Norfolk Law Magazine of the Norfolk & Norwich Law Society - www.nnls.org - Summer 2018
Inside...
Law Walk & Hunt pics, Awards run down, Law Society update, Dinner countdown and a ‘celebrity’ profile...
Norfolk Law - Event Review - 3
This issue...
Norfolk L Magazine
aw
of the Norf olk & Norw ich Law Soci ety - www.nnls .org - Sum mer 2018
The last few months have seen the ELST Norwich Law Walk and our Treasure Hunt and after a quiet Summer we kick off the Autumn with the Annual Dinner and Excellence Awards. You can read all about these events inside plus an update from our Law Society rep. and in the first of what we hope will be a series, an article which sheds some light on what some solicitors do in their spare time. Inside...
Law Walk & Hun run down, Law t pics, Awards Society upd Dinner cou ate, ntdo ‘celebrity’ pro wn and a file...
Contents 4
President’s Report
21
Remember A Charity Week
5 Committee
23
Able Community
6
Treasure Hunt
24
An ever changing risk landscape
8
The Long Walk for Justice
28
Seahorse Studio
10
Changing of the Guard
30
Who should lead your law firm?
12
Hidden Talents
34
Book Review
15
Events Preview
35
Law Society News
16
Law Clinic makes it’s mark
37
LEAP launches Litigation Centre of Excellence
19
NNLS Excellence Awards
38
Outsourcing your cashiering?
20
Open Spaces Society
Why choose Quill?
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4 - Norfolk Law - President’s Report
President’s Report It was great to see so many of you at the Law Walk on 7th June, raising funds for the Access to Justice Foundation and the Eastern Legal Support Trust. Around 200 walkers took part, no doubt spurred on by the promise of fish and chips courtesy of the Grosvenor Fish Bar at the end. I’d like to say thank you to Naomi Newell for organising the event, which NNLS are proud to have supported. Looking ahead, we have the NNLS annual dinner on 21 September and we are looking forward to celebrating 175 years of the Law Society. To mark the special occasion, this year we have Open Night Club open after dinner and can enjoy some music from ‘Swagger’. If you haven’t already nominated someone for the NNLS awards, there may just about be time between this reaching you and the dinner to make a late nomination of someone deserving of recognition. See later in the magazine for categories and details about how to nominate.
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Our next magazine will reach you in November 2018, by which time we will have had our AGM in October and current Vice President, Richard Bailey of Steeles Law will have stepped into the role of President. I have thoroughly enjoyed my year as President, from having the pleasure of attending the annual Justice Service at Norwich Cathedral to speaking at City Council meetings on the topic of access to justice, it has been a varied and rewarding year. It has also been great to see new firms join NNLS over the last 12 months and to have welcomed new members to the committee - some of whom I know will play an integral role in the running of the committee in future years. Richard is a well-liked and respected member of the local legal profession and has been tremendously supportive in his role as Vice President and I wish him all the best in his year ahead. Sue Bailey President Norfolk & Norwich Law Society, Partner, FM Family Law
Advertising Simon Castell / James Bentley Managing Editor Sue Bailey Layout Stuart Turner pp. 5-19 David Coffey pp. 20-40
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Norfolk Law - Committee - 5
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6 - Norfolk Law - Event Review
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Norfolk Law - Event Review - 7
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8 - Norfolk Law - Articles
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Norfolk Law - Articles - 9
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10 - Norfolk Law - Law Society News
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12 - Norfolk Law - Articles
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Norfolk Law - Articles - 13
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Norfolk Law - Event Preview - 15
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16 - Norfolk Law - Law Clinic news
