Lexcel excellence shines through

South Wales law firm, Watkins & Gunn were announced as the winners of the Lexcel Award in Practice Management at the Law Society's prestigious annual Excellence Awards 2009 in London.

Their Award was only open to firms holding the Lexcel quality mark and is intended to award excellence in Practice Management and the delivery of services to clients.

Watkins & Gunn are clients of Assessment North East and we asked them to explain the effect that Lexcel has had on their practice and how they came to win this auspicious award.

How did you prepare your application for the Excellence Award?

The application for the Award was led by Clive Thomas, the Managing Partner, with the assistance of our excellent Practice Manager, Vivienne Vermeire. However it was also a joint effort with the other Partners, Jonathan Wellington, Sophie Hughes and Sarah Williams, all making valuable contributions. We were keen to highlight how the firm has developed over the last six years and indeed this is something that the judges remarked upon describing it as a "remarkable story of achievement".

What effect has the Lexcel accreditation had on the firm?

The Lexcel accreditation has been extremely important in the development of the Practice. With the assistance of Assessment North East, in particular Sally Johnson, we have fully adopted the Lexcel model and the ethos behind it. As a result Lexcel has been a real driver for change and improvement in standards and consistency throughout the different departments of the firm so that we have been able to achieve national recognition by winning this auspicious Award.

What work went into achieving such a high standard?

We worked closely with Assessment North East in implementing new Policies and Procedures and ensuring their use across the Practice by way of a system of monitoring and file reviews. The measures that we carried out included -

Re-writing the Office Manual to reflect the Lexcel model policies and procedures
Putting in place an improved Risk Management system
Installing new case management software and improving our IT management
Offering enhanced training opportunities and support for staff to increase their skill set to ensure a change of culture was achieved
Putting in place detailed financial planning procedures
Developing successful business strategies with measurable objectives
Improving recruitment and induction procedures
Developing a new interactive website and a staff intranet
Strengthening our health and safety procedures
Developing an effective Business Continuity plan

How has this helped Watkins and Gunn?

Since adopting Lexcel we have seen significant benefits and have made massive strides as a Partnership. We have achieved -

An improvement of over 80% in service issue complaints
A significant reduction in indemnity insurance renewal premiums once again this year despite the difficult market conditions
Increased fee income and improved the cash flow enabling us to respond to the economic downturn
The ability to recruit and retain quality staff
A high level of consistency in work practice and file management across the firm
Increased client satisfaction - with 87% of clients "very satisfied" with our overall service
A reduction in indemnity claims made against the practice
An excellent platform from which to tender for new work
An excellent level of service to all of our clients

The judges of our category at the Excellence Awards commented that -

"Watkins & Gunn has a remarkable story of achievement. Since adopting Lexcel, they have transformed areas originally identified as weaknesses into major areas of strength. Their most recent assessment noted no non-compliances and highlighted a total of 31 areas of good practice. Client satisfaction is running at an all time high, and they have consistently increased annual fee income in spite of the current financial climate"

How did you feel winning the award?

We were absolutely delighted to be recognised in this way ahead of the best Law firms in England and Wales. However we are well aware of the main reason for our success. As our 2009 Assessment North East Lexcel report pointed out -

"Continuous improvement and involving people in that process is a key part of the organisation's culture. The result of this is that the firm have taken the decisions necessary to manage through the recent difficult economic climate and be well positioned to develop and grow out of the recession as the climate improves."

We realise that our staff are our greatest asset and that the foundations of our success were laid by involving them all in the changes that we have implemented and changing the culture of the firm. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a talented and hard working group of people working for us.

The challenge for us now is to not rest on our laurels but to continue to improve and offer a world class service to all of our clients to build on our success in an increasingly competitive market place.