Law awards: Gordons, Emsleys Solicitors, Lupton Fawcett Denison Till

LAW firm Gordons has been shortlisted for two awards from The Law Society.

Partner Victoria Davey is the finalist in the Woman Lawyer of the Year category, and the firm has also been shortlisted in the scheme’s Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion category for its apprenticeship scheme.

Ms Davey has been recognised in The Law Society Excellence Awards, and is the only finalist from a firm with a presence in the north of England.

She is the most senior in Gordons’ 170 year history.

Paul Ayre, managing partner, Gordons, said: “We’re very proud of this double recognition by The Law Society. Victoria is pivotal to our continued success.

“She adopts a variety of key roles, all of which she carries out successfully and with a smile on her face. Perhaps her most significant contribution, though, is the encouragement and inspiration she provides for other women at all levels of the business.

“We’re very proud too of our pioneering apprenticeship scheme and particularly the outstanding young people within it.

“They have improved our organisation in so many ways, including through making an ever-increasing contribution to our business success. I have no doubt many of them will enjoy outstanding careers in the profession.”

The Law Society Excellence Award winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Hilton Hotel, in London’s Park Lane, on 22 October.

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LEEDS firm Emsleys has also been shortlisted in two categories for the Law Society’s 2015 Excellence Awards.

The firm has been shortlisted in the client service and business development categories.

Emsleys director, Andrew Greenwood, says: “It’s absolutely fantastic to be shortlisted in not one, but two categories this year.

“It really is a testament to the excellent team of people that work for Emsleys as without them we wouldn’t be able to provide the high levels of service that we do or develop the business in the way we have.”

This is the third year running that Emsleys has been recognised in the Law Society’s awards.

In 2013 the firm was highly commended in the Business Development and Innovation category, and in 2014 they took home the award for Marketing and Communications.

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IN separate awards Lupton Fawcett Denison Till has been awarded an ISO standard ISO9001:2008 (Quality Management).

The firm has also retained its Lexcel Accreditation and achieved the LawNet Quality standard.

The firm was assessed across a number of fields including relevant documentation, including scope of quality management system, management responsibility, resource management, measuring analysis and improvement procedures, as well as appropriate checks focused around principles of customer focus; leadership; involvement of people; process approach; continual improvement to document the firm’s business practices; better satisfying the requirements and expectations of its clients; and continually improving the overall management of the firm.

Richard Marshall, managing director, said: “As the Lexcel practice management standard is only awarded to solicitors, we felt that there is an advantage in having an award such as ISO 9001:2008 which is more likely to be familiar to our clients and those awarding tenders. ISO 9001:2008 would give the firm greater flexibility in terms of its procedures.”

“From the top down, we are committed to delivering quality to our clients and recognise that systems need to be at the heart of such delivery.

“We are building on our Lexcel and ISO achievements by investing in Lean Management and Process Mapping which will take our processes to an altogether higher standard.”

Louise Connacher, quality director, comments: “We have installed a dedicated quality and improvement team to manage our firm-wide audit programme against core procedures every year – and this has helped us to reach the ISO standard ISO 9001:2008, Lexcel Accreditation – held for the past 14 years, and the LawNet quality standard.

“Quality is very much at the heart of everything we do, which is fittingly reflected in our achievements.

“Supporting this is our internal quality programme which sets out the high standards we offer our clients on a daily basis and imparts key performance requirements in every member of staff.”