Will the real team leaders please stand up?

Over ten years ago when I was just a few years' qualified, an expert report was served late on a file on which I worked. If I immediately follow that statement with an explanation that I was, on the relevant date, in the middle of a three-week honeymoon on the other side of the globe, my bullet-proof alibi may sound rather defensive. The fact is, however, that recalling the incident even now brings out a natural career preservation instinct.

To provide some context, the Matter Partner for the file in question had only recently achieved promotion. With the benefit of hindsight and years of observing office politics at work, I can now see that their own back-covering defence mechanism as they fled the scene at speed was, to a degree, understandable as they strived to protect their hard-won status.

Cold comfort

The solicitor on the other side was an awkward character, but we had found a reasonably friendly level by this point. He gave me a heads up as we went into a court hearing for an unless order requiring the production of my client's expert evidence, that he in fact intended to apply for a debarring order. In a moment of utter madness, the judge granted that request and I left court in a state of shock, terrified to even call the office and report in. The next few weeks was a blur of preparing for a Court of Appeal hearing which overturned the order, with the judges recording that it had been entirely unwarranted. That was fairly cold comfort as the interim period had been most unpleasant, with departmental partners holding meetings behind closed doors and everybody participating in the blame game.

My position was then, and remains to this day, that if ever there are issues on a case, all of those involved need to step up and allow themselves to be held accountable. I could start a whole debate about whether or not the buck stops with the most senior fee earner involved, but I won't.

As a professional negligence solicitor, by definition I only become involved in other people's cases when the proverbial has already hit the fan. I met a new client accountant yesterday. I have worked on many accountants' negligence cases before, but I can honestly say that I have never seen their files in such impeccable order. I was presented with a full copy of the 'Know your client' file which was put together at the outset of their new client relationship (which has since turned sour), and a brief scan of their correspondence files shows that even the telephone attendance notes were dictated up and appear on the files in chronological order. That should of course be standard practice for solicitors, and not just those in my field who are particularly paranoid, but it is not something I have come to expect when dealing with accountants' files.

Team work

I was told that the practice has not ever had a claim against it, and the person I met has very much taken it to heart. Not once, however, during our lengthy meeting was any mention made of the numerous colleagues who worked on this particular file. No attempt was made to attribute blame internally. The approach was rather, as ?I deem correct, that the firm has come under attack and needs to defend itself as one unit. "There's no I in team", the cheesy catchprase goes, but as one canny former colleague once pointed out to me, however, there is a "me" in team if you look ?hard enough.

I also wanted to have a quick word about brand. My 8-year-old daughter received a lovely pair of sandals for her birthday back in April from her grandparents. They are of a recognised label and were not cheap. As the label's owner is famously vegan, the sandals are not made from leather and the substitute material used in the ankle strap is pathetically flimsy. The result was that one strap came undone and we lost it, rendering them unwearable.

When I looked on the internet and discovered the price of this - lest we forget - children's footwear, I almost keeled over. I was completely incensed and e-mailed the label's customer service address. I received an utterly uninterested response. Undeterred, as we lawyers can be tenacious, I had another go, with similar results. I then hunted down a telephone number and lucked out in getting through to the personal assistant to the CEO. She was completely horrified on hearing of their sloppy customer service to date ?and we received a brand new pair of sandals within a week, together with ?a handwritten apology.

As I really dislike glass-half-empty people who take the time to complain but never to say when they receive good service, I e-mailed the PA on receipt of the sandals to tell her just how delighted we were, and asked whether there was a public forum on their website where I could leave my positive comments. There isn't, but the label's reputation is redeemed in my eyes.