Law Clinic Makes its mark The UEA Law Clinic brings together under a single banner an unrivalled range of pro bono opportunities for students, made possible by groundbreaking partnerships with third sector organisations, and by support from the local legal profession. In 2012, UEA entered into a ground-breaking pro bono The Law Clinic is a collaborative venture between UEA law partnership with NCLS, whose objectives are “to identify students, the academic staff of the Law School, external unmet legal need within Norfolk and find ways to provide agencies and members of the local legal profession. It provides a wide range of opportunities for students to use their free services to meet those needs”. The agreement cemented a mutually beneficial informal relationship legal knowledge for the benefit of the wider community, while that had developed between the Law School and NCLS at the same time gaining valuable hands-on experience of over the preceding decade. The partnership agreement the law in action. Established in 2012, the Law Clinic quickly has since been renewed, most recently in August 2017. established itself as one of the leading University law clinics Under the agreement, at least 50 UEA law students in the UK, with the highest student participation rate of any each year have the opportunity to assist on NCLS’s free UK law school. It has already won several national awards for legal advice services, gaining vital ‘real world’ skills and its work, including ‘Best Partnership in Pro Bono’ in the 2014 experience. Students are also able to work on NCLSs LawWorks Awards (for its partnership with Norfolk Community specialist advice services, in areas such Law Service, NCLS), and ‘Best Pro Bono “Gaining first-hand as debt, domestic abuse, employment Activities’ in the LawCareers.Net Student experience of the law and discrimination. In return, the Law Law Society Awards in 2016 and again in School provides NCLS with much2018, beating off stiff competition from King’s in action broadens and needed financial assistance. College London, UCL, Kent and Nottingham. deepens our students’
understanding of their
The success of the partnership has The Law Clinic’s activities include live-client academic subjects, exceeded all expectations. Perhaps advice work and public legal education while developing their its most notable outcome to date activities. The Clinic works in partnership has been the award-winning Welfare with local advice agencies such as NCLS to transferable skills and provide free legal advice and assistance to building their confidence. Benefits Advocacy Service, instigated clients across a wide range of subject areas. They also tell us that it’s by two undergraduate students from the Law Clinic. The service provides Via its Community Outreach programme, great fun!” advice and representation to clients Street Law, it runs events to raise awareness of the law and of legal issues for schools, Professor Gareth Thomas, Director seeking to challenge adverse decisions on their entitlement to benefits in the colleges and community organisations. of the UEA Law Clinic Welfare Benefits Tribunals. A team of 12 Students working on the JusticeProject@UEA investigate potential miscarriages of justice, in collaboration students, trained and supervised by NCLS’s staff, have with the charity, Inside Justice. And the Clinic provides a range now represented many hundreds of clients before the of support services for external agencies such as the Crown First-tier tribunal, and provided written submissions on Prosecution Service, the Access to Justice Foundation and complex points of law for several Upper Tier cases. To the Eastern Legal Support Trust, helping them to achieve their date, the team have recovered well over £3m in arrears of benefits for clients, and have helped many more clients objectives. achieve favourable outcomes without the need to go to tribunal. Experiencing the law in action is increasingly acknowledged to be a vital dimension of a law student’s education. It enables students to appreciate the complex interplay of legal In September 2018, the Law Clinic will embark on an exciting new stage in its development, as it moves into a rules and principles in real-life situations, to develop a critical new, purpose-built extension to Earlham Hall, the home awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the law, and of the UEA Law School. The new building, made possible to acquire a wide range of transferable skills that enhance by donations from UEA alumni, will house a large, their employability. open-plan Law Clinic Office, dedicated interview rooms where students can meet with clients, and office space The Law Clinic is also an important community resource. The for the Law Clinic staff. This new facility will enable the cutbacks in public funding for legal aid and advice agencies Law Clinic, in partnership with NCLS and other advice have created a crisis in access to justice in the UK. By agencies, to expand its advice-giving activities, and to working in partnership with advice agencies and volunteers undertake case work from its base at Earlham Hall. from the local legal profession, the Law Clinic aims to meet at least some of this unmet need for legal advice and Those interested in getting involved with the work of assistance, and the students gain the satisfaction of knowing the Law Clinic can contact Professor Gareth Thomas, that they are using their legal skills and knowledge to the Director of the UEA Law Clinic at g.thomas@uea.ac.uk. benefit of the wider community.
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Norfolk Law - Articles - 19
The Norfolk and Norwich Law Society will celebrate their members with the 4th Annual Excellence Awards to be announced at the forthcoming Annual Dinner...
