The team at Hughes Solicitors has received exceptional feedback after the firm’s annual reassessment for the Lexcel Practice Management Standard accreditation, a legal practice quality mark awarded by The Law Society for outstanding client care, compliance and practice management.
After the assessor had completed their assessment at the offices in Heathfield, they commented:
‘Lexcel continues to be well embedded across the firm and consistently applied.’ Despite the challenges of Covid-19, the firm has adjusted and ‘the standards of client care have remained high with some excellent client feedback’ received.
The report highlighted 29 areas of good practice where the minimum Lexcel requirements were exceeded, including:
- recognition that ‘client care remains at the forefront of everything’ the firm does.
- the client feedback process where clients are provided with a form at the end of their matter and invited to give their opinions on the service received, resulting in lots of ‘high quality client feedback’.
- a ‘detailed’ Covid-19 Office Risk Assessment, which is updated as situations have changed, and restrictions have been eased.
- the standard of record keeping ‘continues to be excellent’ with ‘detailed’ records of reviews maintained.
- case file management ‘continues to be of a high standard’ and the file review process is ‘thorough and working well’ with regular internal reviews taking place.
- a ‘comprehensive and well laid out’ Office Manual including policies and procedures is reviewed annually, and forms part of the documentation provided to all new starters.
- the ‘comprehensive induction programme’ for new starters, who felt that the induction they had received was very thorough and gave them all the information they needed as they began their new roles.
- maintenance of ‘Departmental Appendices’ which are ‘particularly useful’ for new members joining a department.
There was also particular praise for the firm’s HR practices and people management:
- ‘staff wellbeing is a key focus for the firm’, with supervision an important element of ensuring that ‘all staff feel well supported and able to ask for assistance when needed’.
- learning support for staff wishing to attain professional qualifications, with two members of staff currently working towards the CILEX qualification.
- regular team meetings to ‘ensure staff are updated on any changes as they arise and get the chance to discuss any issues’.
- a new starter with the firm expressed ‘how welcome they had been made to feel’ and how they had been ‘assisted in settling into their new roles’ and felt ‘able to seek advice from all members of the team as they settled in’.
Overall, the assessor recognised Hughes Solicitors has ‘a settled and close-knit team’. Staff ‘felt well supported with their supervisors always available, whether working in the office or remotely’.
Compliance partner Matthew Sabine commented: “We are delighted with the results of the Lexcel assessment, particularly the praise for our ‘high levels of client service’ and our excellent company culture.”