Norfolk Law Society Magazine Issue 42 Online Edition

Norfolk Law Magazine of the Norfolk & Norwich Law Society - www.nnls.org - Winter/Spring 2020

Countdown is a winner...

In this edition, Countdown pics and winners, fundraising Civic Reception, details of all our CPD planned for 2020 and our Excellence Awards are open!

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This issue...

Welcome to our Spring edition, as we compiled the content this time round, the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded around us so the future events we have planned may not go ahead in the usual way. Make sure you follow all the official advice on how to protect yourselves and your clients and we look forward to seeing you face to face as soon as possible.

Contents 4

16

Book Review - The Client Magnet Formula

5 Committee

President’s Report

17

Attracting clients in difficult times

6

Countdown is a winner!

18

Care and high dependency

8

Solicitors‘ warning to government

20

Government U-turn on Probate Fees welcomed

10

Excellence Awards open!

23

Digital tax and outdated IT systems

12

NNLS Events at a glance

24

Drainage & water report for new build homes

13

Makre the most of CPD

26

Solicitiors’ Accounts Rules

14

NCLS News

28

Sperm donor anonymity - a distant memory?

15

Access to Justice fundraiser

29

Taking software integration from zero to hero

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Advertising Simon Castell Managing Editor Sue Bailey Layout Stuart Turner pp. 1-13 David Coffey pp. 14-32

Accounts Tony Kay

Legal Notice © East Park Communications Ltd.

Published Winter/Spring 2020

None of the editorial or photographs may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publishers. East Park Communications Ltd would like to point out that all editorial comment and articles are the responsibility of the originators and may or may not reflect the opinions of East Park Communications Ltd. Correct at time of going to press.

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4 - Norfolk Law - President’s Report

President’s Report As I write, the world is doing its best to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. Local law firms are responding to that crisis with typical professionalism and many local solicitors have continued to provide urgent advice to the most vulnerable members of society. Whilst the future at present remains uncertain, please remember that the Norfolk and Norwich Law Society remains a place that lawyers and firms can turn to for assistance and anyone that feels they do need assistance – personal or professional - should contact me directly and we will do everything we can to help. I can be contacted directly at tom.bailey@ashtonslegal.co.uk. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Guidance regarding court hearings, both criminal and civil, is changing all the time but again, should you have a question regarding this please get in touch as we do have contacts within HMCTS and the national Law Society that we can turn to for advice in the event that your firms are uncertain. Please continue

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to monitor our website and Twitter feed as we will endeavour to update members there and by email if we receive information regarding things like court closures. All NNLS CPD and training events are cancelled until further notice and we expect these events to begin again in May 2020 at the earliest, subject to advice from government.

In less uncertain times we had some very well attended training sessions for the first part of the year, which were extremely well attended and there are reports and photographs in this edition.

Additionally, Countdown was another fantastic success – many thanks again to Mark Fitch for hosting and congratulations to the run-away winners, Leathes Prior.

In the meantime, please look after yourselves and each other.

Very best wishes Thomas Bailey President, Norfolk & Norwich Law Society

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8 - Norfolk Law - News

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10 - Norfolk Law - Event Preview

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Client-Attraction Secrets for Lawyers: How to attract your ideal clients even in difficult economic times

By Michelle Peters (The Business Instructor) Right now, we’re in the middle of a ‘perfect storm’ of factors that are making it harder than ever to get clients: • The inevitable impact on the economy from the COVID-19 outbreak, meaning clients are reluctant to spend money on things they don’t consider ‘essential’; • changes in the legal marketplace (increased competition, downward pressure on legal fees, and it’s harder than ever to stand out from the other legal providers); and • advancements in technology (meaning in many cases clients can choose legal providers based virtually anywhere, and it’s easier than ever to ‘shop around’ or even to try DIY); 3 critical shifts to get more clients To overcome these challenges, three critical shifts are needed: 1. Make sure your marketing stands out from your competitors and that it contains the right message to attract your ideal clients This means changing the content of your marketing to help prospective clients know why they need your help and why they should choose you. This one simple change will be enough to set you streets ahead of your competitors.

Telling them why starts with explaining the benefits they’ll gain from using your services.

Once a prospective client is convinced of the benefits of your service, their next question will be “Are you the right person to provide it?” so you need to answer that in your marketing as well.

If you fail to explain why a prospective client should choose you (rather than one of your competitors), the chances are that many of them won’t.