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20 - Norfolk Law - Charity
Open Spaces Society The Open Spaces Society is Britain’s oldest national conservation body. It was founded in 1865 and in its early years it saved many commons and other open spaces in and around London: Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest and Wimbledon Common for example. It had an early success in the 1870s when it helped to save a recreation ground at Burston in Norfolk. Before long the society extended its remit to the whole of England and Wales and embraced public paths too. The splendid county of Norfolk is rich in open land, and it is thanks to the Open Spaces Society that so many of its commons and green spaces are still unspoilt and available for public enjoyment. For instance, in 1930 it won exchange land when two acres of open space at Gaywood, near King’s Lynn, were enclosed by the rural district council for a refuse dump. In 1895 the society’s founders created the National Trust as a landholding body. The society then established local committees who raised money to buy threatened properties for the Trust. The society ran an appeal for funds to enable the National Trust to acquire West Runton common in 1933. Today the society still champions common land: as a statutory consultee it scrutinises every application for works there. Commons are lands which have an owner but on which others have rights, of grazing or collecting wood for instance. They are important to their local communities for their beauty, history and recreational value, and it is vital that the society examines all the applications for works there. These can be particularly contentious where land managers propose to fence commons: the society successfully opposed fencing on Snettisham Common in 2017. Last year too we helped our member Brockdish Parish Council restore part of a lost common to the register, thereby protecting it from encroachment. We also advise communities on protecting their green spaces, by registering them as town or village greens. This gives local people the right of recreation there and protects the land from development. It is more difficult to claim land as a green now that the Growth and Infrastructure Act has been passed, outlawing the registration of greens where land is threatened with development. So we are promoting an alternative means of protecting land, by applying for its designation as Local Green Space in the local or neighbourhood plan. Our history of defending public paths in Norfolk goes back a long way: in 1899 we secured the removal of an illegal obstruction on a footpath leading from Sheringham to Ken Hill, and in 1930 we advised the Freebridge Lynn Rural District Council to prosecute the landowner who illegally injured the surface of a footpath at West Winch: he was convicted and fined.
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Today the society is notified of all proposed changes to public paths in Norfolk and we study them carefully, objecting if we believe the change is against the public interest. This means that we may need to appear at public inquiries and hearings. We cannot afford legal representation so we make use of our in-house expertise from staff and volunteers with long experience. The society’s local representatives defend the public-path network and we advise our members in protecting commons, green spaces and paths, taking up hundreds of cases each year. We lobby parliament for better, tougher laws. We have no public funding; we depend on legacies and donations to support our vital work. Web: www.oss.org.uk Tel: 01491 573535 Email: hq@oss.org.uk Registered in England and Wales, limited company 7846516 Charity no 1144840
Norfolk Law - Charity - 21
Legal Sector joins forces to celebrate Remember A Charity Week
This September, the legal profession is joining forces with over 200 charities to raise awareness of gifts in Wills and making clients aware that they have the option of doing so. Although only around 6% of estates currently include a charity in their Will, legacy donations generate over £2.8 billion1 for good causes annually, funding vital services across the country. Remember A Charity in Your Will Week (10-16 September 2018) celebrates the impact of legacy giving and highlights the critical role of the legal profession in making clients aware of the opportunity of leaving a donation in their Will, after taking care of their family and friends. Solicitors and Will-writers within Remember A Charity’s network of 1,400 legal supporters will promote the concept of legacy giving to clients, displaying campaign materials in their offices. According to Remember A Charity’s latest Solicitor and Will-writer benchmark study2, six in ten advisers sometimes or always mention the option of including a charitable gift to willwriting clients, but the potential is far greater. The campaign describes these conversations as ‘critical’ with research from the Behavioural Insights Team showing that the legacy giving donation rate doubles when solicitors ask clients if they would like to consider leaving a charitable gift.
Rob Cope, Director of Remember A Charity, says: “Charitable bequests have shaped much of the world around us, with education programmes to medical research, schools and emergency services all having been funded directly by gifts in wills. Simply by including charitable donations in Willwriting discussions can have a critical impact on donations, while enabling the public to ensure their final wishes are met.
of Remember A Charity Week, during which charities, government and stakeholders will all come together to highlight the importance of legacy giving. The campaign’s consumer awareness drive features the launch of a new ‘charity-powered’ search engine, called ‘Human’. Combining charities’ unique knowledge and expertise, the search engine enables the public to select from over 100 of life’s biggest questions and to hear directly from charities, supporters and beneficiaries what they are doing in response. Questions include ‘How can we cure the deadliest common cancers?’ and ‘How do we ensure no one has to sleep rough?’
responding to many of the world’s biggest problems and how legacies can help combat those issues. We hope that it will encourage the public to think about their deepest concerns for the world we live in and to consider leaving a gift in their Will.” To find out more or join the existing network of 1,400 campaign supporters visit www. rememberacharity.org.uk.
