In 2012 the SRA introduced Compliance Officers into law firms, the first being the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP) which focuses on regulatory requirements for the work undertaken by the staff and firm. The second is the Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA) who ensures that the regulations surrounding monetary & financial aspects are adhered to. It is the COFA that I will be focusing on in this article.
In 2021, internet banking is something most people and firms use to manage their daily needs. For law firms it is a core part of their infrastructure. The ability to be able to make quick decisions and pay monies promptly is not only crucial for the firm but is expected by the firm’s clients and third-party suppliers. There is however a danger with internet banking which can be taken for granted and that is the security aspect. This article explores the advantages and pitfalls of the different systems.
Internal reviews on procedures surrounding the accounts department are never deemed a particularly exciting part of running a law firm, however they could make a real difference to efficiency and compliance.
As legal cashiers we can often come across a matter balance listing which needs reconciling to get the monies moved to the correct place. Quite often the monies are to be returned to the client. For long matter listings, the prospect of handling residual balances can be quite daunting. This article will detail how to handle client residual balances in bite-sized chunks to make the job easier.
The thought of going paperless may at first seem very daunting, especially when a firm has been running paper-based files forever. The change itself can sometimes seem like a summit which is impossible to climb. The key however is to ascertain what resources are available and how we gain easy access to digital files.
In this article, I shall be looking at one part of the new SRA Accounts Rules which every legal cashier should be questioning: the meaning of the word “promptly” which appears several times across the new rules.
In this article, I explore some of the reasons given by firms for not using a legal cashier.. I will explain why I believe this course of action is flawed and assert that every practice should have a legal cashier no matter it’s size.
It has always been the traditional way to start a practice that the firm creates an office account, a client account and occasionally a savings account for taxes etc. Are we about to see the loss of the client account?
We have a look at the “simplified” SRA Accounts Rules 2018 which reduces the original book to just 7 pages!
Residual client balances can be a cashier’s nightmare, whether inherited from a predecessor or left due to time constraints.
