
Mistakes can happen in even well-managed law firms. The real test is how quickly a firm identifies an issue, records it and prevents the same problem from happening again. A well-maintained SRA breach register gives the COFA and senior management a clear record of compliance failures. More importantly, it turns individual incidents into useful information…

When a law firm holds client money, it needs to know that every pound recorded on individual matters can be reconciled back to the money actually held at the bank. That is the purpose of a three-way reconciliation. It is one of the fundamental financial controls within a law firm and a specific, named requirement…

Introduction Managing client money is one of the most important financial responsibilities within a law firm. The challenge is that compliance does not depend on one reconciliation, one policy or one person. It depends on a connected system of controls covering how money is received, recorded, held, authorised, transferred, reviewed and ultimately returned or applied…

