Built on trust, not timesheets

Watershed is a place where senior employment lawyers are trusted to manage their work, their clients, and their time.

We believe that experienced professionals thrive when given autonomy, not micromanagement.

A model that works

We value shared time together, particularly for client work, collaboration, and building rapport as a team.

Our office in Manchester is our base. We also support travel for meetings with clients and we do not expect anyone to be chained to their desk.

No politics. Just professionalism.

The culture at Watershed is unusually collaborative for the legal world. That is not spin, it is lived experience. There is no work hoarding or jockeying for position. We operate with a flat structure, where everyone contributes and everyone’s voice carries weight.

Psychological safety is not a perk, it is a precondition. We do not tolerate internal competitiveness, passive aggression, or the sort of silent hierarchies that too often plague legal teams. If you need help, you ask. If you are stuck, someone will jump in. If you are doing great work, it will be noticed.

What we do not expect

  • We do not expect you to track every six minutes of your day.
  • We do not expect you to ‘sell’ internally or elbow others aside for recognition.
  • We do not expect conformity. In fact, we actively prefer diverse working styles, backgrounds and career journeys.

We do expect you to take your work seriously, respect your colleagues, and be someone clients can trust. That is it.

The texture of daily life

You might start your week advising on the legal risks of a high-profile redundancy, then midweek you are working with another Watershed lawyer on a union negotiation strategy.

Later, you are briefing a client on the findings of an internal grievance investigation. All of this could be done from your home office, a client’s site, or alongside a colleague in Manchester or London.

The rhythm varies. The intensity ebbs and flows. But you will always have support, autonomy, and a calendar that is yours to manage. And while we are not always together, we stay connected, with regular calls, collaborative work, and the occasional dinner that reminds us how good the company really is.

There is no script. No ladder. Just excellent legal work, done on your terms, with people you respect.