Q&A with Daniel Bates: Progressing my role at Minster Law with wider opportunities at ACSO

As one of its founding members, Minster Law and the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO), the trade association for companies that support consumers as claimants within the civil justice system, collaborated in 2020 to launch a secondment programme that provides trainees with insight into the claims industry.

A former trainee and current solicitor at Minster Law, Daniel Bates is now promoted to the role of senior legal policy advisor as part of his ongoing secondment with ACSO. He is also about to begin a new role at Minster Law as an Assistant Solicitor to Alexander Lucas, Associate Solicitor, supporting some of Minster’s most seriously injured claimants together.

We are delighted to invite Dan to have a Q&A session with us.

Minster: Congratulations on your new role as Senior Legal Policy Advisor at ACSO! What are your thoughts on this promotion?

Dan: I’m delighted to receive this recognition, and I can’t wait to get started in this new role. I am proud every day to support ACSO’s important progress in representing the interests of consumers in the civil justice system. Through ACSO’s efforts to lobby and engage with industry stakeholders, regulators, and legislators, they continually push boundaries to foster a fairer and more accessible justice system for all — both current and future individuals impacted by another’s negligence. I’m grateful that Minster Law was innovative and understanding in its approach to my qualified role three years ago. With the long list of successes ACSO have achieved for civil justice consumers in that time, it has most certainly paid off.

Minster: Could you please tell us more about your new role at ACSO?

Dan: My new role with ACSO will have a focus on spearheading the projects closest to Minster Law’s customers’ needs and interests, such as rehabilitation, alternative dispute resolution, legal costs recovery, medico-legal reporting issues, digital court process and many other access to justice issues from a new, senior position.

I will be engaging with the width and breadth of our industry including our colleagues who represent claimants and defendants, partners who support claims processes with insurance, medical evidence, treatment and dispute resolution services, fellow trade bodies, legislators and regulators to name a few. This engagement will enable me to: first, identify the issues most suffered by our customers; second, consider the best route to rectifying those issues – whether through changes in the law, regulation or industry agreements; and third, take action to implement the necessary changes via lobbying, raising awareness and, ultimately, fostering collaboration.  The ultimate goal is to help to improve the civil justice system for those who currently, or will later come to, rely on it to achieve fast and fair justice.

Minster: There’s been a recent update in your role at Minster. Would you please share more about it?

Dan: My new role is to support experienced Associate Solicitor Alexander Lucas. Alex was my very first training contract seat supervisor almost five years ago.  He is a former trainee himself, and so he knows Minster and serious injury cases inside out. I’m delighted to be working with him on some of our most complex injury cases, which will help me to continue my own development and will allow me to help support seriously injured people with advice, rehabilitation and, ultimately, with their outcome of fair justice.

Alex’s cases will be a step up for me in relation to legal and medical complexity, and represent the next step on the now well-established road to following the likes of Alex and my training mentor Matthew Itson through from trainee to Associate at Minster. Alex is a specialist in the most complex orthopaedic, spinal and brain injuries.

Minster: You started as a Trainee Solicitor at Minster Law in 2020 and now have been promoted to Assistant Solicitor for an Associate. What do you think about our trainee program? Do you have any advice or insights to share with fellow trainees?

Dan: I remember being inspired by the individual journeys of previous Minster Law trainees when I was applying for the role, being in awe of the very different paths they carved through training and qualification and wanting to travel along the same journey of development and self-discovery. I am delighted that I am able to do just that, in a role that is unique to me and my skillset and interests.

If my journey proves anything to those looking with interest at our training program, I hope it shows its development value and ultimate flexibility to ensure that you can fulfil your own potential.

My advice would be to apply and to experience the process of the application. If you don’t get through, there will be plenty to take away that will help the next time you try. I didn’t succeed in my first training contract application.

If you are successful, make sure to engage with everything that the program and Minster Law has to offer. I often think that a training program like this is as great and as useful as you want it to be, and that has certainly proved the case for me. Be daring and take every opportunity, I guarantee you’ll surprise yourself with your abilities and what takes your interest long term.

Learn more about Dan’s journey as a trainee: Flexible training sees trainee land dream role post qualification

Learn more about our Solicitor Apprenticeship: Solicitor Apprenticeships