At Wollens, we want every client to feel welcome, listened to and supported.
We understand that people often come to us at difficult, stressful or emotional times in their lives.
Our job is to listen, understand what matters to you and provide clear, practical legal advice with courtesy and respect.
We are committed to treating our clients fairly, professionally and with understanding. We simply ask for the same consideration towards our people.
Treating each other with respect
Open and honest conversations are an important part of the relationship between you and your legal team. We understand that you may sometimes be frustrated, upset or disagree with us. Being unhappy, raising concerns, making a complaint or expressing a strongly held view is not, in itself, unacceptable behaviour.
We do, however, expect everyone who interacts with Wollens to treat our people with courtesy and respect.
We will not accept behaviour towards our colleagues that is:
- abusive, threatening or intimidating;
- discriminatory or harassing, including sexual harassment;
- personally insulting, offensive or deliberately demeaning;
- physically aggressive or threatening; or
- persistently unreasonable in a way that prevents our team from carrying out their work properly.
These expectations apply however we communicate with each other, including face-to-face meetings, telephone calls, emails, video calls and other written or electronic communication.
If something goes wrong
Where we are concerned about someone’s behaviour, we will normally explain our concerns and ask them to change the way they are communicating or behaving.
We will always try to deal with the situation calmly, fairly and proportionately.
Depending upon the circumstances, we may:
- end or pause a telephone call or meeting;
- ask that future contact takes place in a particular way or through a particular person;
- ask someone to leave one of our offices;
- take other reasonable steps to protect our colleagues; or
- in serious or repeated cases, consider whether we can continue acting.
Serious threats, violence, harassment or other conduct which may constitute a criminal offence may be reported to the police or another appropriate authority.
We’re here to help
Nothing in the above is intended to prevent a client from raising a concern, challenging our advice or making a complaint.
If you’re unhappy with any aspect of our service, please tell us. We would much rather understand the problem and have the opportunity to put things right.
We also recognise that someone’s health, disability or personal circumstances may affect how they communicate with us. If you need us to make a reasonable adjustment to help you communicate with us, please let us know.
A good relationship between a client and their legal team is built on openness, trust and mutual respect. That’s the relationship we want every Wollens client to have with us.