Don’t believe the hype – nothing has changed at Duncan Lewis. Duncan Lewis employees speak out:
I can confirm the conniving, decietful, immoral and basically downright rubbish management DL has. Once they have wrung the life out of you, they throw you aside like a piece of chewed gum- they know you know it and they dont care. They simply move on to the next “victim”. Once used and they know you have wisened up to the fact, they hope and pray you leave and let you know in many ways.
People are not happy- people want to leave but with the current climate, one needs to keep paying those bills and so one stays. People are hummming with disgruntlement. DL is still run like a factory…charge, charge, charge, bill, bill, bill. No one cares how you do it…. just do it.
Paralegals do not know what they are doing especially in immigration- emphasis is on 6chargeables hours- there is simply no time to read up on the law- paralegals go outdoors to detention centres primarily to achieve the 6chargeable hours so as to consequently bill- whether or not they have properly adviced vulnerable non english speaking clients is besides the point- if they are lucky they will receive some advice via an advice letter – if they ever get one. Emphasis is on biling, billing, billing. Never the law.
Management created a “monstor” of a firm. It wont last long. The bubble will burst- look at what is happening to the mental health department- it will literally be gone by October.
There has been no external training for years to speak off( you are expected to attend in “house training” delivered by persons who have themselves not been to external courses for years. If you want external training you go to the freebie two hour raining sessions conducted at various chambers after 5pm) Its no bad thing that re- accreditation is a must to cover firms such as DL- even solicitors and supervisors themselves do not know the law- its not really like working in a law firm. The LSC needs to come down hard on the firm someday and without notice if you know what i mean.
…. (see full post in the comments to Duncan Lewis employees speak out)
As for the employee forum, charity committee, pro bono cimmittee all created after this site was set up- its no use- the core is still rotten. Before this site you did not have these committies at all. All created ( especially the charity one ) to give an impression that there is change. No serious thinking and intelligent lawyer in DL beleives the HYPE! Its patronising and disgusting to go around asking employees to contirbute money to this and that charity so as to give the impression that all is well and good and the employess are happy to give.. well they are not. Use your own money to mend your damaged reputation. No one reads the newsletter, no one cares what the emolpyee forum does or says- its just a lot of hot air- No one cares that the employee forum has bought biscuits for HR surgeries. Apart from provding basics such as milk(where you can find it these days), tea bags, sugar and coffee nothing further is provided to staff- not even a weekly tin of biscuits for each floor.
People are not happy. Right the wrongs you are currently committing.
Until the wrongs are corrected, contributions to this site will continue….. daily or weekly.
Please please please do not use the services of Duncan Lewis. I am in the processing of complaining, after making one of the worst decisions of my life to appoint them, they dont have a clue about the law, make you run around and will ruin your case!! Will provide more updates soon.
Hi, I wonder if that poster can expand on the point about the mental health department being gone in October? I am a mental health solicitor and I have been offered a consultancy by DL (outside London, so I would not be working in their offices and it sounds like this is a good thing).
I have heard from another source that several members of the MH team have registered with legal recruiters – is there a particular problem? What sort of noises are coming out of DL about the future of mental health? And what will happen to the clients?!
I was a client of DL til recently. I came to DL in a desperate state, I was given a Partner – Ami White – for a severe housing issue….Not only was I spoken to in a condescending fashion, but was also given the run around. I spent most of my time chasing her, leaving messages, phone calling etc… Most of the staff at DL barely speak English. and have difficulty in passing on messages. I was told that I should not talk so much, as she only needed to hear what she considered the juicy bits. Unfortunately, as Ami was disinterested in listening to all the evidence, she miserably failed me and many others in similar positions.
Ami White has been recently made redundant, but still has her big toe holding the door open. She talked the talked but did not walk the walk. I am a paralegal secretary by trade, but Ami didnot know this as she was not listening!!.
She managed to give me incorrect forms to sign for legal aid…duh! and in effect messed up my up my Legal Aid. My case is now with another firm which managed to do in one month what DL couldnt do in over a year.
Watch out!! DL are only interested in sucking dry LSC for Legal Aid funds, but believe me when I say that the funds are not used to represent you in any way whatsoever.
