Warwickshire Legal Services (WLS) is our in-house legal team. Based in Warwick, at the heart of the county, we have a professional team of over 90 staff.
WLS offers legal support, advice and representation across a broad range of legal disciplines. We provide a comprehensive legal service to a number of external public sector clients such as Warwick District Council, West Mercia and Warwickshire Police Alliance, Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Herefordshire Council as well as over 200 schools and academies.
About us
We are committed to providing the best quality legal advice to our public sector clients, enabling them to achieve their objectives. We work together to make a difference in the lives of local people and we’re proud of our record of bright, committed and capable staff, with the integrity and talent to achieve success.
Here are some of the reasons you’ll love working with us:
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we’re experts in the public and charity sectors, priding ourselves on our quality, commercially relevant, and expedient advice
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cost-effective solutions to your legal problems
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recognised with the Lexcel Standard, the Law Society’s practice quality mark
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a proven track record combined with a wealth of public sector experience from over 20 years of practice
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the broad range of legal advice that we can offer
How we can help you
We are committed to providing high quality and cost-effective legal advice to all of our clients at all times.
We pride ourselves on our practical, responsive and professional approach. We want all of our clients to have the utmost confidence in the service they receive and to value the contribution we make to achieving their business objectives.
Client care
We are committed to giving our clients the best possible service. This means:
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responding quickly, flexibly and creatively
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understanding your business and providing solutions which help you achieve success.
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giving you a competitive price and transparency about our fees
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making sure that you are kept up to date with developments in your cases
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providing you with a single point of contact to ensure that the right people provide you with the advice you need.
Experience and expertise: our track record
WLS has a wealth of public sector experience from over 20 years of practice, providing a wide range of legal services to local government and other public sector clients. We’ve built many strong relationships over the years and have worked with external clients such as Warwickshire and West Mercia Police Alliance for more than 15 years. The depth of understanding that we’ve acquired about our public sector clients and the environment in which they operate, allows us to bring a practical and problem-solving approach to the legal issues we deal with.
What our clients say
Our clients consistently rate us highly and provide positive feedback. ‘Excellent, proactive, professional, supportive and responsive’ are just some of the adjectives used by our clients to describe the service they have received.
Customer care
We are committed to delivering excellent standards of customer care and have a customer care charter with all of our clients. Clients can expect to have a dedicated Business Partner with specific responsibility for managing our relationship with you as well as seeking ways in which we can improve the service and help you to manage and reduce, where possible, your legal spend with us.
WLS is Lexcel accredited. This is the Law Society’s international practice management standard which certifies that quality standards have been met following an independent assessment.
Client confidentiality
We are very aware of the potential for conflicts of interest to arise when acting for other public sector bodies. We take extreme care in guarding against actual (and potential) conflicts of interest when providing legal advice to our clients to ensure that our professional obligations and our Client’s interests are not compromised in any way. In exceptional cases, this may mean that we are unable to act for individual external clients.
Complaints handling procedure
We like to hear what our clients think about our services, good or bad. It is always good to hear when things go right, but it is just as important for us to know if we get things wrong so that we have an opportunity to put them right if we can and make sure we learn from these situations. We regularly ask for feedback through our customer surveys and SLA review meetings. Our mature relationships with our clients tends to mean that they provide direct informal feedback to the fee earner involved.
Any member of the public who wishes to make a complaint about WLS should also follow the Council’s corporate complaints procedure which can be found by clicking on the link below; www.warwickshire.gov.uk
To find out more about the services offered by Warwickshire Legal Services, and how we may be able to help you, please contact us by telephoning 01926 476962 or alternatively email [email protected]
Services
Employment
Corporate and Commercial
Property
Planning
Child protection
Regulatory
To find out more about the services offered by Warwickshire Legal Services, and how we may be able to help you, please contact us by telephoning 01926 476962 or alternatively email [email protected]
Sectors
Local Authorities
Schools and Academies
Higher Education
Charities
Blue Light Services
To find out more about the services offered by Warwickshire Legal Services, and how we may be able to help you, please contact us by telephoning 01926 476962 or alternatively email [email protected]
People
Adult Health and Social care
Childcare
Corporate & Commercial
Debt Recovery
Employment
Education
Planning and Litigation
Property
To find out more about the services offered by Warwickshire Legal Services, and how we may be able to help you, please contact us by telephoning 01926 476962 or alternatively email [email protected]
Careers
Warwickshire Legal Services provides a dynamic and solution-based legal service in all areas of public law.
We have a professional team of over 90 staff working across our legal services teams. Our lawyers are drawn from a variety of backgrounds. Some are from large private practice firms whilst others have developed their careers in local government and the public sector. This breadth of experience adds value to the service we provide to our clients.
Our people really are our most valuable resource and we actively support staff in their career development through training opportunities.
Diversity and recruitment
WLS is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all, including equality of access to the services that we provide. As a council, we are signed up to the general principles of fairness and equality. WLS values diversity and follows the council’s corporate policies and procedures in all aspects of our service. We follow the council’s equal opportunities recruitment policies. We seek to provide the highest standard of services to clients and to create the best possible working environment for our people. We believe that valuing diversity, makes us fairer, stronger, more effective and, ultimately, more successful.
Opportunities
We advertise all our vacancies on the county council’s website and on the WMJobs web site. We tend to advertise our solicitor and trainee solicitor posts in the Law Society Gazette. We carry out a bi-annual recruitment exercise for our trainee solicitors. For more information please contact us at [email protected]
To find out more about the services offered by Warwickshire Legal Services, and how we may be able to help you, please contact us by telephoning 01926 476962 or alternatively email [email protected]