Personal law · Bath · Manvers Street 11 Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1JQ 01225 551069
New Wave Law Solicitors · Bath · since 2022 Get in touch 01225 551069
Get in touch Call the office · 01225 551069

11 Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1JQ

Manvers Street, Bath · since 2022 · SRA 836736

A compassionate approach to personal law, on Manvers Street.

New Wave Law is a private-client firm at 11 Manvers Street, Bath, founded in 2022 by Becky Ricards Small after twenty years inside traditional corporate practice. We work in three lines, Navigating Loss, Wills and Estate Planning, and Mental Capacity. Every file is handled by the solicitor who signed the engagement letter; there are no timesheets and no targets. Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, recognised sole practice 836736.

Get in touch Email welcome@newwavelaw.co.uk
Est. 2022 4 years on Manvers Street
SRA 836736 Recognised sole practice since Feb 2022
5.0 from 42 Google reviews, perfect rating
20+ years Of private-client practice on the team
Becky Ricards Small, Managing Partner and founder at New Wave Law Solicitors
Becky Ricards Small Managing Partner and founder · qualified 2002 becky@newwavelaw.co.uk
5.0 Google rating, 42 reviews
3 Lines of personal law
7 People on the team
BA1 Bath, Somerset, Wiltshire catchment
What we do

Three lines of personal-law work. One solicitor on your file. No handovers.

A small private-client firm that does private-client work and does not stretch into anything else. Most of our clients arrive through word of mouth, in the middle of a moment that needed a phone answered the same day. Each file stays with the solicitor who took the first call.

02 · Wills and Estate Planning

A will written once, reviewed when life changes.

Will drafting, will review, tax-efficient gifting, trusts where they fit, succession planning for business owners. We sit down with you for a long first conversation rather than send a form. For older clients and for anyone who would rather not travel into the city, we will come to the home. The will is drafted, posted for review, then signed and witnessed at a follow-up appointment.

Get in touch ›
03 · Mental Capacity

Lasting Powers of Attorney, Court of Protection, professional deputyship.

Drafting both Lasting Powers of Attorney (property and finance, plus health and welfare) and registering them with the Office of the Public Guardian. Court of Protection applications when a family member has lost capacity without an LPA in place. Professional deputyship work, including the annual report to the OPG, for clients whose family does not have the bandwidth to do it themselves.

Get in touch ›
The firm and how it began

February 2022. A different kind of personal-law firm opens on Manvers Street.

Becky Ricards Small qualified as a solicitor in 2002 and spent the next twenty years inside traditional corporate firms in Bath and the South West, climbing the partnership ladder and learning, as she has put it, the things she would and would not do if she ever ran a firm of her own. On 18 February 2022 she opened New Wave Law Solicitors at 11 Manvers Street as an SRA-recognised sole practice (number 836736), with a deliberately different model: no timesheets, no targets, every file handled personally by the solicitor who signed the engagement letter.

The name is the model. The firm leads with the service most other personal-law firms hide, the bereavement and end-of-life work, and calls it Navigating Loss out loud because that is the language the clients use. Today the practice is seven people: Becky Ricards Small as Managing Partner, Sarah Lawton as Managing Associate Solicitor (joined 2024), a paralegal, three legal assistants, and an office manager.

“ Becky and her team have guided us through every step of a hugely difficult time and made everything that much more manageable. Mrs R, Bradford on Avon · testimonial published on newwavelaw.co.uk

The New Wave Law team in conversation at the Manvers Street office, Bath
The team at Manvers Street · published on newwavelaw.co.uk/about
The people who answer the phone

Seven people. Three solicitors named on every file. The same first-name email addresses since 2022.

Most personal-law firms put a generic info@ address at the top of the contact page. We put two first-name addresses, because the partner and the associate read their own inboxes. The legal assistants and the office manager handle the careful, patient work around the file, from the first call through to the final distribution of an estate.

Becky Ricards Small Managing Partner · qualified 2002 becky@newwavelaw.co.uk
Sarah Lawton Managing Associate Solicitor · qualified 2006 sarah@newwavelaw.co.uk
Get in touch

Tell us briefly what you need. The first call is free, unhurried, and confidential.

