How can we help?
To access legal support from just £145 per hour arrange your no-obligation initial consultation to discuss your business requirements.
Join our great team of people who all play a fundamental part in the success and continued growth of our business.
Like many of our clients, we are ambitious and we have high aspirations for the future. Our vision is of a world where all viable businesses thrive and contribute to a healthy economy through access to excellent legal services that are delivered by firms whose people enjoy a true work-life balance.
Attracting the right talent to join our team and support our growth – and the growth of our clients – is a key part of our strategy.
Discover if Harper James could be your best move. Use the links below to jump to different sections on this page:
- About us
- Why join our legal team?
- Why join our business support team?
- Current vacancies
- Our culture and values
- Our people
- Benefits
Please note that we are regrettably unable to offer work experience placements as most of our solicitors work remotely.
A law firm like no other
About us
Established in 2014 by Toby Harper, our Founder and CEO, Harper James is a new breed of commercial law firm. Our purpose is as clear now as it was in 2014 – we want to enable growth-oriented small and medium businesses to succeed. We do this by delivering top-quality and accessible legal services and acting as partners in our clients’ journeys while operating according to our unique values.
Harper James is in its 10th year with an anticipated turnover of £13.1m this financial year, and we expect to reach £20m by the end of fiscal year 2026.
Attracting the right talent to join our team and support our growth – and the growth of our clients – is a key part of our strategy.
Pursuing your passion
Why join our legal team?
Lawyers who join us are often looking to escape the traditional law firm setup. We have built our firm from our clients up and we operate as they like to operate. Our clients want fast response times and commercial, practical advice based on real-world business life.
Our lawyers often come with 15+ years’ experience and many from in-house roles – so they know how businesses operate as well as they know the law. Many who join us with in-house experience are attracted to working with a range of businesses for variety and to stretch their skills. We trust you to know your ‘stuff’ and your passion to get to know our clients’ businesses is equally important to us.
Lawyers closer to the start of their career are also attracted to join us as they may feel hampered by the confines of a long PQE before they can work more closely with clients or lead a team. If you have the ability and the desire, we can help you reach your potential quickly.
Most of our lawyers have worked remotely since the inception of Harper James in 2014. It has allowed us to grow quickly and offered our team the flexibility to suit them. We have offices in Birmingham and Sheffield if you prefer to work alongside colleagues in person. We also have access to space in Cambridge, London, Manchester and Oxford.
We offer career opportunities for all levels of experience to meet your needs now and as they evolve, whether that means intellectually stimulating work for interesting and inspiring clients, building and leading a team or, for more junior lawyers, an opportunity to accelerate your career in a role supported by an experienced mentor.
As a remote-working solicitor with Harper James, your workload is almost solely focused on the legal work – all business support activities, such as legal assistance, administration, invoicing, business development and marketing are completed by professionals in their respective fields.
Thanks to our adoption of market-leading time-recording software and cloud-based data management systems, you can decide your own working patterns, can access all necessary files easily and securely, and connect with colleagues when you need.
No client following is required. We care about your experience, expertise and commitment to our clients.
“I’ve worked hard to get here, and I want to be successful, but my family is equally as important to me… That’s the difference at Harper James, there truly is a work life balance.”
“Working at Harper James has profoundly changed my life for the better – I get to see my kids much more these days, and as committed to my work and clients as I am, working flexibly really does put important things into perspective.”
Pursuing your passion
Why join our business support team
We regularly offer legal support roles and business support opportunities in our Client Services, Finance, Operations, HR, Recruitment, IT, Marketing and Business Development teams.
While some positions are office based, others allow for remote working and they all offer great opportunities to evolve your career and grow professionally within a collaborative and supportive environment at a growing organisation that is leading innovation in the legal sector.
“Joining Harper James changed all my ideas of how working at a city centre law firm would turn out to be. It’s provided me with stability and room to grow in an environment of mutual respect and support with a talented and lovely team.”
“Over the last few years, I have been supported by the team to achieve my personal and professional goals. For anyone looking to challenge themselves and grow, I cannot recommend HJ enough.”
Our values
A unique law firm culture
We are very proud of our unique culture. This is lived through everyone in the business in how we work with each other and our clients each day.
Our values at a glance
- We practise flexibility without judgement.
- Everyone feels trusted and supported in every aspect of their job. We can do this because everyone is responsible, productive and wants to succeed.
- We are relaxed and informal, but super organised. No power-dressing is required, neither is jargon. Say it like it is and do what you say you’ll do.
- No politics. People don’t feel like they have to get one over on their colleagues to succeed. If people around us succeed, so do we.
- We love to celebrate HJ and each other. There’s no room for big egos though!
- We recognise the hardest conversations are the ones we should always have. Handled with openness so we can focus on the solution.
- We make decisions with compassion, integrity and responsibility.
Protecting our culture and life at Harper James for everyone is a top priority for us and we do this by embedding and staying true to our values in all that we do.
Recognition of our culture and values
We have a vision of a world where all viable businesses thrive and contribute to a healthy economy through access to excellent legal services that are delivered by firms whose people enjoy a true work-life balance.
So, we were thrilled to win the Best SME Award at the 2024 WM People’s Top Employer Awards, an award given to SME enterprises that demonstrate a genuine dedication to work-life balance practices. The judges praised our approach to flexible working, which is deeply ingrained in our values and resonates within our team.
We are grateful to our people for playing a part in redefining what it means to be a dynamic and forward-thinking law firm. Awards aside, meaningful action in all areas that make a difference to our people always comes first and keeping our culture and values alive and protected as we continue to grow is a key priority for us.
Our people
48:52
Male to female ratio
71
Talented lawyers
17
Years average PQE
44%
Average YoY growth for the last 3 years
8
Office Locations
Birmingham, Cardiff, Cambridge, London, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton
13
Practice Areas
48
Business and legal support staff
Discover the personal insights, experiences, and thoughts on the vibrant culture that defines our firm as shared by team members in our ‘life and culture’ video series.
We are committed to being a responsible and sustainable business that delivers positive impact for our employees, clients, profession, environment and the communities we live and work in. Harper James is a people oriented firm with a strong culture and values and we are determined to provide opportunities for everyone to succeed regardless of their race, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
View a summary of the Harper James diversity profile 2023.
Benefits
More than just a job
While our lawyers and some other teams work remotely, we work very hard to ensure everyone feels part of a team so they can collaborate, share ideas and enjoy each other’s company. We want our people to feel that they are part of an ambitious organisation and that their contribution towards our growth is recognised individually and as a team.
We encourage and support everyone to meet with their teams regularly, whether on Teams and/or in person, and we all get together at least twice annually for firmwide parties in addition to sharing regular updates about everyone’s contributions and transparent updates about the performance of the business.
We offer career opportunities for all levels of experience to meet and evolve with individual needs, whether that means intellectually stimulating work for interesting and inspiring clients, building and leading a team or an opportunity to accelerate a career in a role supported by an experienced mentor.
Our remuneration structures, pension, holiday and healthcare packages are equivalent to much of UK top 100 firms. In addition to flexible hours, remote work, mentoring and progression opportunities, we offer the benefits listed below
Private health cover and life assurance scheme
Salary sacrifice pension plan
25 days holiday plus bank holidays and the option to buy extra
Vitality membership
Interested in joining our team?
For more information about any of our current vacancies or to register your interest in a career at Harper James, please contact Leah Horwood, our Head of Talent, on 07809 475202 or email a copy of your CV to leah.horwood@harperjames.co.uk.
Our process always starts with a confidential and informal chat.
Please note that we are regrettably unable to offer work experience placements as most of our solicitors work remotely.