2. Understand that gaining clients is about attracting more enquiries and converting these into paying clients

like employment or corporate, because I hadn’t had the same level of training or experience.

Many of the law firms I work with are already spending a lot of time and money on marketing. But attracting more enquiries is only one element of winning clients. The other – equally important – element is being able to convert those enquiries into paying clients at the minimum cost.

So why do some lawyers feel they should be expert in practice growth strategies and skills – particularly without any training or help?

It costs time and money to attract new enquiries, so how successful you are at converting enquiries into paying clients will have a direct impact on your profitability.

If, for example, your current success rate with non-referred enquiries is 1 in 3 but you increase that to 2 in 3, your number of new clients will double without any additional marketing or time spent on meeting prospective clients.

What would that mean for your practice?

A word of warning here: although many firms proudly tell me that their conversion rate is very high, a measurement of (say) 90% is often not the real picture because they may be lowering their fees to get a ‘yes’ from clients or only calculating conversion rate based on percentage of initial consultations converted into clients (not percentage of enquiries converted into clients).

3. Be clear about your area of expertise – where it is, and where it isn’t As a lawyer, you probably have a specific area of expertise; or maybe you have several. But are you a specialist in all areas of law – from matrimonial to commercial property? Or from business sales to employment tribunal cases?

Probably not.

In my case, I specialised in intellectual property for seven years. I didn’t have the same level of knowledge in other areas,

If you want to attract more clients and grow your practice, then it’s important to identify where you need to improve your skills in areas such as attracting enquiries and converting more of these into paying clients. Increasing your skills will mean getting better results in less time – meaning you not only grow your client based but have more time available to do the feeearning work that your new clients provide.

About the Author Michelle Peters (The Business Instructor) is a former practicing solicitor and the creator of the Profitable Practice Programme for lawyers who want more clients and to increase their profits without working more hours.

You can discover more about the secrets to attracting and converting more of your ideal clients, and get step-by-step worksheets to help you take action, in Michelle’s new book ‘The Client Magnet Strategy for Lawyers: how to attract and convert more of your ideal clients’.

Download the first four chapters of the book (and receive an invitation to a free online training on how to put the book’s strategies into practice) at: www.thebusinessinstructor.com/freechapters Michelle is also running a 1 day workshop in Norwich on 11 June for the owners of small legal firms, sole practitioners, or consultants building their own practice, to help them get more clients and increase profits without working more hours.

Find out more at: www.thebusinessinstructor.com/secrets

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The Cost of Care for Individuals with High Dependency Care Needs.

Older and younger people who have high dependency care needs usually need someone to be in close contact and to offer support throughout a 24-hour period.

For a person needing this type of care support there are two choices. First, a move into a residential care setting or secondly, to have care in the home 24/7.

The majority of people many surveys tell us, that if given a choice, the option to stay in your own home, is the favourite.

person’s home from one week upwards, who will offer domestic, personal and social care support with the cost usually based on a weekly, commercial rate rather than an hourly rate. The objective for most care providers of Live-in Care Packages is to find two or three carers whom the individual is happy to have in their home, finds their support appropriate and a rotational system is then established The difference between having care support 24/7 based on an hourly rate and a weekly rate can be as much as £2000.00 per week.

Able Community Care has been providing Live-in Care Packages since 1980 and has enabled thousands of older and disabled people to remain living in their own home using a weekly care rate.

24/7 care in a person’s home can be provided in two ways. By care workers on a shift system. Shift systems can vary for example a 12-hour shift, a three-day shift.

Usually the cost of having care on a shift system is based on an hourly rate. Hourly rates can vary, but from April 2020 the UKHCA (United Kingdom Home Care Association) suggests that an hourly rate of £20.69 is appropriate.

We provide our care services in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands. Our Holiday Companion Carers take support people to take holidays throughout the UK and internationally.

The second option is to have a Live-In Care Support Package. This will involve a carer moving into a

Angela Gifford.

MD of Able Community Care Ltd

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For a discussion about our care provision or to request an information pack, please call us on 01603 764567 or email to inof@ablecommunitycare.co

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Government U-turn on Probate Fees welcomed by charity bodies Government to abandon plans for a new probate fee regime that could threaten legacy giving, Remember A Charity and the Institute of Fundraising are pleased to welcome this weekend’s announcement that the proposed changes are to be scrapped.

