Careers at Harper Macleod

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package together with excellent training and development opportunities. We also embrace flexibility – including when and where our people work.

We have a range of additional benefits packages for colleagues including:

• Pension scheme
• Critical illness protection
• Life assurance
• Discounted conveyancing on sales and purchases
• Discounted eyecare
• Charity donation through payroll
• Cycle to work scheme
• Buy additional leave option
• Extra holidays at Christmas
• CSR days
• Funding for external training
• Recruitment finder’s fee
• Additional discounts
• 4pm birthday finish

Knowledge and expertise are key to our service promise and we invest significant time and resources in the training and development of our people. We offer a variety of training methods and encourage our people to develop their skills and improve performance.

Our training programmes are co-ordinated through HM Academy, which provides a comprehensive and co-ordinated training offering across legal, commercial and personal development.

HM Academy provides a platform for the continued professional development of our client advisory and business services teams.

We strive to be the “employer of choice” in the Scottish legal market, and we work hard to ensure we adopt fair working practices for our people and our communities.

We are:

• an accredited Scottish Living Wage Employer
• an Investors in People employer with Gold status
• an Investors in Young People employer with Gold status
• a Social Mobility Pledge Supporter, and
• a Working Families Employer

We are very proud of the recognition and awards we have received for our people practices, including previously winning Best Health & Wellbeing Initiative at the Scotland’s Best Employer Awards and being ranked in The MPF Top 100 Professional Firms to Work For. Harper Macleod was the first commercial law firm in Scotland to be awarded the Investors in People (IIP) award in May 1998, most recently being accredited at Gold level in 2023.

We work hard to give our young people opportunities in all areas of our business and received a Gold Accreditation from Investors in Young People.

We are accredited as a Living Wage employer. The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University. It is calculated according to the basic cost of living using the ‘Minimum Income Standard’ for the UK.

Our Living Wage commitment will see everyone working at Harper Macleod, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers, receive a minimum hourly wage of £12 – significantly higher than the national minimum wage.

We are an equal opportunities employer and our firm policy is to recruit the best person regardless of sex, race, age, sexual orientation or religion or belief. We recommend that all candidates with a disability should inform the firm during the recruitment process to ensure that any reasonable adjustments can be made where applicable.

Our aim is for our colleagues and clients to feel included, valued and nurtured within their working environment irrespective of their race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical and mental abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. We promote the importance of diversity internally and externally by developing our culture and our practice and we work hard to ensure that our colleagues are ambassadors for the firm when interfacing with the public.

We were awarded the Promoting Diversity – Large Employer of the Year Award at the Scottish Apprenticeship Awards 2021.

“The winner of this award is committed to supporting apprentices from all backgrounds to reach their full potential. They work with their learning provider and develop the young workforce to open up apprenticeship opportunities for Scotland’s young people, with particular focus on supporting those from more deprived areas into the world of work. And, through collaborating with equalities organisations, they support apprentices with additional support needs to succeed and progress in their careers. The firm also operates an equality diversity and inclusion group which delivers awareness, campaigns and events, and has positively impacted gender balance and diversity across their apprenticeships.”
Scottish Apprenticeship Awards 2021 judging panel

• View our Gender Pay Gap Report 2024
• View our Gender Pay Gap Report 2023
• View our Gender Pay Gap Report 2022

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We fully embrace the concept of work life balance and have a range of flexible working opportunities, with many of our colleagues working flexible, part time or reduced hours, and working from home. We were recognised as one of Scotland’s top flexible working employers to watch in 2021 (Flexible Employer Awards).

Harper Macleod has committed to the Scottish Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee, which aims to bring together employers, partners and young people by connecting 16 to 24 year olds in Scotland to an opportunity.

HM Community was created to help the firm achieve its strategic objectives while staying true to our values.

We have embedded Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) principles into our operations to ensure that we follow through on our commitments to contribute positively to our economic and natural environment and improve the quality of life for our stakeholder groups.

We encourage all colleagues to get involved in our HM Community initiatives in order that they increase their awareness and understanding, develop their own skills and wellbeing, and provide support to a range of projects. This is driven internally by groups including Wellbeing, Sustainability, and Diversity, Equality & Inclusion.

In 2023 we were named ESG Firm of the Year at The Legal 500 Scotland Awards, and the first solely Scottish firm to be included in The Legal 500’s Green Guide for our approach to sustainability, climate action and net zero.

Learn more about HM Community