anonymous
Zero supervision, 11-month delay, and two months of broken complaint promises.
My experience with Irwin Mitchell’s commercial team as panel solicitors has been an absolute masterclass in administrative delay, lack of supervision, and procedural failure. The Key Facts: 11 Months of Inaction: Instructed on a high-value commercial negligence claim, the file was left in the hands of an unsupervised fee earner/trainee who consistently misstated basic facts, failed to secure critical digital client files, and took almost a year to make any progress. Conflict of Interest: After repeated errors and failure to protect client evidence were formally raised, the firm declared a conflict of interest and disinstructed themselves, leaving the matter completely unhandled. Two-Month Complaint Delay: A formal service complaint was submitted to Client Care. Irwin Mitchell ignored their own 15-day internal complaint deadline and dragged the matter out for over two months. Broken Commitments: An Associate Solicitor gave a binding written commitment to provide a full substantive response "no later than close of business on Thursday, 13th August." At 16:31 on that exact deadline, a generic email was sent stating the file was "under internal review"—followed 75 minutes later by an automated Out of Office reply confirming the fee earner had gone on holiday for a week. The Bottom Line: Promising a client a formal complaint response after months of delay, sending a stalling email minutes before the deadline, and immediately walking out the door on holiday sums up the operational culture. If you require accountable legal representation, strict adherence to professional deadlines, or transparent communication, look elsewhere. This matter is now being escalated directly to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
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