How we can help

Introduction

From time to time we all experience problems, and just because we are lawyers does not mean that we always know what to do or, indeed, what help we need and how to get it.

Legal practice is a minefield of overlapping regulations and rules and they can affect you whether you are a solicitor or a paralegal, a partner or an employee.

The problem, of course, is that we are all busy people and simply dealing with client matters is often a full time occupation, leaving little or no spare capacity to deal with administration, office management, personnel issues, accounts or professional conduct. Little wonder, then, that occasionally problems get out of hand.

The Lawyers Defence Group is here to help you deal with the problems which you will encounter in practice and to assist you by keeping you up to date with much of the information which you need to know to practice in the ever more difficult times.

Free preliminary diagnostic advice

To enable you to get a better idea as to what options are available to you and whether help is available, and to better help us to ascertain the nature of your problem and what neds to be done to assist you, the Lawyers Defence Group provides up to twenty minutes free preliminary diagnostic advice from any one of our advisers.

Our experience is that this is usually long enough to help you to understand the nature of any legal or other remedies that may exist and to help you to make a decision as to whether you want to proceed with the matter.

However, to make best use of that time, it is suggested that you make some clear notes about the problem and the help that you are hoping to receive so as to ensure that time is not wasted on issues which are not immediately relevant or that important points that would have liked to raise are not missed.

Wide range of advice and support

From advice on how to manage your practice, supervise staff or deal with money laundering issues through to assistance and representation in relation to disciplinary, criminal or civil proceedings, the Lawyers Defence Group can provide you and your firm with timely, effective and practical advice on how better to manage your practice or how to deal with those problems that arise from regulators, clients, staff, employers and partners.

Founded by Richard Nelson LLP and Murdochs Solicitors, the Lawyers Defence Group allows all lawyers to draw upon the substantial experience of these two firms and to have access to a panel of experienced and specialist practitioners, including solicitors, barristers and consultants, able to provide you with guidance, advice and assistance on a wide range of topics including, but not limited to:

  • investigation by a regulator;
  • conduct and regulatory issues;
  • representation before courts, professional bodies and tribunals;
  • Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearings and appeals;
  • setting up and merging a practice;
  • voluntary closures;
  • interventions and threatened interventions;
  • production orders and warrants;
  • practising certificate issues including conditions;
  • suitability test issues;
  • fraud, money laundering and bribery;
  • financial and accounting problems;
  • financial services issues;
  • partnership;
  • supervision and employment issues;
  • practice management;
  • negligence; and
  • practice structures.

Richard Nelson LLP and Murdochs Solicitors deal with regulatory matters on a regular basis, as do many of the panel, and are Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal panel solicitors. They and many of the panel members have experience both prosecuting and defending matters before tribunals are members of the Solicitors Assistance Scheme.

For further information about the Lawyers Defence Group you can:

  • phone on 0333 888 4070
  • email on help@lawyersdefencegroup.org.uk, or
  • write to us at Lawyers Defence Group, c/o Richard Nelson LLP, Priory Court, 1 Derby Road, Nottingham, NG9 2TA