Hopefully many of you reading this were able to join us for our recent annual solicitors’ conference, but for those of you that missed it, here is a brief rundown of what happened.
The event kicked off with Jatinder Loyal and Claire Robbie from the SRA who gave us an update on the latest policy activity at the regulator.
The main message was that there appears to still be some work to do on the client’s own accounts guidance and we still wait with bated breath for the outcome.
They gave us some insight into the issues that are leading to qualified accountants’ reports (as ever, residual balances top the list) and how technology and innovation will be key focuses of the SRA going forward. This was, as ever, a really useful look into what is going on in the SRA’s mind at the moment.
This was followed by Alex Hutchinson, who is a freelance IT director for law firms. Alex discussed the key dos and don’ts that firms need to consider before investing or increasing their spend in IT, looking at the differences between upfront capital spend and often substantial operational expenditure. His parting message to us all was a reminder of the importance of running significant IT related as a project, how crucial it is to do your homework, work out what you want to get from it and make sure you consider your return on investment.
Alex was followed by Leon Hutchinson from PwC and Robert Bletch of MHA who talked to us about law firm benchmarking. We were provided with some fascinating practical examples and a view of how trends have emerged over the years. Leon gave us a timely lesson in how to read and interpret graphical data and we saw some really solid statistics and thoughts around profitability, chargeability, working capital management and law firm capitalisation: all things that we, as accountants, could learn a thing or two about from time-to-time too.
Session four was delivered by our friend John Kunzler at Marsh. John scared us all by giving us a potted history of property identity fraud, which was equal parts enjoyable and downright terrifying, but it was also really interesting to see how the insurance industry appetite for risk has evolved over recent years and John reiterated the importance of training staff and how to spot risk areas.
Dana Denis-Smith gave us a brief history of women in law. It was a real shock to see that just over a hundred years ago there were no female lawyers at all and that compares to the current position where the majority of solicitors are, in fact, female. Despite these improvements though, there is still a huge amount to be done to address high drop-out rates among the female workforce. Dana explained that, to do this, we need to change ourselves and we need to change our organisations. Although the statistics were stark, there was a hopeful message that we can all find the willingness to do what we can to help unlock this potential.
Next up was Paul McCluskey from Gemstone. The main topic was interest rates and it was eye opening to see how closely (or not) some banks are paying rates on client money when compared to the Bank of England base rate.
He imparted wisdom around how we can be advising our own law firm clients to ensure they maximise their positions, but also made a worrying point about the importance of sometimes reminding banks about the importance of ensuring their accounts are SRA Accounts Rules compliant.
Michelle Howard presented to us the nature, wants and needs of the millennial generation who now make up more than 50% of the workforce and 23% of the global population. Michelle explained that these are our future leaders and it’s essential that we are able to adapt and provide them with transparency, collaboration, authenticity, purpose and development.
And finally, what conference would be complete with the inimitable Janet Taylor who delivered our annual SRA Accounts Rules update. Janet gave a run down of the really important key risk areas in the rules and the likely direction of travel around guidance and, given where we started the day with the SRA presentation, wrapped up the day nicely for us all.
Thanks to everybody who spoke at the event and, of course, everybody who attended!
*The views expressed are the author's and not ICAEW's.