Dubbed a ‘stealth tax’, the proposed probate system would have seen thousands of bereaved families a year facing sliding charges of up to £6,000, as opposed to the current flat rate fee of £215. The Ministry of Justice expected to generate around £185 million from the increased fees by 2022-23. However, charity sector bodies had raised concerns with HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice that the planned fee increases could severely disrupt legacy giving; a ‘lifeline’ for charitable causes.

Remember A Charity warned that such a hefty price tag for wealthy individuals – many of whom leave sizable gifts to charity – could discourage legacy giving and estate planning altogether.

Speaking to The Daily Mail, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland confirmed the new fee structure had been abolished, saying: “I have

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listened very carefully to the strong views aired on proposed new probate fees.

“While fees are necessary to properly fund our world-leading courts system, they must be fair and proportionate. We will withdraw these proposals, and keep the current system while we take a closer look at these court fees as part of our annual wider review.”

Rob Cope, Director of Remember A Charity, says: “We’re hugely relieved to hear that there will be no major increase to probate fees and that that the current structure will be retained, at least for the timebeing. Charities large and small rely heavily on gifts in Wills. Worth around £3 billion a year, we simply can’t afford to risk jeopardising such an important income stream or to reverse the trend for growth in legacy giving.”

“We’ll continue to work closely with Government to ensure the sector’s views are heard and that the legacy environment is protected. This includes ensuring that concerns about the prolonged delays to probate are addressed and the sector keep informed.”

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Making Tax Digital is forcing firms to review their outdated legal IT systems

By Tim Smith, Technical Director at Insight Legal Year one of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT (the soft landing period) ends this April. Firms may be using bridging software, provided by their IT supplier, to meet electronic VAT filing requirements. Soft landing was only ever a temporary measure. It does not deal with other elements of MTD like digital record keeping.

Entering year 2 after April, firms can face a financial penalty if HMRC considers a practice has not been making enough of an effort to comply with MTD. What does this mean for law firms?

Firms operating the oldest systems are most likely at risk of a penalty and may now consider their next steps. Software developers are investing in their current platforms, making them MTD-compliant. A developer would like to migrate all its legacy customers to its current platform, but is that the right decision for a firm?

There may be a gap of many years between IT systems from the same supplier and no commonality between them. A firm is advised to look at the whole of market and not just take the word of its existing supplier.

Firms invited by their supplier to upgrade are advised to; 1. Understand the time needed to plan for a new system The average time from an old system to new is 3-6 months - doing nothing is not an option.

2. What’s really on offer from the existing supplier?

Ask for a proposal of what the supplier’s deal is. What are the costs, is any ‘special offer’ time limited and what if you choose not to take up the offer?

3. Discuss within the firm your needs from any new IT software Don’t assume your existing supplier knows what’s best. There’s no point paying for great

functionality that won’t be used.

4. Which developers offer a migration path from your existing system?

Find out about other suppliers with a good track record of migrating from your current system to theirs. With years of historical data, live matters and finance records, it’s inconceivable to reenter data manually in exchange for successful migration.

5. How can I believe what a software company tells me?

Look for third party indicators, like awards or accreditations to support claims about the quality of product and service?

Finally, if you’re unsure about the questions or fearful of understanding the responses, seek advice from a legal IT expert.

To discuss this topic further or the services we can offer, please give us a call on 01252 518939, email us at info@insightlegal.co.uk or visit our website; www.insightlegal.co.uk

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Change is a constant in conveyancing Law Society outlines changes to the Conveyancing Quality Scheme The recent Geodesys CPD event saw Eleanor O’Reilly-Joe, Head of Accreditation at the Law Society and Peter Rodd, CQS Chief Assessor, bring the packed room up-to-speed on recent changes to the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS).

What’s new with the CQS?

First launched in January 2011, the Law Society scheme offers a recognisable standard of excellence in the provision of residential conveyancing services.

In February 2019, the CQS Core Practice Management Standards were updated and expanded. All firms were required to update and embed the requirements by 1 May 2019.

Since the introduction of these changes, the Law Society has increased the level of support it has in place to drive continuous improvement. From November 2019 to January 2020 it carried out an assessment pilot to monitor compliance amongst members and provide feedback.

What did the pilot reveal?

The pilot included both desk-based assessment, focussing on typically high areas of risk such as file reviews, SDLT and leasehold conflict, and on-site visits, which also included the assessment of policies and procedures. Both types of assessment were designed to audit the law firm against the updated Core Practice Management Standards.

The assessments identified non-compliant aspects across all Core Practice Management Standards.