The form goes straight to welcome@newwavelaw.co.uk and is read by Angela in the office and forwarded to whichever solicitor is the right fit for the file. For bereaved callers, please do not feel you need to write much; a name and a number is enough and we will ring you back the same working day.

  • Reply by close of the same working day, Monday to Friday.
  • Or ring the office directly on 01225 551069.
  • Initial conversations are free of charge and entirely confidential.
Becky Ricards Small becky@newwavelaw.co.uk Sarah Lawton sarah@newwavelaw.co.uk

How can we help?

Find us

11 Manvers Street, Bath

11 Manvers Street
Bath
BA1 1JQ

Office 01225 551069

Email welcome@newwavelaw.co.uk

Becky becky@newwavelaw.co.uk

Sarah sarah@newwavelaw.co.uk

Train Bath Spa railway station is a four-minute walk; Manvers Street runs directly past the station.

Bus Bath Bus Station is a two-minute walk, on the same street.

Home visits Available across Bath, BANES, Somerset, Wiltshire. Petrol at cost outside Bath.

11 Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1JQ. A four-minute walk from Bath Spa station. Open in Google Maps ↗
When we answer

Monday to Friday, working hours. Appointments and home visits by arrangement.

Monday to Friday Office working hours · phone and email answered
Saturday and Sunday Office closed · email triaged Monday morning
By arrangement Home visits and evening appointments for bereaved, elderly, or housebound clients

The first call is unhurried. If you are ringing about a recent death, please do not feel you need to have notes or paperwork ready. We will listen, explain what (if anything) is urgent, and book a longer conversation, an office meeting, or a home visit at a time that fits.

Tap to call · 01225 551069
Frequently asked

Five questions worth answering before you ring.

My parent has just died. What do I actually need to do legally in the first 48 hours?

Very little. The hospital or care home will arrange the medical certificate of cause of death; once you have it you can register the death at the local register office, usually within five working days. Almost no legal step is urgent in the first 48 hours. The funeral can be planned without probate. Banks will freeze accounts but will release money for the funeral on production of the death certificate. What we ask bereaved callers to do, when they ring us in those first days, is simply ring. The first call is free, unhurried, and the first appointment is whenever you are ready, not the same week.

Do you do home visits, and is there an extra charge?

Yes, for bereaved clients, for elderly clients, and for anyone for whom a city-centre office is the wrong setting. There is no extra charge for a home visit within Bath and Bath North East Somerset; outside that we cover petrol at cost and tell you the figure on the call. Several of the team have backgrounds in healthcare and care, so a home visit is not a novelty to us; it is often the right way to do the first meeting on an estate file or a Lasting Power of Attorney.

How are fees charged on an estate, and what if it turns out to be smaller than first expected?

Fees on a Navigating Loss file are fixed at the start once we have seen the rough shape of the estate. The fixed fee is agreed in writing in the engagement letter; if the estate turns out smaller or simpler than expected, the fee reduces accordingly, and we tell you that as soon as we see it. We do not bill in six-minute units and we do not charge for short phone calls. Disbursements (probate court fee, Land Registry fees, statutory notices) are itemised separately and at cost.

Do you get a say in the design before any code is written?

No. The mocks in the proposal show what the rebuilt site will look like, and you sign off on the design before any production code is written. If you have brand assets, we will respect them. If you do not, you will get a coherent visual language out of the project and own it afterwards. We can also work together to get the vibe you want into the website, and we will make sure it is SEO optimised.

What is the difference between a property and finance LPA and a health and welfare LPA, and do I need both?

A property and finance LPA lets your chosen attorney deal with bank accounts, pay bills, manage investments, and where needed sell property on your behalf, either now (with your consent) or once you lose capacity. A health and welfare LPA lets the same or a different attorney make decisions about your care, where you live, and medical treatment, but only after you have lost capacity. Most people want both, because they cover different decisions and become live at different times. We draft and register both in the same appointment, and the OPG takes around eight to ten weeks to register.