionals, entrepreneurs & business owners, international high-net-worth individuals, parents & families, and philanthropists.
Work
Gateley has worked with a number of high-profile clients, including:
- Grindr: Austen Hays, part of Gateley, is bringing a claim on behalf of thousands of Grindr users against Grindr for breaching data protection laws.
- Great Places Housing Group: Gateley has been appointed by Great Places Housing Group to its Innovation Chain North (ICN) framework of contractors and consultants to help support the delivery of new homes across the north of England.
- Byron Burger: The firm helped Byron Burger to restructure, which saved 12 sites across the UK and safeguarded 365 jobs.
Older examples
- Fred Perry: the firm helped to advise Fred Perry, a historic British heritage brand, on its acquisition of George Cox Footwear. The acquisition will help the George Cox brand to develop globally.
- Gymshark: Gateley advised Gymshark, one of 25 British companies to secure unicorn status since 2001, on a minority investment in the company by General Atlantic. The firm first started working with Gymshark in 2014.
- Clowes Developments: the firm advised Derbyshire property developer Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd on its high-profile acquisition of Derby County Football Club and its home ground Pride Park. The deal brought the club and the stadium under one ownership umbrella.
- Salboy: Gateley advised Salboy, the nationwide property developer, on its joint venture with development company Relentless, which is Gary Neville’s development company. The venture is seen to be Manchester’s most high-profile development project.
Offices / global footprint / expansion
Headquarters: Birmingham
Offices: the firm has 22 offices in locations including Belfast, Dubai, Glasgow, London, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle.
Insights, internships and other opportunities
Gateley offers a free virtual internship programme on The Forage called ‘Introduction to Mergers & Acquisitions Law’, which enables participants to learn more about this area of law and Gateley as a firm (see here). The firm also offers a number of in-person insight events across its UK offices, which are aimed at students and graduates of any degree discipline looking to apply for a summer vacation scheme, training contract, or graduate solicitor apprenticeship. Insight events provide attendees with the opportunity to discover more about the firm’s business, culture, purpose and values.
Gateley also offers summer vacation placements from which it directly recruits its future trainee solicitors and graduate solicitor apprentices. The summer vacation scheme lasts for a week and is offered at the firm’s Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and Reading offices. The firm advises applicants to apply for a summer vacation placement at the same location they would like to train in.
Training contract
Gateley’s training contract includes a week-long induction with the rest of the graduate cohorts across the firm's offices, as well as the firm’s Graduate Getaway event, which is hosted at Patterdale Hall in the Lake District. The Getaway includes team-building activities, social events and a workshop on developing a growth mindset.
Trainees sit in four six-month seats, which must include one transactional seat (corporate, banking & finance, restructuring advisory, tax, or pensions), one real estate seat (real estate, residential development, or construction) and one contentious seat (dispute resolution, employment, restructuring litigation, property litigation, regulatory, or family). Trainees receive supervision and mentoring, regular technical training, and progress reviews. Gateley offers 25 training contracts and graduate solicitor apprenticeships, but this number is under review each year depending on business needs.
Secondments
Trainees have the opportunity to apply for a client secondment, which (if offered) can take place in the third or final seat.
Technology and innovation
The firm aims to deliver a great service to its clients, in part through adopting technology. Examples include:
- Stellar: Gateley has a flagship client care programme, Stellar, which it developed as part of its commitment to provide additional support to clients. Some of the tools within Stellar include a dedicated non-lawyer account management team, a tailored added value package, and a client dashboard.
- DocuSign Technology: the firm invested in DocuSign technology to enable documents to be signed electronically from any device, in a secure and encrypted way. It limits the amount of paper used for a deal and makes the process easier for all involved.
- The Purpose Pod: The podcast looks at how Gateley works with its clients, inspires people and supports communities. Each episode shares insights from forward thinkers within the business.
Corporate social responsibility
Gateley believes an important part of its purpose is to support the communities in which it operates. The support the firm offers to its local communities includes:
- BPP Law School Law Ambassador Programme: since 2021, the firm’s Leeds office has been involved with BPP Law School to provide mentors for the school’s Law Ambassador programme. The scheme sees various members of the firm provide insight to students in Leeds at one of BPP’s partner schools.
- Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation (BHHF): Gateley advised BHHF on its incorporation as a registered charity in the UK. The charity provides humanitarian aid and essential items such as food, clothing, blankets, toys and medical supplies to vulnerable groups of people in Iraqi Kurdistan.
- Make Good Grow: the firm became the UK’s first patron of ‘Make Good Grow’, a social enterprise founded on the principles of uniting businesses with good causes. The firm, in its role as patron, has donated professional legal advice, meeting room space for charities, and re-conditioned equipment such as printers and clipboards.
Diversity and inclusion
Gateley emphasises that ‘diversity remains a key ambition’ of the firm. Its work in this area includes:
- Ability: this internal network supports employees with disabilities and raises awareness around neurodiversity. It provides a space for colleagues across Gateley to discuss issues relating to disability, raise awareness of issues, and provide opportunities for internal networking.
- Pride: this is Gateley’s internal network for LGBTQ+ employees. It provides a confidential space for staff affected by sexual orientation and gender identity issues, enabling them to share experiences, ideas or concerns. It raises awareness of issues and regularly shares guidance on how other employees can be effective allies.
- Unity: this is the firm’s internal network supporting employees from different cultures, religions and backgrounds. Unity undertakes various internal and external initiatives including sharing resources internally and partnering with the Greater Birmingham Professional Services Academy to encourage ethnic minority pupils to take up a career in professional services.