JRS Consultants

JRS Consultants are an international, Lexcel accredited consultancy company, based in the UK. As specialist consultants to law firms, JRS have assisted a large variety of legal organisations in achieving Lexcel accreditation.

Our Lexcel service is tailored to the needs of each client. JRS was established over 25 years ago initially to help solicitors firms achieve the relevant quality standards for legal aid work. Since then the breadth of knowledge and experience which we have acquired when working with the legal profession is unprecedented and has made JRS Consultants one of the leading consultancies in the field of law firm compliance and Lexcel.

Our philosophy throughout is to keep the documentation as simple and as straight forward as possible. We would also seek to build, where possible, on what an organisation already does rather than super-imposing unwieldy procedures upon you. In our experience, this not only makes the administration simpler but also assists in achieving compliance from all members of the organisation.

Our team of consultants are all Lexcel accredited.

Andy Bean
Andy joined JRS Consultants in 1998 after over 10 years of working in a number of prominent criminal practices across West Yorkshire. Andy was one of the first accredited police station representatives in the country and ran a number of substantial crown court departments.

Andy became a Partner in 2005 and since then has run the field work section of the firm ensuring our clients get the assistance they need to deal with the continuing range of issues and problems legal practitioner have to deal with on a day to day basis.

Experience:

• Strategic Planning for Legal practice
• Lexcel Accredited Consultant
• SRA Compliance and Risk Assessment
• Quality Assurance for both private and publically funded firms
• Contract compliance and Tender preparation for Legal Aid firms

Dean Grindle
Dean graduated from Loughborough University with a management and engineering degree and has worked for almost 30 years in the field of quality management systems, with the last 20 years being in the legal sector.

Dean initially worked as a quality systems consultant developing expertise in the ISO9000 and later joined the Legal Aid Board to spearhead the rollout of the Legal Aid Franchise and the Quality Assurance Standard (LAFQAS). Subsequently, as an Accounts Manager, Dean was involved in conducting of SQM audits and the management of large numbers of CLS/CDS contracts. Overall Dean spent some 14 years as a Contract Manager at the Legal Services Commission before joining JRS Consultants in 2010.

Experience:

• Development of compliance and best practice across the legal sector
• Quality management systems for private and publicly-funded firms
• Lexcel Accredited Consultant
• SRA Code compliance and risk assessment

Steve Barnes
Steve has a degree in English Literature from Anglia University in Cambridge and has nearly 20 years’ experience of auditing in the legal compliance arena. He worked at the LAA (then LSC) from 1997 and undertook the roles of Means Assessor, Quality Auditor & Lead Assessor. He originally joined JRS in 2003, but briefly departed for two years in 2009 to work as an in-house Quality Manager in one of West Yorkshire’s leading legal aid firms. He re-joined JRS in 2011 and is an accredited Lexcel Consultant.

Experience:

• Undertaking & preparing firms for SQM Audits
• Lexcel Accredited Consultant
• SRA Compliance & Risk Assessment
• Drafting Quality Procedures Manuals, Strategic & Business Plans, Business Continuity Plans and all policies required to achieve the SQM or Lexcel v6 Quality Standards
• File auditing and reviewing against contract compliance, SQM, Lexcel and Peer Review criteria
• Preparing Tender Round applications
• In-house Training on legal aid compliance