Robert Newey & Co has been awarded the Lexcel quality mark. This is a practice management quality mark developed by the Law Society.
The Lexcel standard currently has eight sections:
• Structures and policies;
• Strategy, the provision of services and marketing;
• Financial management;
• Facilities and IT;
• People management;
• Supervision and operational risk management;
• Client care; and
• File and case management.
The Lexcel standard tries to ensure that matters are dealt with consistently and that nothing is overlooked. There is an annual assessment by an external assessor to ensure that the practice complies with all the requirements of the standard. Particularly for a small, specialist practice I believe this is a desirable discipline - and should be reassuring to clients and potential clients.
From the point of view of a legal practice, one advantage of Lexcel is that its requirements equal or exceed the current professional rules. The annual assessment gives reassurance that the practice is compliant in the areas assessed. At the same time the standard goes much wider than the professional rules, requiring practices to plan ahead, to think through their needs and to monitor their performance.
Arguably the standard could be particularly helpful to small practices. I can vouch for the fact that setting up the necessary systems takes a lot of time and effort. I do believe, however, that now that the standards are in place it will be easier to work more efficiently. Unpredictable client needs and peaks and troughs of work are part of professional life. With better systems, however, there should be less need to drop everything for “firefighting”. That should have benefits, both for the practice and for its clients.