SIVA and AMI
you both made my family and I very desperate and almost homeless due to your lack of knowledge and professionalism….Think about that the next time you take a hot bath and your children are tucked nicely in bed. Think about ALL the people and their families you have ruined and failed. You both should not be practicing law at all! I hope you manage to look at yourself and make the right decision!
Thought I’d throw some more (belated) fat on the fire.
Got a homelessness client right now over priority need. Hackney decided this and when giving him the decision letter a man from the Homeless Persons Unit (or “Housing Options” or whatever it’s called this week) basically pushed this client hard towards Duncan Lewis. Even making the call to them to try and refer him to them, and recommending them super strongly above all other firms on their list of suitable solicitors in the borough.
They promptly sat on it and didn’t even call him in to interview him. It was only Day 21 that he then came to see us and we had to teararse around putting a review together.
Given the quality of DL’s housing department (i.e. rubbish – although there’s some good chaps in their Shepherd’s Bush office, though that used to be a different firm that they absorbed) I can’t help but feel that the Council man deliberately did this knowing that DL would probably cock it up and they would probably be vindicated in making their ill thought out decision.
This is not the first time we have had to bail out ex DL clients where they’ve cocked it up or done a crap job in the past.
You coming out in this way is very noble. I plead you to go a step further than this. Immigration detainees have no choice but to stay with DL due to exclusivity contracts. Detainees are not in a position or not willing to complain since they believe this will be detrimental to their pending cases. Please speak out on their behalf… talk to the Legal Services Commission about what really goes on.
DUNCAN LEWIS SOLICITORS- OUTCASTS IN THE LEGAL AID CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE
Adam Makepeace wrote on 7 June 2011 in the Solicitors Journal that The Sound off for Justice campaign for Justice campaign has failed. He also within that article in effect admitted that Duncan Lewis solicitors were Outcasts in the campaign for justice as he said ” I would respond by saying that we did try twice to engage with the campaign but were politely declined”. That they were excluded from the campaign is no surprise considering their very poor reputation in the legal arena, their perceived failures to bring justice to the very clients they represent and their reported massive profiting from public funds. It was therefore with amusement that it was noted that Duncan Lewis dared again last week to appear to want to give the impression that they sympathised with recent IAS woes. They indicated in writing last week to an immigration/asylum solicitor’s Group that they would be willing to also have their name added to a letter to be sent to the Guardian newspaper by ex- employees of the IAS. This letter has now been published in the Guardian- 15 July 2011 “Legal Aid Cuts leave Migrants and Asylum Seekers vulnerable”. The long list names of those who expressed sincere sympathy is appended to the letter- however unless i am mistaken Duncan Lewis’s name is missing! I am not surprised that it was decided to leave out Duncan Lewis ‘s name off the list of genuine sympathisers. In his article of 7 June 2011 Adam Makepeace was very critical of the Sound of for Justice Campaign. He said inter alia “This campaign needed to be seen by many, with a considerable degree of repetition of the argument: no one buys into the proposition after one advertisement or, indeed, a couple of press articles. And, by having a backdrop of far more powerful communication, all the other aspects of the campaign would have been able to operate from a position of greater strength”. Of course this article of 7 June 2011 was written following exclusion of DL from the legal aid campaign. Duncan Lewis’s weak request to have their name added to the list of names re the Guardian letter and their weakly expressed sympathy with the IAS was sent by a PARALEGAL on behalf of Duncan Lewis Solicitors! Would this communication not have been better and genuinely expressed coming from Adam Makepeace himself or the CEO, Shany Gupta ? Perhaps it was a case of once bitten twice shy but then on the other hand all that was required was the putting forward of their name to the list in a genuine manner and not in the manner the email was expressed.