Smee and Ford, Legacy Trends 2018 2 Future Giving, Professional Will Writers Survey 2017 1
Cope adds: “This campaign has been designed to showcase just how vital charities are in
“As it stands, not all legal advisers are completely comfortable talking about legacies with their clients and that’s something that we’re hoping to change. Unless solicitors – those who are at the frontline when it comes to speaking to the public about their final wishes – feel confident raising the issue, the risk is that good causes can be forgotten. He continues: “Remember A Charity Week is a chance to celebrate the huge impact of charitable bequests and ensure all clients are aware that they have the opportunity of leaving a gift in their Will, no matter how large or small.” Solicitors and Will-writers are encouraged to help raise awareness of charitable bequests, informing relevant clients about how they can include a charity in their Will. 2018 marks the ninth year
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24 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial
An ever changing risk landscape… The risk landscape law firms are faced with today continues to grow and evolve, and the regulatory regime along with new legislation play their part too. Like many modern businesses, law firms are becoming increasingly more reliant upon technology, whether to improve connectivity with clients, to improve processes and efficiency, to help mitigate risk through the use of case management systems, or to access things on the go. This means the cyber risk to the legal profession is on the rise. Only banks or financial institutions have greater sums of money passing through them than the legal sector. When you also factor in the amount of highly confidential information passing through law firms, it is no wonder that the Legal profession is a target for cyber criminals. While the SRA requires law firms to carry an appropriate level of coverage to protect their clients, there is no consideration as to what coverage will protect the law firm itself. The Legal Profession of England and Wales have one of the broadest policy wordings in the professional indemnity marketplace, yet despite this breadth of cover it is important to appreciate that PII cover provides third parties (generally a law firm’s clients) with protection in the event of an error act of omission. PII is not designed to provide first-party coverage e.g. business protection. Whilst Professional Indemnity Insurance should respond to a “Friday Afternoon Fraud”, “Phishing”, and other types of social engineering to put your clients back into the position they were previously, PII will not respond to all of the cyber risks that the legal profession is faced with today. Some of these risks include but are not limited to: • Denial of access to your systems – A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack prevents any connection to the internet and is increasingly combined with malware that corrupts the corporate network data. This is where the criminals have scanned the vulnerabilities remotely and found many weak points. They identify that the business relies on always being connected to the internet. They then use ‘exploit kit’ to bypass off-the-shelf firewalls and anti-virus protection. The cost to the criminal is modest compared to the prize of the ransom that people will pay to get their business up and running again. • Loss of client data - Could result in fines or penalties being imposed by
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regulators such as the SRA or ICO, which given the new powers of the ICO could cripple a firm but if the financial impact of the fine did not, the reputational harm could be irreparable. • Impersonation - An average-level criminal will be able to manipulate your clients or member of staff quite easily because it is brutally effective for their aims and it really undermines the trust they place in you. This may happen because you do not have encrypted communications, or a protected website that has security certificates or email controls e.g. DMARC, or perhaps you allow private emails on home computers. There are many examples of these and most remain unreported in the public domain. You need to be available to your clients, but it’s worth noting this can encourage them to trust non-secure interaction. • Reputational harm following the spread of a virus. A law firm may be liable if found to be the cause of transmitting malicious code to others. It is important to appreciate there is always a human being at the other end of a cyber-incident. The level of sophistication adopted increases along with the ability of the malware that they may use. This is now a big business and it shares many characteristics with established commercial ecosystems – there are sales pipelines, money transfer services or “money mules” and some markets on the dark web looks like Craigs List or Ebay style shopping sites to cater for all types of nefarious intent. The patience that these criminals are willing to show means that we need to be on our guard at all times. The level of success that they can achieve is largely down to the core security controls you put in place. A number of controls will not be too difficult or expensive to put into place either. It is however imperative that you do not rest on your laurels and you evaluate your security control with some level of frequency. It is important to understand that outsourcing IT functions does not mean you outsource your responsibility. You are still a data controller and there is no system available, however robust it may be that will be 100% secure, as the cyber incident at the Pentagon revealed. If you do outsource your IT function, it is important to understand how much support can and will they provide to you in your hour of need, after all response times are key to mitigate the damage but also