The solution: resolving non-compliance

If a conveyancing practice is found to be non-compliant, it receives a letter from the Law Society laying out any breaches and suggesting a corrective course of action. They are then given a fixed period of time to correct infractions (21 days for minor breaches and three months for major breaches,) after which they are obligated to provide evidence of the corrective action they have taken.

The assessor’s view

Peter Rodd stressed that risks in conveyancing had increased enormously in recent years and those involved in conveyancing could not afford to be complacent when it came to make the necessary changes to their processes. He urged firms to be particularly vigilant when it came to the following areas of risk:

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• Fraud: Peter advised that all conveyancing teams should have a list of red flags that could be indicators of fraud. For example, is it reasonable that the buyer could have saved a significant amount of money? There are various clues which should prompt a request to the seller’s solicitor to share due diligence.

• SDLT: Every transaction should have its SDLT calculation doublechecked to make sure it is based on the right information. SDLT threatens to become the next PPI scandal as unscrupulous companies encourage dissatisfied clients to put in a claim.

• Client care: Client expectations are usually very different to the reality so it’s important to be as upfront as possible as to how long the transaction is going to take. To avoid buyers feeling that nothing is happening, conveyancers should agree levels of communication at the outset.

Conveyancing: change is a constant Peter also stressed that change would continue to be a constant theme in conveyancing so those involved in property transactions should keep an eye on the Law Society’s website for details of practice notes. Further changes to CQS will be announced in 2020 and the Law Society will be offering a number of briefing sessions to all those involved in conveyancing compliance.

Over the last year Geodesys has been working with the Law Society to promote the CQS in order to help our clients. We have also introduced the Geodesys Compliance Service which can help conveyancing teams ensure they are complying to the updated CQS Core Practice Management Standards. Please contact kay. toon@geodesys.com for further details of our bespoke service.

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Solicitors’ Accounts Rules: Operating a client’s own account Following the introduction of the new Solicitors’ Accounts Rules (SAR) on 25 November 2019, there have been concerns about the requirement of law firms to comply with SAR Rule 10, which covers the operation of a client’s own account.

What you need to do To have a reconciliation you need more than just the bank statements.

You must also keep a central register of the client’s own account that you operate. It’s likely this will be requested by your reporting accountant.

This probably wasn’t the case before as usually these accounts are held outside of the client account ledgers and solicitors weren’t required to reconcile them.

This area was one of the main changes in the new SAR. Below I’ll recap what the obligations are and what we’ll be looking for as reporting accountants.

However, now law firms need to keep a separate record of the transactions made through the client’s own account, showing a running balance. This record could be produced by using the designated deposit function on your computer system or separate excel spreadsheets.

When you need to do it Additional guidance issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on 30 September 2019 has removed the need to reconcile fiveweekly as it recognises that not all law firms have access to monthly bank statements. Instead, reconciliations are required once statements are received.

SAR Rule 10 SAR Rule 10.1 states that if a law firm is operating a client’s own account as signatory, they must: 1. obtain statements from banks, building societies or other financial institutions at least every five weeks for these accounts; 2. carry out reconciliations of each account every five weeks, a record of which must be signed off by the Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA); and 3. keep a record of their bills and other notification of their costs.

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We suggest you keep a separate file containing the record of transactions you complete, along with a copy of the bank statement, to show that the figures reconcile. This needs to be reviewed and signed by the COFA. Any differences shown by the reconciliation must be promptly investigated and resolved, i.e. by the next reconciliation.

The overall emphasis of the new SAR is protection of client money. The SRA sees this area as a potential problem as individuals have authority over client funds that lie outside of the normal, highly controlled, general client account.

Need help?

If you require any further guidance regarding the new SAR and their implementation, please call us on 0330 024 0888.

Ellis Lake Larking Gowen

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Sperm donor anonymity - a distant memory?

With the plethora of alternative ways now available to either participate in conception, birth or take care of a child and the interest in family trees, the issue of sperm donation has once again come into the spotlight.

In particular, this is being accentuated by the use of social media, celebrity culture and the rapid rise of ancestry companies who use DNA testing information to make links with often unknown individuals and geographical origins. The result is that the possibility of identifying a sperm donor and biologically related siblings is now very high. This raises questions within the law (which arguably has not kept pace with society) and also ethical issues, with regard to personal privacy both for donors and also for donor conceived children.

In 1991, the nascent Human Embryology and Fertilisation Authority began to record data regarding donor conceived children and allowed access to benign information about the donor and the number of genetic siblings.

