Awards & Accolades

At Watkins & Gunn, we ensure our outstanding legal solutions are delivered clearly, by qualified experts you can trust (and approachable people who genuinely care), with clarity on costs and in a time and manner that suits you.

We are closely watched by our clients, our legal peers, innovation leaders and business professionals across the country as we win client care and service innovation awards, given to us for making accessing, paying for and understanding expert legal advice just that little bit easier.

As well as offering you brilliant lawyers (that’s a given) from our offices across South Wales (in Cardiff, Pontypool and Newport), we also pride ourselves in being approachable, determined, compassionate, fun, strong, realistic, charitable and unafraid to do things differently if it helps our clients.

The fact that we win awards for doing this is the cherry on the cake for us but it’s only important if it helps our clients feel reassured that our awards and accolades are given by those who truly recognise service excellence and making our clients’ lives easier.

Of course we are incredibly proud to win the respect of high ranking legal professionals through awards and national rankings that that celebrate legal excellence. However, you can be sure that we first aim to help you – to deliver access to justice and to be more helpful and valuable to clients today and tomorrow – not simply to win awards!

Our latest awards & accolades include:

		LAW SOCIETY ACCREDITATION The Law Society’s independently assessed accreditations have very strict requirements and we hold the following:-

		LEXCEL We have held the Law Society’s coveted Lexcel Quality Mark since 2007. It is only awarded to firms with the highest management and client care standards.

		LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR We were crowned Law Firm of the Year at the Wales Legal Awards in November 2023.
		law firm of the year
		ASSOCIATION OF PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS (APIL) APIL is an organisation of specialist Personal Injury Lawyers. Our offices are APIL accredited and our expert and experienced Personal Injury team hold individual APIL accreditations.

		WALES BUSINESS AWARDS 2022 We were the winners of the Diversity & Inclusion Award at the Wales Business Awards 2022.
		CARDIFF & DISTRICT LAW SOCIETY AWARDS 2022 Winners of the Best Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Initiative of the Year 2022 and the Best Access to Justice Initiative of the Year 2022.

		RESOLUTION ACCREDITED SPECIALISTS Resolution Specialists are members who have chosen to test their skills and expertise through a rigorous assessment of their knowledge, abilities and way that they work with you and other people. Resolution Specialists will deal with what you need to sort out in a way that limits or prevents conflict and distress and helps you move forward, confident that you have reached an outcome that works for you and your family. We are the first firm in South Wales to have a Resolution Specialist in both high and low value financial settlements and now have three Resolution Accredited Specialists in our team.
		COLLABORATIVE LAW Under the collaborative process, each person appoints their own collaboratively trained lawyer and you and your respective lawyers all meet together to work things out face to face. Both of you will have your lawyer by your side throughout the process and so you will have their support and legal advice as you go. Sophie Hughes, Partner and Head of the Family Team is a collaboratively trained lawyer.
		LEGAL 500 We are recommended in the Legal 500. It is an annually updated independent guide to the best Solicitors and Barristers in England and Wales and recognition within it is much sought after within the profession.
		CHAMBERS & PARTNERS We are also recommended as a leading firm in Chambers & Partners one of the world’s leading guides to the legal profession.
		We are recognised as on of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ by Great Place to Work®
		We have also been singled out as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ in Consulting & Professional Services by Great Place to Work® by Great Place to Work®
		We have been recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Women by Great Place to Work®.
		We have been recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Development by Great Place to Work®.
		We have been recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing by Great Place to Work®.
		We continue to be recognised as a Certified Great Place to Work® in 2024. 96% of our people say this is a great place to work.
		THE ASSOCIATION OF LIFETIME LAWYERS We have an accredited member of the Association of Lifetime Lawyers (previously Solicitors for the Elderly), an independent, national organisation of lawyers, who provide specialist legal advice for older and vulnerable people, their families and carers. All SFE Full Accredited Members are specialists in the field of older client law. Not only have they gained significant experience in this field, but they have also undergone a unique qualification which focuses on additional skills to enable them to work with older and vulnerable people