COFA Compliance Masterclass
Speaker: Darren Whelan
Length: 2.5 Hours
Published November 26, 2022
Last Updated on May 1, 2023
Who is this training for?
This on demand workshop is for Solicitors, Lawyers, Accountants, Compliance Officers, COFA’s, Legal Accounts Professionals and anyone that has any involvement in working in legal finance and compliance.
Purpose of this training?
Since January 2013, the Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA) has had significant responsibility for ensuring firm’s meet their regulatory obligations and compliance with the SRA Accounts Rules and that any breaches of the SRA Accounts Rules are documented and reported back to the SRA. In addition to the COFA’s role in relation to the SRA Accounts Rules, the COFA has a duty under the SRA Code of Conduct for Firms to report to the SRA when the practice is in serious financial difficulties. The role of the COFA comes with personal liability.
This on demand workshop will cover the regulatory obligations of the firm, individuals within the firm and the key role of the COFA.
- The background and role of the COFA
- The SRA Standards and Regulations
- COFA responsibilities, record keeping and reporting concerns
- Codes of Conduct – for firms and individuals
- Business Management – Compliance and Business systems
- Assessing risk
- SRA Accounts Rules
- Cooperation and accountability
#1. Is it permissible to pass on the costs of conducting client due diligence as a disbursement under the AML under the money laundering regulations on to my client?
#2. Every law firm, regardless of the type of work they do, must have their complaints handing information on their website or in another format if they don’t have a website.
#3. Your firm prepare a lot of wills and fixed fee interviews as one-off transactions for clients. However, instead of opening an individual client ledger for each client, you have a general ledger on which you record the details of each client and the costs received.
Is this a breach of the SRA Accounts Rules?
#4. The cost of any time taken in trying to return a residual balance to the client can be deducted from the balance held?
#5. Your firm acted for a client in the sale of commercial premises which is now completed. Your firm are in the process of accounting to him for the net proceeds of sale. Independently of this retainer, the client’s daughter has instructed another solicitor in your firm to act for her in buying a flat.
The father has asked the firm to retain enough money to cover his daughter’s legal fees and to send the balance to him.
Is this providing banking facilities?
#6. Your firm deals with estate matters and you incur and pay for probate court fees. You also pay for additional copies of the grant of probate. These copies are often sent out to third parties in order to speed up process. You pass the cost of the additional copies on to the estate.
How should you show them and treat them on your bill/invoice?
#7. The Transparency Rules require all regulated firms, and individual freelance solicitors who publish as part of their usual business that they offer certain services, to publish information on the prices that they charge. Rule 1.3 list the services where you are required to publish the information. Which one of the following is not on the list?
#8. A cash flow forecast is?
#9. When a client needs to make a complaint about your firm, they must follow the firm’s complaints procedures. If they are not happy with the way the complaint has been dealt with, they will then take it further by going to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO). They must make their complaint to LeO within which time scale after the firm’s final response to them?
#10. When dealing with residual balances, instead of recording the payment to the charity from the client’s ledger, your firm moves the residual balance to a ledger in the name of the charity. The payment is then recorded and made from that ledger every six months.
Is this a breach of the SRA Accounts Rules?
#11. The Transparency Rules 2018 form part of the SRA Standards and Regulations 2019 although they were released nearly a year before the Standards and Regulations. Why was this?
#12. Transparency Rule 4.1 covers the digital badge (sometimes called the clickable logo) which shows any website visitors that your firm is regulated and it gives them a link to the protection that provides. How will a website visitor know if the logo on your website is valid?
#13. Which 2 options below are most likely to be reasons for deciding if a breach is serious?
Select all that apply:
#14. Your firm is instructed by the landlord of a new development of commercial properties to prepare the lease agreements. You’re also instructed to receive, and hold in client account, the rental deposits that are paid by the tenants. These will be held until the lease comes to an end and any conditions, e.g. dilapidations, are met.
Is this a breach of the SRA Accounts Rules?
#15. When does the Accountants Report (AR1) need to be sent to the SRA?
#16. Rule 1.5 of the Transparency Rules states that certain costs information must be included in the information on the website. Which one of the following does not have to be included in that information?
#17. The COFA must report all breaches to the SRA.
#18. Money received from the Legal Aid Agency on account of disbursements that are not yet incurred or paid is?
#19. How is the ‘Current Ratio’ (which is sometimes also called Working Capital Ratio) calculated?
#20. Your firm acted for a client in the sale of commercial premises. The transaction has been completed and the firm are in the process of accounting to the client for the net proceeds of sale. Independently of this retainer, the client’s son has instructed another solicitor in your firm to act for him in buying a flat.
The father has asked your firm to retain enough money to cover his son’s legal fees and to send the balance to him. Your firm is concerned that by transferring the money to the son you may be in breach of rule 3.3.
Is this providing banking facilities?
Practice notes and training sessions represent the Association of Legal Compliance & Accounts’ view of good practice in a particular area. They are not intended to be the only standard of good practice that firms can follow.
Practice notes and training sessions are not legal advice, and do not necessarily provide a defence to complaints of misconduct or poor service. While we have taken care to ensure that they are accurate, up to date and useful, we will not accept any legal liability in relation to them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why On Demand
It’s really simple:
- Reduced cost
- Can be watched anywhere, anytime on any device – no travel time or cost
- Shorter and more efficient than face-to-face
- Recorded and can be replayed at your leisure
Online – the Cons
On Demand is not for everyone one. People learn differently and watching a pre-recorded training video can feel very lonely and isolated. It requires strong, self-motivation and time management skills. There is no opportunity to ask a question and receive an answer straight away as you would with an online or a face-to-face workshop.
No. In order to watch them, you must watch them whilst logged into the website.