Donors were at this point promised lifelong anonymity, which has created, in 2020, conflicting rights. In 2005 a more profound change occurred1 in that donor conceived children obtained the right to learn the identity of their donor when they turned 18 (and 2023 is getting very close). As part of this legislative change sperm donors also gained the option to remove anonymity if they wished and post 2005, donors must agree to waive their anonymity when any donor conceived child is 18. These circumstances are a significant challenge to the concept of donor anonymity. As a consequence, the number of sperm donors in the UK has declined.

There has been an explosion in people taking DNA tests for ancestry‌26 million by 2019, which is expected to rise to 100 million in 2021. The DNA databases held by the ancestry DNA testing companies are now both huge and powerful, enabling distant relatives and individuals to be presumptively identified with relative ease (half second cousin or closer). Together with online information such as surname searches and family trees, putative relatives can be identified with ease. Some donors embrace this, others are waiting with trepidation - in the excitement of the chase, often the donor conceived child acting as amateur sleuth, places too much emphasis on weak circumstantial evidence derived from ancestry DNA tests. We consider that confirmation of the biological relationship is an essential step to take before leaping into the emotional abyss. Firm knowledge of either biological paternity or sibling-ship (most likely half siblings, united by a common father) using an appropriate DNA test is paramount.

Yet, in an evolving niche, a smaller group of willing donors are finding other ways to make contact with recipients, such as Facebook groups2 and co-parenting websites. There is even debate concerning the use of sperm from deceased males. Here the sperm is retrieved by electro stimulation and disingenuously compared to organ donation.

Notwithstanding the issue of consent, children conceived in this way will never have the chance to meet their biological father, a circumstance which requires ethical consideration.

Opinions towards anonymity are relaxing across Europe3 with the balance shifting from the anonymity of sperm donors towards the rights of donor conceived children to know their biological origins4. It is estimated that

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there were around 30,000 sperm donor conceived children in the UK between 1991 and 2005 and obviously a great deal more have been born since. In particular, an appropriate DNA test to determine biological parentage is essential for unequivocal confirmation. This is also required if legal recognition of the relationship is desired to change a birth certificate, to obtain a parental order or to resolve a matter of inheritance.

About the author: Neil Sullivan, BSc, MBA (DIC), LLM, PhD is General Manager, of Complement Genomics Ltd (trading as dadcheckÂŽgold).

The latter is a company accredited by the Ministry of Justice as a body that may carry out parentage tests directed by the civil courts in England and Wales under section 20 of the Family Law Reform Act 1969.

Please see: http://www.dadcheckgold.com.

Tel: 0191 543 6334, e-mail sales@dadcheckgold.com

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, s24. facebook.com/groups/DNADetectives Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe, Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development. Anonymous donation of sperm and oocytes: balancing the weights of parents, donors and children. Draft adopted 21st January 2019.

4 Hallich, O., Sperm donation and the right to privacy. New Bioethics 2017, 23 p 107-120 1 2 3

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Taking software integration from zero to hero

By Julian Bryan, Managing Director, Quill When it comes to software, attempting to be ‘all things to everyone’ is a naïve goal necessitating a never-ending journey.

Central to any law firm, in every respect, whether software or service based, is of course, your clients and their matters: • It’s your clients you need to undertake checks for money laundering • It’s your clients for whom you need to complete statutory forms and e-submissions • It’s your clients for whom you need to present evidence for court • It’s your clients with whom and about whom you need to correspond • It’s your clients you need to service as best you can That’s why we focus software development on integration relating to managing clients and matters. With our complete practice management software, pick ‘n’ mix solutions and third-party integrators, you get the right systems for optimum client and matter management. Whichever route you select – Quill-only or Quill-and-other-suppliers – you enjoy best-of-breed IT with full and seamless integration. Meaning that everything operates as a coordinated whole.

You’re inevitably going to have a number of software applications in your business, from business intelligence and case management to document management and legal accounting, plus everything in between.

Compared to the alternative – running standalone systems with data stored in different disparate places – integration streamlines processes, enhances efficiencies, simplifies administration, reduces costs, provides analytical insights in real time, strengthens security, improves collaboration and much more besides. These benefits add up to superior customer service provision. Happy clients bring (Continues on following page).

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30 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial Taking software integration from zero to hero (continued). repeat instructions and recommend your legal services to others. And that’s good for business.