Duncan Lewis’s expressed sympathy re the IAS situation ie with the staff and clients is very at odds with their very seeming gloating attitude whereby on the very day( 11 July 2011) they repeated on their Face book page what was already known about IAS woes in the media, they deliberately posted on this Facebook pages about NINE separate postings bang in the middle of an IAS article re Duncan Lewis solicitor’s retention of staff and posts created within the firm. One knowledgeable about DL would say this appears to be the first time DL has chosen to announce appointments in this manner – this was a very strange coincidence indeed and one would guess was intended to send out a message that Duncan Lewis is doing very well indeed compared to the IAS! But then again the message that Duncan Lewis was doing well was being given out in 2009 when they were suddenly subject to winding up proceedings! On that very same day(11 July 2011) and the day after and on the very same facebook page DL chose to announce that 23 training contracts had been given out and in the middle of these self-congratulating messages posted another updated article about IAS problems on 12 July 2011! Seems to me Duncan Lewis were gloating at the IAS misery and rather than express their sympathy right there on Facebook, Duncan Lewis chose to let some poor paralegal send an email to some general Solicitors Group clearly feigning sympathy about IAS problems
On 22 June 2010 Duncan Lewis posted a statement on their website- their News section- in relation to RMJ woes. The statement said “Duncan Lewis sympathises with the unfortunate circumstances in which the RMJ have found themselves. However, given the statements being made comparing Refugee Migrant Justice’s position to that of Duncan Lewis last year, we feel that we should make our position clear. Ms Caroline Slocock, Chief Executive of Refugee and Migrant Justice, stated on 17th June 2010. “The Legal Services Commission also gave special support to Duncan Lewis when it faced insolvency, according to press reports. Were such support available now, it might be possible to take RMJ out of administration.” We do not believe that our position was analogous to that facing RMJ. As we understand it, RMJ are seeking payment from the LSC against work that they have done but have yet to bill. In short the RMJ are seeking payment against work in progress. Our situation was quite different to that of RMJ. Duncan Lewis faced cash flow problems as a result of delays in payment of bills already rendered to the LSC. At no stage did we seek, nor were we paid, against work in progress. The LSC paid Duncan Lewis against claims already due in respect of bills Duncan Lewis had previously submitted to the LSC. We are in exactly the same position as RMJ and all other Controlled Work legal aid suppliers with regards the difficulties of being paid on an end of case basis – particularly in Immigration where Home Office delays can lead to files being open for well over 12 months or more”.
From the statement above it seems DL would not have expressed he half hearted sympathy with RMJ problems had they not felt it necessary to correct what they perceived to be inaccurate statements comparing RMJ problems to Duncan Lewis’s previous ones( but of course ultimately had DL been shut down the difference in practise would have been the same). Again this statement of last year more than shows that had Duncan Lewis been sincerely sympathetic towards IAS ‘s current problems DL could have chosen to write a public statement in sympathy on their website- it’s a matter of whether they want to. Rather what Duncan Lewis does is look around to see what is happening , then let the situation simmer a little and then review the situation to see how they stand and then make statements via articles eg Adam Makepeace’s article mentioned above of 7 June 2011. Only after they perceived that the campaign had failed did they provide an opinion as to what they thought should have been down- whilst they in effect did nothing on their own to campaign for justice. It is no bad thing that Duncan Lewis continues to be excluded from legal aid justice campaigns- after all by various means they continue to benefit very much from legal aid however provision of quality to clients or good treatment of staff has never been their forte.
Duncan Lewis are also subject to the very same barrage of legal if audits that other firms have been subject to within the last 9mnoths or so. If the LSC did not give any notice of these audits, there is no doubt that DL might find itself owing the LSC millions of pounds. Duncan Lewis solicitors better pray and hope that the combined woes befalling RMJ and IAS do not also visit their door in the next 12months and that their expressed hope on ABS saves them.
Believe it or not, Duncan Lewis was on the Solicitors from hell website up until late last year- about two solicitors were named there in different postings re complaints( i wont embarass them as one is a Partner there and one has left ) but when the website owner dared to link this blog to his website the two posts and the link to this site disappeared very shortly afterwards. Seems DL paid off the Solicitors from hell owner to remove the postings and the link- Such cowards- why didnt they fight like other reputable solicitors and take the solicitors from hell owner to Court? So for those wondering why DL is not on the SFH website, wonder no more! The owner of the solicitors from hell website should be ashamed for having removed DL’s name from its site. Its true though Shany that your firm’s two solicitors and the link to this site on that webiste was on ithe SFH Home Page and you sent good littel boy Makepeace along to pay off the SFH owner? Dont deny it coz we laughed about it in the office. . Laughed even more when the links quickly disappeared. If you didnt pay the owner how did you manage to get the postings removed coz we dont remember seeing reports anywhere that you took the SFH owner to court??? It was good to see the bully being bullied!