Q&A with Daniel Bates: Rising Star of the Year, Yorkshire Legal Awards 2025

In 2025, our Solicitor Daniel Bates in Minster Law Serious Injury Team has won the “Rising Star of the Year” Award in the prestigious Yorkshire Legal Awards, recognising his contribution in personal injury sector and his high level of dedication to claimants.

The Yorkshire Legal Awards brings together the region’s legal community to recognise and celebrate its many achievements. The awards are judged by an independent panel made up of experts from across the Yorkshire legal community.

Judges’ comments: This winner stood out as an excellent entry, providing exceptional evidence of how they met the criteria. It was heartwarming to see such promise from the junior profession, with this individual shining brightest among a very strong field.

We are delighted to invite Dan to an interview following his win:

Minster: Huge congratulations on winning this award! You’ve been now recognised as a rising star. What achievements do you believe make you stand out?

Dan: Firstly, I am incredibly proud to have won this award, particularly in my home county of Yorkshire and having been shortlisted alongside such incredible colleagues from across the sector.

I began my career as an enquiry handler for a Sheffield high street firm and, within two years, had moved to directly assisting injured people with their claims as a full-time case handler. I wasn’t sure whether practice was for me as I finished University, but my time at this firm helped to solidify my dream of qualifying and to continue to assist people who have suffered serious injuries through no fault of their own. I then moved to a multi-disciplinary national firm, still handling cases for injured people and again, in Sheffield, and completed my Legal Practice Course and Masters alongside.

I joined Minster in 2020 as a trainee solicitor, in the height of Covid. The opportunities I was presented with over the next two years, despite the challenges Covid threw at us, have undoubtedly shaped my skillset, interests and, ultimately, my role following qualification in 2022.

Since qualifying, I have handled cases in various teams, for probably over a hundred clients, achieving multiple six figure settlements along the way. In all, I have been assisting injured people to access justice for over 11 years already, and I’m very proud of many of the outcomes I have been able to achieve for them. I now sit with a leading associate in serious injury, and together we assist clients who are suffering at the more extreme end. It is such a fulfilling role!

I’ve always taken an interest in the wider business, too, when time allows. I assisted with the setup of our brand-new Intermediate Track team, following its introduction in 2023, and helped to integrate and risk manage the digitised court platforms that were made mandatory around the same time. There have been many interesting projects along the way – and I do love to help the business adapt to change, and in turn, benefit our clients in new ways.

Another big passion of mine is helping future claimants by working hard to the improve civil justice proposition in the UK. It is for that reason that I am also a Senior Legal Policy Advisor for a trade body who work to ensure there is a properly functioning, competitive and sustainable civil justice system by engaging with policymakers, regulators, our wider industry and the media. The role has led me into conversations, rooms and leading projects that I didn’t think was possible at the stage of my career, and I’m very proud of what we continue to achieve.

Minster: Can you share with us about a project that involved a particularly interesting, challenging, or new area of law? How did your work influence the outcome?

Dan: As I mentioned, I love being involved in the seemingly ever-changing landscape of civil justice.

One such example is the Damages Claims Portal (DCP), part of the government’s £1.5bn courts-modernisation programme. The intention of the DCP is to be a one-stop shop for all damages-based claims that need county court intervention. This applies to the vast majority of damages claims, with 16,000 brought between January and March 2025 alone. It is a tech product aimed at digitising a court case from beginning to end, creating efficiency, clarity and security, but one that the HMCTS needed significant help with.

I established and still lead an industry DCP working group, including many other senior colleagues at similar firms to Minster, lobbying the government and challenging HMCTS to improve its planning, design and feature-set of its platform during its piecemeal rollout. While the platform remains flawed, I’m pleased that the product we have now is certainly better than it could have been without our lobbying and guidance. Those benefits are reaped by representatives and claimants alike.

I also lead the integration of the DCP across Minster Law’s business, establishing a team of experts and rolling out training to over 100 case handlers, while writing processes and safeguards with risk management in mind. With the sheer volume of cases to which this applies, this is a huge responsibility. With my support, the trade body I work with successfully petitioned the Justice Select Committee to conduct an independent review of the current state of the county courts, including the digitisation project. This review was completed and the MoJ has accepted most of its recommendations.

Minster: What case are you most proud of?

I recently settled a case for a client in the most devastating of circumstances. They had sadly watched their partner pass away beside them in a road traffic accident. My client had walked away with some physical injuries, but the psychological toll was naturally substantial.

That case was less about the monetary outcome, but much more about client care, which in this case included working collaboratively with the insurers of the Defendant, something I am a very big advocate for. Fortunately, together with the other side, we were able to smooth out the process and make it as painless, swift and manageable as possible for a client whose main goal was to achieve some semblance of acknowledgement that something here had gone wrong, and then move on as best they could with their life.  I am very proud I could help them on that journey.

Minster: What kind of impact do you hope to make in the wider community?

Dan: I hope to help improve the lives of our injured clients, first and foremost. In the midst of an industry that has been hit hard with reform, government apathy and poor press, there are people whose lives have been derailed by the negligence of others. Life and career plans cancelled for some, and for others that might mean they have lost relatives.  If I can play my part in making their lives a little easier, then I will be very satisfied with my career.

Outside of my clients and the wider industry work, I enjoy mentoring colleagues, assisting with accessible routes into law, debating the pros and cons of the new frontier of legal technology and  supporting local charity events. Recently I took part in a 10K run with my colleagues to help the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity raise funds for building the National Centre for Child Health Technology. I also sit on a panel at the Hospital, helping injured patients with their legal queries.

In all, I’d just like to leave the wider community a slightly better place than when I arrived. I think that’s all we can hope for.

Minster: How does it feel to receive this award, and would you like to share a few words of appreciation for anyone who have supported you along the way?

Dan: Honestly, I’m still not sure it has sunk in. I was never very sporty or at the absolute top of academic achievers when I was younger, and so I think this may be the first award I’ve ever won. It really means so much that I’ve done it with Minster, in Yorkshire, doing what I’m passionate about.

I’ve had the honour of working with so many fantastic people so far in my career that the list here would be endless. However, I would like to say a huge thanks to Jo Peacock, Richard Harwood and Stuart Hanley for believing in me in the first place, creating an innovative new hybrid role following my qualification to allow me to do what I do and for continuing to be so invested in my career. I’d also like to thank Matthew Itson, for being a wonderful mentor since I’ve joined, you’re an inspiration.