As we’ve established the plentiful advantages of software integration, let’s take a moment to think how you go about your daily work.

Your desktop is central to what you do, right?

The majority of us begin, repeatedly return to and end the working day on our desktop.

That’s because our desktop is where we host shortcuts to our most-used systems and documents. To get technical, it’s the central area behind the windows in our graphical user interface.

It’s for this reason we’ve made integration with the desktop environment the focus of our recent software development efforts. The integration between your desktop and our Interactive Cloud application keeps getting cleverer.

You can now hop between a client’s matter in Interactive and Word or Outlook, and vice versa, really quickly and easily. What’s more, with our new qSync application, you can send any documentation – for example file, spreadsheet, picture, scan or PDF – from your desktop to Interactive’s Document Hub with a simple right click. This allows you to save the correct documents against the correct client matter ready for reviewing or possibly bundling (more on this later!) on another day.

‘Why is this important?’, you may ask. Put simply, qSync empowers local working and global sharing. To all intents and purposes, you work locally on your desktop. In actuality, your desktop’s connected to the cloud so you work collaboratively with the rest of your team.

We also effectively cater for the trend of spending each day working in Microsoft Word and Outlook. Our MS Office add-in is the tool that makes this happen. It’s document management at its finest.

The add-ins create deep integration between your familiar Microsoft Office systems and your Interactive database and matter files, affording productivity enhancing features such as auto-detected-and-stored caserelated emails, auto-saved documentation and appointment calendaring. A comprehensive library of folders of all Word-and-Outlookgenerated correspondence is then readily accessible from your Document Hub.

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On the subject of correspondence, Interactive Forms is the latest addition to our ongoing integration initiative. Comprising an extensive catalogue of essential legal forms, you sign in singly to Interactive, edit popular and template forms from the customisable control panel, enter data once which is then populated from your database to merge fields, and assign part or fully completed forms to the relevant matter in your Document Hub. There’s a whole lot more to Interactive Forms than this though, not least e-submissions to government agencies, document bundling for court pack production, and sharing of forms with clients and counsel.

Even better, you can choose outsourced typing support for dictation via our Type App with auto-typed-up forms saved straight back into your Document Hub within agreed timescales. The bonus of our typing service is that our pay-as-you-go, flexible outsourcing model can lead to up to 40% reduction in administration overheads when compared with in-house costs and gives you more time for servicing your all-important clients.

Taking into account, too, the growing demand for flexible and remote working, due to court attendance and other off-site commitments, Interactive has its own smartphone app for iOS and Android. This is yet another example of smooth integration in play.

So far, we’ve covered only Quill products on their own and demonstrated how Interactive is more than just a legal accounts system. As intimated, there’s the Quill-and-other-suppliers route as well. Our close API with a number of third-party software vendors facilitates the automated transfer of data – be it client and case details or time recording information – between the two systems. Whatever’s entered into the third-party system is auto-populated to ours. Although there are two systems in use, they operate as one.

We currently have integrations in place with various suppliers of case management, legal forms, document bundling, compliance management and workflow automation software. And we’re dedicated to continued third-party integrations in order to keep building our volume of integrators.

Reflecting back on our introduction, we offer this impressive range of integration options on a pick ‘n’ mix basis. You’re totally in control. Our role is to sort out the integration accordingly. Every bespoke package can be yours for a surprisingly affordable sum and backed up by award-winning support. Do get in touch with your integration enquiries. We’re all ears. Email info@quill.co.uk, call 0161 236 2910 or visit www.quill.co.uk.

With an internet connection and using the same secure credentials to log in, users of our Interactive App can perform all manner of tasks to progress matters on the go.

Functionality includes adding new clients and matters, viewing client and matter information, accessing listings of recent documents, using stopwatches, recording fee earner time and authorising e-chits. It’s pretty much the same capabilities as the standard version of Interactive.

At the outset of this client-centric activity is the requirement to execute due diligence with reliable anti-money laundering and credit checks. Doing so ensures your customers’ identities are legitimate and they have the funds to pay for your legal services. Our integrated AML tool is the ideal way to protect against financial crime. You undertake AML or AML plus credit checks during client set-up, with instant pass or fail status, and lifetime storage of results.

Julian Bryan joined Quill as Managing Director in 2012 and was also the Chair of the Legal Software Suppliers Association from 2016 to 2019. Quill has been a leading provider of legal accounting and case management software, and the UK’s largest supplier of outsourced legal cashiering services to the legal profession for over 40 years.