Legal recruitment · Multi-market platform
Twelve years of straight answers, and a platform built for three markets.
BCL Legal places lawyers and legal professionals across the UK, the US and the Middle East. We have been their senior digital partner since 2014, advising across the business as well as building for it. Their new multi-market platform, launching soon, is the latest chapter.
- SectorSpecialist legal recruitment, UK, USA and UAE
- EngagementRetained partnership: specification, prototyping and managed delivery
- Duration2014 to date, continuous
- Key constraintThree markets, one platform, job data that stays accurate wherever it appears
1.0
The challenge
BCL have never needed a supplier who builds what they’re asked to. They need someone who asks whether it’s worth building.
For over a decade we’ve supported BCL on retainer as their senior digital lead. Much of that work has been asking where the money goes and following the data to an answer: which channels produce placements rather than just applications, and whether other suppliers deliver what they’re paid for. More than once, the honest recommendation was to stop spending on something altogether.
So when BCL needed a new website, we didn’t start from a brief. We started from twelve years of knowing their business.
The requirements were demanding. One platform had to serve three markets, each with its own roles, candidates and clients, without becoming three sites to maintain. Job search had to work the way candidates actually look for roles, and turn those searches into pages search engines can find.
And the way people find jobs is changing. Candidates now arrive through aggregators and AI assistants as well as search engines, so the job data had to be structured to stay accurate wherever it ends up.
2.0
What we did
Understand
We started with what we already knew, and tested it. Years of insight into how candidates and clients use BCL’s site showed us where the friction was and where the commercial value sat. We worked with BCL’s consultants to learn how they describe roles, how candidates narrow a search, and what each market needs that the others don’t.
Specify and prototype
Job search is the most important feature on the site, so we specified and prototyped it before anything was built. We defined the filters candidates need, how they combine, and how each combination produces a clean, meaningful URL. The prototype let BCL use the search, not just review it, so decisions were made on real use rather than assumption.
Build
Three regional sites run from a single build, so BCL manage every market in one place. The faceted search sits on a proven foundation, configured exactly to the specification, which keeps it fast, reliable and easy to maintain.
Every job page carries a video introduction from the consultant recruiting for that role, produced as an AI avatar. Candidates see who they’ll be speaking to before they apply, which is how recruitment should feel.
Structured for how people search next
Every job, and the data behind it, is clean and consistently structured, with the same rules across all three markets. That matters because job listings are no longer read only by people. Search engines, aggregators and AI assistants all parse them, and they favour data they can interpret with confidence.
Getting the structure right now means BCL’s roles stay visible and accurately represented as those channels change, without a rebuild each time they do.
What we produced
- A complete redesign across all three regional sites
- A multi-site platform serving the UK, USA and UAE from one build
- A specified and prototyped faceted job search with search-friendly URLs
- Consultant video introductions on every job page
- A consistent data structure across every job listing
- Structured markup so search engines and AI tools can read each role accurately
3.0
The outcome
The new platform launches soon, bringing three markets together in one place.
Candidates get search that reflects how they actually look for roles, and a real sense of who they’ll be working with before they apply.
BCL’s consultants have their roles presented consistently in every market, each with a personal introduction.
The business gets one platform to manage instead of three, search pages that help people find BCL, and job data ready for whichever channel candidates use next.
A dedicated, intelligent and honest approach to digital, with plenty of pro-active dialogue in layperson’s terms. The Square Owl team make us feel like we’re their only client.
4.0
What happens next
Launch isn’t the end of the work.
We’ll keep doing what we’ve done for twelve years: watching how the platform performs, bringing BCL ideas worth testing, and telling them plainly when something isn’t working.
BCL like to push boundaries, and so do we. That’s a large part of why the partnership has lasted.
Start here
Start with a conversation, not a commitment.
A structured call about where you are and the right next step.