our accreditations

Wilkin Chapman first achieved Lexcel accreditation in 1999 and, since then, has always passed its annual assessment with flying colours.

Lexcel is the Law Society’s accreditation scheme, and is recognised as the gold-star legal quality mark. Adopted by legal firms in the UK and internationally, it's the quality mark that tells you you're in trusted, professional hands with your legal case.

Lexcel firms go through a rigorous testing and inspection process to ensure that they have the very best practice in client care, file and data management and complaints handling.

Accredited firms provide the highest standard of client care and practice management, so you can be sure you're getting the best possible service.

As a Lexcel firm, we are committed to:

• protecting client confidentiality

• communicating with you clearly and honestly about your case

• being upfront with you about costs

• keeping you informed about how your case is going

• dealing with any complaints properly

If you want peace of mind and assurance that you will receive a quality service from your solicitor, look for Lexcel – the mark of excellence.

At Wilkin Chapman, we have earned special recognition for our expertise in particular areas of law by achieving membership of a number of the Law Society's Accreditation Schemes:

• Clinical Negligence

• Personal Injury

• Family Law

• Criminal Litigation

• Family Mediation

• Conveyancing Quality

The schemes promote high standards in legal service provision and ensure that clients are easily able to identify legal practitioners with proven competency in given areas of law. They also ensure that scheme members maintain relevant standards of competency and expertise by means of periodic reselection, re-accreditation and re-authorisation.

Law Society Accreditation Scheme membership is voluntary. The expertise of scheme members in a given area of law has been verified and their accomplishment is recognised by the Law Society.

As an accredited law firm in a number of areas, the schemes:

• promote high standards in legal service provision

• ensure that clients are easily able to identify legal practitioners with proven competency in given areas of law

• help consumers to make informed choices about whom to instruct

• assure consumers that the Law Society has asked the questions that a discerning client wouldn't otherwise ask

• ensure that scheme members maintain relevant standards of competency and expertise by means of periodic reselection, re-accreditation and re-authorisation

Cyber Essentials is a government backed scheme that ensures the protection of an organisation against a whole range of cyber-attacks. Law firms with the accreditation demonstrate their commitment to cyber security.

In order to be awarded with their certified plus accreditation, a thorough review and independent on-site audit was completed on all our technology, processes, and cyber defences. This review further involved carrying out an assessment with the Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises (IASME) against the requirements of Cyber Essentials.

The Cyber Essentials Certified Plus accreditation means a great deal to our firm. We place great emphasis on the protection of our client’s information. This accreditation strengthens our defence against ever increasing cyber-attacks by employing best practice standards and techniques, while providing assurance to our clients. We are committed to continually investing in tools and techniques that improve our cyber stature and enable efficiency in managing our client’s information and internal business processes.

We are pleased to announce that we have been named as a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2). The Disability Confident scheme helps to remove barriers preventing disabled people and those with long term health conditions from accessing employment.

To be approved for the scheme, we demonstrated our commitment to being an inclusive employer by:

• actively attracting and recruiting disabled people to help fill our opportunities and vacancies;

• providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process;

• offering interviews to disabled people who meet the requirements;

• being flexible when assessing people so disabled applicants have the best opportunity to demonstrate that they can do the job;

• proactively offering and making reasonable adjustments as required;

• ensuring our people have appropriate disability equality awareness;

• promoting a culture of being disability confident;

• supporting our people to manage their disabilities or health conditions;

• ensuring there are no barriers to the development and progression of disabled people;

• ensuring managers are aware of how they can support their people who are sick or absent from work; and

• valuing and listening to feedback from disabled people.

We are proud to be a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. We’re determined to challenge attitudes, increase understanding of disability, and improve employee morale by demonstrating fair treatment. This accreditation will enable us to draw from the widest pool of incredible talent and retain high-quality people whose ethics match our core values.