The application and annual renewal process for Lexcel follows the nine steps outlined below.
To find out how much Recognising Excellence would charge for your assessment get in touch with us and let us know the number of fee earners along with the total number of support staff and occupied offices and we will send you the cost for the work. if you are happy with this we will follow up with a client agreement. You need to confirm which assessment option at Step 6 below you would like to use.
Recognising Excellence must have this on record before we can proceed with the assessment.
An experienced assessor will be allocated to you and he/she will contact you to introduce themselves, plan the assessment and arrange dates.
You can find a copy of the application form here. The form must be sent to The Lexcel Office at the Law Society no sooner than 3 months before the agreed first on site date and no later than 6 weeks before this date. An invoice for the Lexcel registration fee will be sent to you for payment by the Lexcel Office. You can find out more about the Law Society’s fees here.
Once the Lexcel Office has reviewed and approved your application form then a Proceed email will be sent to you authorising the assessor to carry out your assessment. The assessor cannot begin the assessment without this.
Complete a self-assessment check list and send this to your assessor for them to review. You can find a copy of the checklist here.
At the moment due to Covid-19 there are three options for your assessment. These are available until the end of December 2021. As and when they change we will advise you.
- Option 1: The review to be conducted remotely.
- Option 2: The review to be conducted in the traditional way, with on site visits in person.
- Option 3: A Hybrid review. The assessor comes onsite to review matter files and conducts remote interviews with selected staff.
At the end of the visit the assessor will inform you of their findings and confirm what will happen next. They will then complete a report which you will receive within 5 working days of your last day on site.
Your report will be verified by a qualified Internal Verifier at Recognising Excellence and then sent to the Lexcel Office for them to review the assessment recommendation. Any corrective actions required will need to be submitted to your assessor within 21 days for minor non-compliances and three months for major non-compliances.
Once any corrective actions have been cleared and reported to the Law Society agreeing with the assessor’s recommendation of accreditation, The Lexcel office will confirm whether they approve and confirm this to you in writing, providing a copy of your Lexcel Accreditation Certificate.
Annual visits are required to confirm ongoing accreditation which continues on a 3 year cycle. Accreditation must be renewed with a full re-assessment at the start of each three-year cycle, but the visits in years 2 and 3 are usually shorter than for your Initial or Full Reassessment.