Gift for my solicitor?

canaldumidi

penners324 said:

user1977 said:

A tip equivalent to 20% of their firm's fee, in cash...

Seriously though, I'm not aware of any firms which prohibit (modest) gifts from clients.

But there are rules from the SRA and Law Society about the size of them. 

And 20% in cash looks more like a bribe than anything else....

I think user1977 had his tongue firmly in his...... errr...... cheek?

user1977

penners324 said:

user1977 said:

A tip equivalent to 20% of their firm's fee, in cash...

Seriously though, I'm not aware of any firms which prohibit (modest) gifts from clients.

But there are rules from the SRA and Law Society about the size of them. 

And 20% in cash looks more like a bribe than anything else....

Hence my qualification to the size of the gifts.

Grumpy_chap

Snookie12cat said:

My solicitor has been amazing from start to finish and if we make it to the end (hopefully soon), it will be hugely down to her effort in pushing and chasing the other side. I have sold one house through her and it completed in 5 weeks and my recent sale has gone equally smoothly. I talk to her on the phone a great deal and she is lovely.

Are they allowed to get gifts? Maybe I email her an Amazon voucher at the end of all this as a thanks? They are working at home, so wouldn't want to send anything to the office.

Anyone else get theirs a gift?

I think a gift, particularly one with a clear monetary value such as an Amazon card, could be problematical in the case of a Solicitor, even a Conveyancing Solicitor when all the work is complete.  Partly because of the risk of appearing like a bribe, partly because of limits on the value of gifts that can be received and partly because for a highly paid professional, even a generous gift of value could risk offence.

As others have said, a letter acknowledging appreciation for good service, positive online review or something that is not of personal value and could even be for the whole office - flowers, tin of biscuits, box of chocolates - is likely to be more appropriate.  After all, the back-office staff are really the ones that put in the graft, the named Conveyancing Solicitor just provided "the face" as it were.

Totally different tipping minimum wage Waitress in the local cafe as opposed to the professionally qualified and rewarded Chiropodist and the Solicitor no doubt prefers to align themselves to the latter.

NatNat77

I sent mine a £200 John Lewis voucher after we completed. She was amazing and pulled out all the stops to help us beat the stamp duty deadline so I felt it was the least I could do really. It was a collective effort but she really helped, and we saved £12.5k! 

eddddy

Grumpy_chap said:

I think a gift, particularly one with a clear monetary value such as an Amazon card, could be problematical in the case of a Solicitor, even a Conveyancing Solicitor when all the work is complete.  Partly because of the risk of appearing like a bribe, partly because of limits on the value of gifts that can be received and partly because for a highly paid professional, even a generous gift of value could risk offence.

Maybe you could pay £112,000 'anonymously' to have her flat refurbished, with gold wallpaper. That doesn't seem to have caused any problems.

TripleH

Its a lovely idea. The only thing I would add is if rather than 1 voucher for say £200, you get 8 for £25. In legal firms a lot of the work is handled by junior staff so it may be 3 people who worked hard on your case but you maybe only dealt with the senior staff member. That way they can split amongst the people who got yhe deal through.

onylon

I sent a fancy breakfast gift basket to the office with a note saying thank you to everyone who had worked on our purchase. It contained fruit and individually wrapped muffins so good to share. I didn't want to fall foul of anti-bribery policies or cause any extra paperwork by sending something to an individual.

london21

I usually just give outstanding reviews for great service.

With regards to gift, something under £100 should not be a problem but ask first if you can send gifts because some companies have policies on gifts. 

Emailing voucher likely your best option as might be hard getting home address to send gift to.

ohdarn

The real headline is that we expect to be treated so poorly by the conveyancing system, that we feel the need to shower then in gifts for doing their jobs properly.

london21

ohdarn said:

The real headline is that we expect to be treated so poorly by the conveyancing system, that we feel the need to shower then in gifts for doing their jobs properly.

There few outstanding ones. House purchase/sale can be already long and stressful. Makes a huge difference dealing with competent conveyancing companies.