Lexcel is a quality mark awarded by the Law Society to firms who demonstrate excellence in management of their practice and excellence in client care. It is equivalent to Investors in People. All firms who carry out Legal Aid work, as Bretherton Law does, must be Lexcel accredited. To achieve the accreditation, firms must meet a required Standard in seven areas including financial management, file management, risk management and people management.
Only 16% of practices hold the Lexcel accreditation.
We must pass regular assessments to keep the quality mark. An independent assessor visits the firm once a year to review policies and procedures, interview staff and examine a sample of files. Every third year, a full re-assessment visit is held over several days to enable the assessor to look at these things in greater detail.
At Bretherton Law, we find there are a number of benefits to holding the Lexcel quality mark. It gives clients confidence that the practice is managed to a high standard and that their matter will be well looked after. As staff follow a clearly defined set of procedures, mistakes are less likely to occur and if they do, they are picked up on quickly.
Mortgage lenders look favourably upon Lexcel when considering solicitors for their panels. This enables us to act for a wide range of conveyancing clients as there are very few panels we do not appear on. Our indemnity insurers also like Lexcel as they know the policies and procedures we are following mean that the firm is well managed and that we receive very few complaints from clients.
Last year’s assessment report on Bretherton Law said “There were many areas of good practice where the Firm met and exceeded the requirements of the [Lexcel] Standard………Matter files were maintained to a high standard.” Our next assessment takes place on 16th August and we hope to receive another favourable report.
