Our aim

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, please tell us so that we may take steps to try and resolve the matter as promptly as circumstances allow.

Complaints process

We have a three-stage complaints process, and we aim to resolve the majority of complaints at the first stage.

Stage 1

In the first instance, please contact the partner who is working on your case, or their head of department to discuss your concerns and they will do their best to resolve your complaint as soon as possible.

Stage 2

    • If you do not feel able to raise your concerns with the partner dealing with your case or their head of department, and/or you remain dissatisfied with their response, please send your complaint to the Compliance Director, Gemma Garen (ggaren@foxwilliams.com). She will arrange for the complaint to be investigated, and depending on the nature of the complaint, it may be investigated by the compliance department, or by an independent partner (not connected with the matter), or by an external professional with appropriate experience. If an external professional is proposed, we will seek your consent before proceeding.
    • When the complaint reaches stage 2, we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within two working days. The length of time we will take to investigate your complaint will depend on various factors such as the complexity of the matter and volume of documents to review. We may also propose a meeting with you, or a telephone call, to try to resolve your concerns.
    • We will respond within 30 working days of our complaint acknowledgement. In some circumstances, we may need longer to investigate and respond to your complaint but, if so, we will explain why and provide an updated timetable.

Stage 3

    • If, having followed the above steps, you remain dissatisfied, you can ask our Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP), Tom Custance (tcustance@foxwilliams.com), to look into the matter for you. He, or an independent partner he nominates, will carry out a review of our investigation and they will get in touch with you to set out our final position on your complaint within 10 working days of the complaint reaching stage 3. In some circumstances, we may need longer to carry out this review but if that is the case we will explain why and provide an updated timetable.
    • If you are an individual client (or a qualifying small business), you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider your complaint, but before they accept a complaint for investigation, they will check that you have tried to resolve it with us first. Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman should be made within 6 months of our final response to your complaint and no more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about, or no more than one year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint. Legal Ombudsman: PO Box 6167, Slough SL1 0EH legalombudsman.org.uk, enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk 0300 555 0333 .
    • If you are not a client, it is our policy not to investigate complaints submitted by non-clients because we are generally only required to respond to complaints that have been made by our clients. Where appropriate, we will acknowledge your concern and explain that no further formal action will be taken.