Bates Wells is a well-established UK-based law firm specializing in legal services for charities, social enterprises, and impact investors. The firm positions itself as a City law firm with a difference, emphasizing positive impact and sustainability, evidenced by its status as the highest scoring B Corp globally in the legal activities category. The website reflects a professional and comprehensive digital presence, targeting businesses and organizations seeking expert legal advice in various sectors including charity, corporate, data privacy, and employment law.
Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern plugins such as Yoast SEO and Swiper.js for enhanced user experience. It employs HTTPS with good SSL configuration and includes cookie consent mechanisms compliant with GDPR. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, though it could improve by implementing additional security headers and publishing a formal security policy.
From a security standpoint, the site demonstrates good practices such as secure forms and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, there is room for improvement in incident response transparency and vulnerability disclosure. The domain registration data is consistent with the firm's business history, enhancing trustworthiness.
Overall, Bates Wells presents a low-risk profile with strong business credibility and a mature digital infrastructure. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing security policies, and adding a security.txt file to further improve security posture and compliance.
Scanned ·
NIS2 and GDPR posture
GDPR outside view
80/ 100 · Low
Checks completed
7of 7
NIS2 Art. 21(2)
a(a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
b(b) Incident handling: One indicator
c(c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
d(d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
e(e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
f(f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
g(g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
h(h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
i(i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
j(j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside
Partly checked
One indicator
Not visible from outside
This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.
GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.
Priority findings
4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.
Security headers
Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.
High
Missing Strict-Transport-Security header
Forces HTTPS connections
What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"
This scan found 21 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.
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TLS certificates and expiry
DNS records
SPF, DKIM and DMARC
Security headers
GDPR and NIS2 posture
Exposed services
Third-party trackers
Security score drift
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Results by check
Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.
How this score is calculated
The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.
Counted in this score
SSL/TLS
75
Security headers
50
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
80
Average
73
Not counted
NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.
Findings that cap the score at 49
Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.
The certificate is not trusted by browsers
The website is not served over HTTPS
A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
The page loads a script from a compromised source
The domain registration has expired
SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain
Partial scans
When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.
Risk levels
Critical0–25
High26–49
Medium50–75
Low76–100
Breach exposure
Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.
Dark web exposure
Add-on
Leaked records that mention bateswells.co.uk, from OffSeq Breach.
No leaked records found
Breach holds no records for bateswells.co.uk right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.
Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.
Business context
Business profile
Bates Wells operates in a niche legal market focusing on charities, social enterprises, and impact investing sectors. Its competitive advantage lies in its B Corp certification and commitment to better business practices, which appeals to socially conscious clients. The firm leverages a business model centered on specialized legal services with a strong emphasis on sustainability and positive social impact. Revenue streams likely include legal advisory, litigation, training, and consultancy services. The target customer segments include non-profits, public sector bodies, professional organizations, and technology companies. The firm maintains partnerships with certification bodies like B Corporation and engages clients through resources, events, and training. The website's content and structure support growth and client engagement, reflecting a strategic approach to market positioning.
Security posture
The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and no evident exposure of sensitive information. Cookie consent is managed via a GDPR-compliant plugin offering granular user controls. The use of third-party scripts such as LinkedIn Insight is transparent and limited to marketing analytics. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content Security Policy (CSP), X-Frame-Options, and HSTS suggests potential areas for enhancement. There is no published security policy or incident response contact, which could hinder timely vulnerability reporting and response. No security.txt file is present, limiting formal vulnerability disclosure channels. Overall, the site is secure but would benefit from formalizing security governance and improving technical defenses.
Recommendations
Implement HTTP security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
Publish a clear security policy and provide dedicated incident response contact channels.
Add a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Enhance monitoring and validation of form inputs to prevent injection attacks.
Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.
Business
Company
Bates Wells
Description
City law firm with a difference, offering legal services with a focus on positive impact and better business practices.
Key services
Charity, Corporate, Data & Privacy, Employment, Finance & Banking, Immigration, IT & Outsourcing, Philanthropy, Trade Marks & Branding, Dispute Resolution & Litigation
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent
Technology
Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO plugin, jQuery, Swiper.js, Google Maps API, Cookie Law Info plugin
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent
Security
Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
HTTPS enforced
Cookie consent banner with granular controls
No exposed sensitive data in HTML
Use of secure forms
Analytics and tracking
Services
LinkedIn Insight
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good
Advertising
Tracking pixels
LinkedIn Insight
Marketing tools
LinkedIn Analytics
Transparency
basic
Site quality
Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high
Key observations
Website is professionally designed and well maintained.
Strong focus on legal services for charities, social enterprises, and impact investing.
Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
Active social media presence on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Clear contact information with company email and contact forms.
B Corp certification prominently displayed as a trust indicator.
Technical notes
Notes
The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform, utilizing modern JavaScript libraries such as Swiper.js for interactive sliders and jQuery for DOM manipulation. SEO is optimized using the Yoast SEO plugin, with comprehensive meta tags and structured data in JSON-LD format. The site loads external resources from trusted domains including Google Maps API and LinkedIn analytics. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, especially in reducing external dependencies and improving caching. Mobile responsiveness and accessibility are well addressed, ensuring a good user experience across devices. Technical risks are minimal but include potential exposure to outdated plugins or missing security headers. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business goals effectively with opportunities for modernization and security hardening.
Standards and sources
Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.
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