as there is only a finite window to meet your regulatory obligations. You cannot expect clients and staff to identify all of the fake emails during the course of daily business, and trying to understand how the hackers were able to monitor and intercept the email traffic is, at this point, of secondary concern. The single most powerful way to combat this is to create a unique link between the index numbers and the plain text name of your email domain (what appears after the @ sign in an email) to prevent such impersonation. This type of authentication is already available with the free to use DMARC control, therefore we encourage every law firm in the UK to engage their IT team or service provider in discussing this topic further after which I think it is prudent to explore what insurance is available to support your business. Also, as a fairly recent development, some banks are now requiring DMARC controls across their entire supply-chain and some insurance companies are asking for it too. There are many cyber products available, which vary quite considerably in the scope and quality of cover they can offer. Lockton is an independent broker and has access to the wider insurance market but we also have a suite of products that have been designed specifically for the Legal Profession of England and Wales. This includes a product called Inter Lock which is the only fully-integrated solution combining your SRA-approved PII policy with regulatory defence cost, cyber and first-party crime coverage. There is no regulatory requirement to do so, so why should you look into this? If you were going on a driving holiday or expedition would you do so without break down cover in place? If not why would you run your business without appropriate business owner’s protection in place that can protect your cash-flow and reputation? A good Cyber policy provides you with access to the appropriate experts to minimise the damage, help you identify and rectify the problem but perhaps most importantly getting your business operational swiftly. What is clear is that risks are guaranteed. Protection, however, is optional and you can’t assume a cyber attack will never happen to you. by Brian Boehmer If you’d like to learn more about Inter Lock or speak to a member of our team please email solicitors@uk.lockton. com or phone 0330 123 3870. Visit www.locktonsolicitors.co.uk for more information.
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A It hardly seems 12 months ago that I took ithinas the UK there is a large amount over office of money that remains As President I have e In December
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www.worcestershirelawsociety.com www.derbylaw.net
28 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial
Seahorse Studio In the picturesque town of Holt, artisanal jeweller Helen Wright practices an ancient craft. In her brick and flint studio you’ll find her working glass using an ancient lampworking technique that produces one-of-a-kind glass beads, pendants and earrings. At Seahorse Studio you can buy individual beads and hand-made jewellery and Helen also takes commissions. The beads are made by melting glass rods in a very www.nnls.org hot torch flame and winding
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Latham and local artist Mary Newton, tatting by Anne Poole and wood turning by Chris Robson.
the hot glass round a metal rod, called a mandrel. It’s a different technique to blowing glass, but just as old. After being formed, shaped and decorated in the flame, the beads are annealed in a digitally controlled kiln to make them robust. They are then used to make unique pieces of jewellery. No two beads are alike – that’s the beauty of hand-made work. Seahorse Studio has now become a showcase for many local artists. “I intended the building just as my workshop. But I live next door to another glass artist, Hazel Millington, whose colourful fused glass is well established in Norfolk, and I asked her if she would like to have some in my studio. After that, it grew organically – local artists called in and we got talking”.
Unique to Seahorse Studio are the exquisite glass seahorses and hand-painted glass pieces by Sue Jenkinson. “Sue came into the shop one day and remarked that she loved seahorses and used to make glass ones. When I asked why she had stopped, she said, ‘what would I do with them?’ The rest is history.” Helen now has a fantastic selection of local work including ceramics by Jane Bygrave and Felicity Hoyle, copper foil work (stained glass) by Suzanne Phillips, hand painted silks by Mims Grogan, mosaics by Ruby Button, cards by local photographer Jo
Seahorse Studio 01263 478020 www.facebook.com/ seahorsestudioholt
Norfolk Law - Advertorial - 29
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30 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial
Who should lead your law firm?
