The City of Wolverhampton's legal department has joined an elite group of legal practices by achieving accreditation in a major, national quality standard.

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The team have been recommended to be awarded the Law Society's national LEXCEL quality mark for legal excellence following a 4 day indepth audit and inspection.

LEXCEL inspectors scrutinised over 150 areas of the department's work and performance from file management through to cost effectiveness and efficiency.

Accreditation to the LEXCEL standard places the city's legal team in the top 13% of legal practices nationally - the majority of which are private sector law firms.

Councillor Andrew Johnson, cabinet member for resources: said: "This is an excellent achievement and I want to pay tribute to the team for working so hard to hit and maintain the high standards of professional practice expected by LEXCEL.

"The award highlights the team's commitment to delivering a high quality, customer focused service based on professional excellence and continued professional development.

"It places the team amongst the top local government legal departments in the land and up there with the top 13% of law firms - public and private sector. I'm also delighted by the fact that the accreditation was achieved at the first time of asking.

"This focus on developing professional excellence across the city council is part of our wider plan to deliver our corporate priorities by creating a confident, capable council that's efficient and performance led."

LEXCEL assessor, Phillip Knight said: "Gaining LEXCEL accreditation is a significant achievement for the City of Wolverhampton Council's legal team. LEXCEL is the Law Society's top quality mark for excellence in legal practice management and excellence in legal client care. It's only ever awarded to those high performing organisations that measure up to the stringent standards of professional practice and quality that LEXCEL sets out."

  • released: Thursday 4 December, 2014