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The Bellwether Report by Lexis Nexis has some very interesting commentary.

Jon Whittle and his team conduct an annual survey and the results are fascinating.

“…even though it’s a priority and a fundamental part of the business strategy, many independent law firms are still not doing enough to keep their staff happy.”

Ouch!

It also covers questions such as

• What makes a lawyer ‘successful’?
• How does life at the smaller end of the spectrum compare to life in the top tier?

You can read more here: http://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/en-uk/products/campaign/driving-success-in-law-firms

and the report can be downloaded here: http://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/Bellwether

A great article with some very important and easily-overlooked aspects of running a firm!

http://www.valuablecontent.co.uk/blog/50-surprising-things-ive-learnt-running-business-50

Miller insurance have produced a very handy guide for setting up your firm. They also have an application form available for applying for PI insurance, helpfully tailored to new start-ups.

You can view the guide and form here – https://solicitors.miller-insurance.com/Insight/New-start-up-guide

Our CDD (client due diligence) or KYC (know your client) needs to be reviewed and tightened up. From 26th June 2017, the 4th Money Laundering Directive (4MLD) should be brought into effect by The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.

There is more of a risk-based emphasis in 4MLD, with a greater requirement to keep a record of risk assessment. For example, I have flagged up to my colleagues that we need to ensure that our client opening form reflects our consideration of this issue in the allocated box. Also, there are new things like ensuring we have id for Donors on Settlements.

Something to consider reviewing in your firm now, prior to the new Regulations coming into force…

I found this summary by VinciWorks very helpful http://vinciworks.com/blog/4th-money-laundering-directive-what-you-need-to-know/#comment-3454

Having received a very genuine-looking email apparently from another Law firm this week, I decided to check the firm’s phone number online and give them a call. Sadly the firm’s email address had been spoofed.

You’ve probably had this happen too? If you’ve received mail and wonder if it is genuine, you may be able to hover your mouse over the email address and see that the purported sender is not the one who really sent it. Another way to check authenticity when the email is supposed to come from a firm of solicitors, is a handy list of Scam Alerts on the SRA website. If it’s not there, you might want to give the firm a call (getting the number from the internet, not from within the email!) to let them know.

It’s tricky to prevent your address being spoofed. The first you may know about it is a number of bounced emails in your inbox or a call from a friendly solicitor with less-than-ideal news. In which case, if you tell the SRA about the issue, they can add your firm to the list and this will at least help with damage limitation.