Bartons Solicitors – Lexis Nexis Winners 2020
Bartons Solicitors, a regional firm, has won a prestigious national award for legal services.
The Lexis Nexis Legal Awards, formerly known as the Halsbury Legal Awards, were launched nationally in 2013 to recognise and celebrate excellence and innovation across the legal sector and they have attracted an increasing number of high calibre entrants each year. There are 18 award categories, which celebrate the best of the best across the whole of the legal spectrum.
The awards ceremony was held at the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane on 11 March 2020. Judges included Simon Davis, President of the Law Society, Richard Atkins QC, Chair of the Bar and Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute.
Bartons’ Marine Department won the Award for Customer Focus: “This award recognises a law firm, chambers or in-house team which can demonstrate excellence in the field of customer care and service”. The Awards Team from LexisNexis commented that “the competition was fierce as usual and it was a major achievement to be shortlisted let alone win”.
Jo Pummery, head of Bartons’ Marine Department, was delighted with the award: “We are thrilled to be recognised by the eminent judging panel for the Department’s commitment to delivering an exceptional level of client service, which reflects our ethos and commitment to our clients.”
The Plymouth based Marine Department at Bartons, established in 2000, offers a niche maritime law service for commercial clients, insurers and individuals in the UK and internationally. The Department has close links with the marine and shipping industries and place emphasis on training and marine related experience, ranging from Trans-Atlantic yacht racing to long-lining in the Barents Sea. Members of the Bartons’ Marine Department are trained as commercial fishermen and at least to RYA Yachtmaster (Theory) level. Marine clients range from UK and international marine insurers, P & I clubs, ship-owners and operators to yacht clubs, local ports and harbours, marine related businesses and the fishing industry. The Department also act for individuals who need assistance in almost any marine related context, including fatal accidents and personal injuries. The marine advocacy department deals with the defence of criminal acts, including prosecutions brought by the MCA and MMO and prosecutions for fisheries offences.
The Department has won numerous awards, being recognised for its outstanding programme of training by the British Marine Federation in 2015, winning The Devon and Somerset Law Society Client Service Award in 2017 and the Legal 500 award for Shipping ‘Firm (Regional) of the Year 2018’. The award citation stated: “Bartons is praised not only for its excellence in law but for its impressive knowledge of the practicalities of the area”. More recently in 2019 the Department was highly commended by the national Law Society for Client Service. The Law Society reflected that Client Service was an exceptionally strong category and said of the Department: “Bartons impressed the judges with the lengths they went to understand the world of their clients and their challenges. By creating empathy they experienced a greatly enhanced client service.”
