1. What you can expect from Law Quarter
Law Quarter wants its clients to have a positive experience. We have developed the following list of expectations. This is what you can expect from Law Quarter:
- We will adhere to our professional obligations;
- We will keep the information you give us confidential;
- We will avoid any potential conflicts of interest;
- We will be transparent in our fees and let you know if our estimates need revision;
- We will meet deadlines and we will keep you informed;
- We will do everything we can to help you achieve your objectives and to get the best possible outcome; and
- We will act ethically and with integrity at all times.
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2. The Fiduciary Relationship
The lawyer/client relationship is a fiduciary relationship.
Our lawyers act in our client’s best interests with the utmost good faith, subject only to our overriding duties to the court and the law.
The relationship between a lawyer and a client is a privileged relationship, meaning that any confidential information to which the lawyer becomes privy cannot be disclosed without the client’s consent. This privilege exists both at common law and under the Evidence Acts in each state and the Commonwealth.
3. What we ask from you
Your relationship with a lawyer will be a successful one if you:
- tell us what we need to know and not hold back facts;
- keep us informed on any changes to the facts or your personal circumstances;
- respond to our requests for information within a reasonable time frame; and
- contact us if you are unsure or if you are unhappy with anything you see us do.
4. Our Policies and Procedures
Law Quarter is committed to offering its employees an innovative and rewarding environment that encourages and fosters excellence.
Our employee conduct guidelines help to guide employees on how to act, and clarify how Law Quarter expects employees to perform. All directors, principals, partners, and employees agree, as a condition of employment and association, to be bound by these employee conduct guidelines and in so doing, give confidence to those with whom they work, meet or interact as to the standard of behaviour that can be expected. Law Quarter is committed to ethical and compliant business. At its core, compliance implies acceptance, adoption and achievement of particular standards of behaviour and business operations whether enshrined in law, regulation, code, standard, convention, or community expectation.
Law Quarter is committed to quality and positive client outcomes. To this end, we have documented a formal approach to managing and resolving any client complaints.
Access Law Quarter’s Standard Complaints and Dispute Resolution Procedure
This document, together with our General Terms of Business, sets out the terms of our offer to provide legal services to you and constitutes our costs agreement and disclosure pursuant to the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW).
Access Law Quarter’s Costs Agreement
Please also note the following pages:
Law Quarter has decided to adopt an approach that is consistent with the Privacy Act, the APP’s and the APP guidelines.
Our practices and internal policies are consistent with our privacy policy, and our staff are required to ensure compliance as a condition of their employment. In any third-party contracts, we enter into there is a duty to maintain personal information following our privacy policy and in a manner consistent with the Privacy Act.
Access Law Quarter’s Privacy Policy
Law Quarter has adopted a process approach for its quality management system. Our legal service offering for clients in Australia has been reviewed against the ISO 9001:2015 standard.
Access our ISO 9001:2015 certificate here.
By identifying the top-level processes within the company, and then managing each of these discretely, this reduces the potential for nonconforming services discovered during final processes or after delivery. Instead, nonconformities and risks are identified in real-time, by actions taken within each of the top-level processes.
The following top-level processes have been identified for Law Quarter:
- Quality Recruitment: Ensuring that our recruitment standards are clearly defined and that we recruit appropriately qualified individuals.
- New Matter Acceptance: Ensuring that Law Quarter only takes on matters where it has the capacity and expertise to complete the agreed scope of work- including to ensure that there are no potential conflicts of interest.
- Matter Progression: Ensuring that matter plans are developed in all instances and that any departures are communicated and agree upon with our clients. Ensuring that centralized calendars are kept up to date and that all deadlines are met.
- Document Quality: Providing quality legal advice that is restricted to areas of expertise with peer review completed on all advices provided. Use of Machine Learning systems to review advice and drafted documents against pre-trained models and checklists to ensure consistency.
Law Quarter, despite being a small law firm, understands that is has a role to play in reconciliation. A Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) program provides a framework for organisations to support the national reconciliation movement.
We have developed a draft RAP that sets out the steps we will be taking over the next 12 months. This RAP has not been endorsed or approved by any third-party.
You can access our draft RAP here.
Law Quarter is committed to a sustainable community and to positive environmental outcomes. We have developed a sustainability policy which is summarised below. Access a complete copy of our Environmental Sustainability Policy <- here.
Resources
We are careful to reduce the use of non-renewable resources in our work. We avoid printing and in all cases use recycled paper where we do print.
We aim to reduce the travel that our lawyers complete via private transport and have various technologies available to complete online meetings and court appearances.
We recycle any material used which is capable of recycling.
Energy and Carbon
Our energy usage each calendar year and carbon footprint will be offset by the purchase and surrender of appropriate certificates or by the purchase of carbon offset certificates. We are not certified as being Carbon Neutral will seek that accreditation during 2021.
Legal Services
A large proportion of the legal work that we do is with renewable energy generator and we have made a significant contribution to the uptake of solar across the country.