Law firms are facing unprecedented uncertainty. They need to embrace digital innovation and automation, attract the best talent in a competitive market, stay abreast of increasing regulation and all this with a backdrop of a vulnerable economy and Brexit looming. Therefore, more than ever, regional law firms must have a client focused offering which is understood by the market and embraced internally. But will the role of managing partner change? Most regional firms continue to have a ‘part time’ managing partner who retains client responsibilities. However, to take the firm forward in this new environment will require a substantial time investment and leadership skills not necessarily evident in successful client facing professionals. To be successful, managing partners need to demonstrate the following leadership skills: • treat all partners as equal and part of the team (cliques must be actively discouraged and keep your own independence); • lead by example; • communicate the strategy to all and ensure there are no hidden agendas; • deal with disruptive individuals; • focus always on development and sales which will be the key driver of success; and • have courage • Today’s firm needs a leader who is dynamic, inspiring and brave so they can challenge the status quo and take their teams with them.
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However, one of the key obstacles to appointing the right person is the appointment process. The appointment of the managing partner is unique to professional firm’s leadership and distinct from corporates. For example, whilst a fair proportion of the partners may claim to wish to see their firm develop in reality they may lack the confidence to change and wish to stay in their comfort zone. These partners will seek to appoint someone who they trust not to challenge their personal status quo. In addition, fixed term appointments allow the partners to revisit their choice but it is important that leadership is about the next generation rather than the next election. The key skill for the managing partner, despite working in a firm of technical specialists, is their people skills and ability to influence other partners without relying on their title. The individual must support their immediate team and allow them the autonomy to get the job done. Ultimately, the measure for a successful managing partner is however unchanged. The leader will be judged by their ability to deliver the financial results and a sustainable firm.
By Fiona Hotston Moore Professional firms partner, Ensors Chartered Accountants
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34 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial
Book Review BOWSTEAD AND REYNOLDS ON AGENCY Twenty-first Edition By Peter Watts QC and F.M.B. Reynolds QC ISBN: 978 0 41406 207 8 Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson Reuters THE COMMON LAW LIBRARY www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk THE CLASSIC TEXT ON AGENCY – NOW IN A NEW TWENTY-FIRST EDITION An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers and Reviews Editor, “The Barrister” If you or your client ever need an agency – or, in the event, that an agency needs you – be advised that the complexities of agency are fully elucidated in this book. ‘Bowstead & Reynolds on Agency’ is the definitive legal text on agency and has been since the first edition by William Bowstead came out in 1896. Having been updated over twenty times since then, it remains ever authoritative and ever up to date as you’ll see when you have a look at this new edition recently published as part of Sweet & Maxwell’s Common Law Library. Quite inconveniently, the terms ‘agency’ and ‘agent’ almost defy precise definition. It is not too surprising then, that the book’s editors refer to ‘agency’ as an area of law where concepts have been “peculiarly troublesome.” But fundamentally – and perhaps to oversimplify – agency can be defined as a fiduciary relationship between two persons; one, the agent -- the other the principal for whom the agent acts ‘so as to affect his relations with third parties.’ Or confusingly, if the agent has no authority to affect the principal’s relations with third parties, he or she may also be called an agent given that there exists a fiduciary relationship. Difficult to define though it is, ‘agency’ can certainly be described and explained. And it certainly is, in minute detail in this book. ‘In any case,’ say editors Peter Watts and Francis Reynolds, ‘definitions are, however commonplace, of limited utility in law as elsewhere; in particular reasoning based on presupposed definitions is often suspect.’
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Suspect or not, you might now actively argue that agency is an area of law which offers plenty of room to argue; in which case this book is an ever-present help if you’re embroiled in arguments over agency, as it provides ample coverage of the subject within its more than 800 pages. Since the previous edition of 2014, there have been (as the editors have pointed out), plenty of developments to take into account, mainly in case law. Changes have therefore been made to every chapter, including the more than onehundred cases that have been integrated into the text. Such changes, too numerous to list here, are summarized in the book’s preface. Of special interest though, would be the new material in Chapter 6 which, in dealing with duties of agents to their principals, includes rewritten material on restorative and compensatory remedies for breach of trust. Also note Chapters 7, 8 and 9, which deal respectively with rights of agents… relations between principals and third parties… and relations between agents and third parties. And how about the noteworthy if not startling 2017 case referred to in Chapter 12, which involves the problems of bonds issued by the Ukrainian Government to the Russian Government. Indeed, the book contains a multitude of references for researchers in the extensive footnoting, and usefully, there are references throughout to other textbooks. There are no less than 145 pages of tables, namely of statutes, cases and statutory instruments. To ease navigation, there is a helpfully detailed table of contents and index, plus an appendix containing The Commercial Agents (Courts Directive) Regulations 1993. Comprehensive, cogent and authoritative, this new edition of Bowstead & Reynolds will quite obviously be a boon to all practitioners involved -- or planning to be involved -- in any aspect of agency.
