This document produced a checklist for Lawyers and regal professionals who will be audited by the Law Society. uLaw provides practice management and legal accounting for all provinces and territories in Canada

1. WHAT IS AUDIT ?
PURPOSE:
Audit supports and promotes high
quality law firm record keeping by
answering questions and providing
guidance regarding private
mortgages, trust and general
record keeping requirements, and
providing onsite support and
ensuring compliance with Law
Society requirements by
conducting audits
WHY ME:
Designed as a pro-active
compliance measurement and
problem detection tool. Spot
Audits measure the integrity of
law firm financial filing,
assess ongoing compliance
with financial record-keeping
requirements
REVIEW:
Is the firm properly managing
clients, matters and procedures
as per the guidelines
REVIEW:
Is the firm having proper safety
guards to protect itself from
Catastrophic technology failures
WHAT AM I BEING AUDITED
ON?
Is the firm handling Trust and
General accounts as per the design
of the financial bookkeeping
guidelines
PROFESSIONAL, TIME
MANAGEMENT REVIEW:
Is the firm taking steps to keep and
maintain high standards in the
area of professional rules of
conduct and in the area of time
management
AUDITS ARE NOT DESIGNED TO SCARE YOU AND
YOUR FIRM
THEY ARE DESIGNED TO FIND ISSUES AND CORRECT
THEM EARLY
* Why not start from and do it
* Review Practice procedure on a regular basis –
say on a quarterly basis
* Review financial statements on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis
* Start with the Checklist (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly)
• WEEKLY Bank accounts validation checklist -
Review your bank transactions
• MONTHLY Financial checklist -
Prepare Trust and General Ledgers, Journals and Reconciliation
statements
• QUARTERLY Practice management checklist -
Review all your client communication, time management,
professional commitments and matter management procedures
• YEARLY Practice and Financial management checklist along
with review of Professional rules of conduct review
A
U
D
I
T

2. CLIENT
MANAGEMENT
Docketing and detailed notes taking
process
Handling Joint retainers and other
parties in the matter
Handling non-engagement
procedures
Handling clients fee complaints,
procedures and clarifications
mechanisms
Overall handling of matter
closures, disposition and letter of
conclusions
Providing clients with regular
Monthly, quarterly and yearly
updates orally and in writing
Handling of Retainer, especially
cash transactions
M
MATTER
MANAGEMENT
File naming conventions,
uniqueness and ensuring different
matters of the same client are
handled under separate matter file
names
Docket and timesheet organization
on an individual matter level is
done correctly
Matter conflict check and
management procedures
Organization of files and timely
docketing samples are reviewed
Matter status handling -
open/closed/archived are managed
properly
Matter closing procedure
(Do you send a proper closure
statement like settlement
Statement, Account Statement and
proper closing letters)
A
ACCOUNTS
MANAGEMENT
Fee structure
Invoice management
Trust deposit and retainers
especially cash
Do you support Interim billing and
manage outstanding bill payment
properly
Handling trust and trust transfers
Handled invoices discrepancies and
explanations
Managing General Disbursement
journal
Reconciliation of trust and general
accounts
Income and Expense management
and P&L (Profit and Loss
statements)
Managing Deposit slips
Capital Management
C
Are you backing your computer
data Is your document
management solution robust
Is your retainer indicating risk of
using electronic medium such as
email for communication
Are you running antivirus S/W and
do you have proper network secu-
rity and other technology mea-
sures to ensure security Indication
of any risk to clients of using
technology
Is your retainer clearly indicating
technology risk
Legal accounting software secure
and highly available
T
TECHNOLOGY
MANAGEMENT
CHECKLIST FOR LAW SOCIETY AUDIT
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
CLIENT MANAGEMENT
ULaw, a cloud based Practice Management and Legal accounting software,
helps you get organized and audit fit.
www.ulawpractice.com

3. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
CHECKLIST
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
CHECKLIST
Client Service and Communication
• Docketing and detailed note taking process is key when handling client matters
• Handling of Retainer by depositing in trust properly, especially if paid with Cash
• Handling Joint retainers and other parties associated in the matter
• Handling client fee complaints, procedure and clarifications
• Providing clients with regular monthly, quarterly and yearly updates orally and in writing
• Disposition letter and letters of conclusions and handling of matter closure procedures
• A good well reviewed non-engagement procedure helps with ghost clients
Matter Management & Internal procedures
• Having good file naming conventions
• Organizing separate matter file names for same client
• Organizing of files and time docketing procedure
• Creating a proper retainer letter with well established nature of scope, fee structure,
disbursements and charges, penalty and Interests and termination clauses
• Maintaining proper matter status Active, Closed, Archived
• Handling proper separation of dockets and disbursement
• Handling appropriate closing procedures for your matters or files
• Sending your clients during closure: Statement of Activity, Statement of Settlement &
Account, Bill of cost and a proper closing letter
practice
financee
Fee Structure & Handling Retainer
• Capturing proper Fee Structure in your retainer
• Handling contingency fees and block fee in your fee structure
• Creating a section in retainer accounts to cover charges that occur due to
disbursement and cost recovery expenses
• Having the right procedure to issue a receipt upon acceptance of a retainer
amount and to ensure you hold the retainer in trust
• Capturing disbursements incurred and paid out of Trust and General
• Capturing cost recovery and appropriate taxes
Raising Invoices
• Raising invoices in a timely manner
• Recording taxes in invoices
• Addressing client concerns/complaints regarding fees and your internal
procedure for addressing the issue
Invoice Balance
• Organizing invoices to aid in easy retrieval and access to invoice balance for
a particular matter or any client
• Capturing balance in Trust and general accounts
Getting Paid from Trust
• Paying disbursements out of trust
• Ensuring that you are not over-withdrawing from trust
Getting Paid into General
• Ensuring that you are receiving amounts in general less or equal to invoice
outstanding balance
• Paying disbursements from general account, tracking and recovering
disbursements simultaeneously
Y N
Y N

4. uLaw, a cloud based Practice Management and Legal accounting software,
helps you get organized and audit fit.
CLIENT MANAGEMENT
CHECKLIST
• Providing Statement of Activity, Statement of Accounts, Bill of Cost
• Issuing Statement of Settlement
• Creating standard procedures for regular (Monthly/Quarterly) updation to clients
their matter and files – verbally, in writing (Invoice balance, statements of activity,
account and settlement)
• Having appropriate closing procedures, to include returning client material back
to the client, matter closure letter and proper transfer of file
• Issuing full statement of settlement and accounts
client
Handling Trust Account and required procedures and
documents
• Maintaining Client Trust Ledgers?
• Maintaining trust receipts and disbursements
• Maintaining monthly trust comparisons and reconciliations
• Recording all your form 9A for electronic fund transfers
General Account
• Maintaining General ledger
• Maintaining your receipts and disbursement/expense journals
• Maintaining fee book, expense book and a record of discounts and
write-offs
• Capturing general monthly reconciliation
Taxes
• Maintaining records of the taxes received and paid
WHAT is a
RETAINER ?
Definition as per Wikipedia “A fee paid in advance to someone, especially an
attorney, in order to secure or keep their services when required.”
• Nature and scope of the work
• Client obligation
• Frequency of communication
• Fee/Cash retainer agreements
• Termination clause
• Use of consultants or other agents
• Confidentiality
• Risks of using technology such as email etc.
Clarifying Invoice
www.ulawpractice.com
What should it have?
Y N
Y N
Y N