COMMERCIAL law firm Robert Muckle has been recognised as being in the top five per cent of UK firms after clinching a quality award.

The Newcastle firm has been awarded the Law Society's badge of quality, known as Lexcel.

Most industries have quality awards and the Law Society introduced the Lexcel standard to identify firms who demonstrate a high level of practice management.

Robert Muckle was given the seal of approval after the first inspection.

Sally Shield, Lexcel executive for Assessment North-East, the Sunderland company used by the Law Society to assess Lexcel candidates, said: "Robert Muckle is an excellent firm in terms of relationship building with their clients.

"I think the attention they pay to client care, client relationship building and client business needs is the way forward for law firms."

More than a third of Robert Muckle's team were interviewed from all departments and levels to ensure compliance with the Lexcel standard.

Managing partner Steve McNicol said: "When I became managing partner about a year ago, we already had a strong business model and I was determined to build on that and felt we should aim for the Lexcel quality standard. It only took us three months to win the accreditation, which shows we had the right foundations in place."