ISO 9001 - The Commercial Risk and Quality Standard - CRQS
CRQS has been designed as a quality management standard specifically for large commercial law firms. The programme has been developed on the premise that none of the existing quality management programmes - ISO 9001 and Lexcel most obviously - fit the special needs of such firms. CRQS is based on the risk programmes in place in a number of leading practices and has then been adapted to address the requirements of ISO 9001. It can therefore be seen as being both:
- an adaptation of ISO 9001 in its generic format for commercial legal practice; and
- a risk management template for this type of organisation.
As the name implies, CRQS combines principles of process and supervisory management to underpin the delivery of an effective service to clients, with a structured approach to best practice on risk management for firms in the sector. Why should we consider CRQS, instead of the usual generic ISO 9001?
In summary, the appeal of CRQS is that:
- It is written with the reality of commercial practice in a top firm in mind;
- Its contents are therefore more closely aligned to the concerns of such firms, also their key clients and insurers;
- The programme can be assessed against part of the practice only and also internationally;
- Larger firms may benefit from applying for ISO 9001/CRQS for part of the practice only.
To find out how CRQS might work for you, just click on our Helping you page. We also have a FAQ page, which provides answers to commonly asked queries about the standard, and which also reproduces a sample section of CRQS, allowing visitors to this site to obtain a 'flavour' of the CRQS approach.