Norfolk Law - Law Society News - 35
Cost of court time highlights need for early legal advice Properly funded early legal advice saves taxpayers’ money, the Law Society of England and Wales said as it published new analysis showing the cost of running a single courtroom for a day is £2,692 - not including legal advice. “The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) removed a significant chunk of legal aid for early legal advice so cases that would once have been resolved long before court proceedings are now clogging the system,”
said Law Society president Christina Blacklaws. “There is growing evidence that providing legal aid for early legal help in housing and family matters is far more cost-effective than denying it. “More cases are ending up in court because people are unable to get legal advice on the merits of their case at an early stage and are forced to represent themselves. “We warned of this consequence when LASPO became law and the evidence is now widely available.
“Without early advice, relatively minor legal problems can spiral out of control, creating health, social and financial problems, placing additional pressure and cost on already stretched public services. The apparent financial savings being made by government in the justice system are a false economy.” Christina Blacklaws added: “As we noted in our own ‘LASPO 4 years on’ report, the dramatic increase in the number of litigants in person - people who represent
themselves in court - has placed a severe strain on the court system. “Litigants in person can struggle to understand court procedures and their legal entitlements, and cases involving them take longer to resolve. “This new analysis demonstrates the scale of the savings that could be made by restoring legal aid for early advice. It is in everyone’s best interests that legal problems are resolved early to avoid the greater expense of a court process.”
FINGERPRINT ANALYSIS Peter M Swann FAE FFS Independent Consultant to the Legal Profession A former Home Office Adviser with five decades experience in all aspects of finger print and crime work. A Fellow of the Academy of Experts, a Fellow of the Fingerprint Society, a Member of the International Association for Identification, a Member of the Forensic Science Society and included in the UK Register of Expert Witnesses. Provides a full independent fingerprint service to legal profession, industry and other agencies. Examination Development
Assessment Report
Briefing Expert Witness
Telephone: Wakefield 01924 264900 (Office) 01924 276986 (Home) Fax: 01924 265700 Email: peterswann@btconnect.com www.fingerprint-analysis.co.uk
Norfolk Law - Law Society News - 37
LEAP launches Litigation Centre of Excellence Supporting LEAP clients on their journey to digital litigation, giving competitive advantage Recognising the long-term gains of becoming digital, LEAP announces the launch of its Litigation Centre of Excellence. Dedicated to helping litigators work smarter, the Litigation Centre of Excellence tracks current and future needs of litigators using LEAP software to provide them add-ins to achieve the best outcome for their clients efficiently and cost effectively. The Centre has produced several exceptional add-ins to LEAP, including those that simplify the production of Precedent H budgets and Precedent S electronic bills of costs. It has recently released the highly sophisticated Advocate, a complete digital system for working with and collaborating on evidence, research and presentation of all types of litigation cases, from criminal shoplifting to complex commercial and contract cases. Only available to LEAP users, the case preparation system includes automated timelines, chronologies and
the Criminal Offences and Sentencing Plea engine. It has been created by the Centre of Excellence in conjunction with practicing solicitors and barristers with a view to solving the real issues that confront legal teams transitioning into the realm of digital civil and criminal law. Christina Grzasko, Director, LEAP Litigation Centre of Excellence, comments “LEAP’s mission is to provide the very best software for litigators, enabling them to punch above their weight over large litigation firms and increase their success rate as they do. This in turn helps firms make more money and build a reputation that is now enhanced by a proven ability to work digitally.” Coupled with LEAP’s innovative cloudbased case management software, litigators can now manage their matters end to end, through all the business and financial aspects and all
procedural and documentary matters, thanks to LEAP’s comprehensive content, and into the evidential and legal aspects of their case to the doors of trial. With the Litigation Centre of Excellence LEAP offers a unique and powerful solution, significantly reducing the time and resources required by fee-earners to manage the litigation process and present and deliver a first-rate service to the client, benefitting from intuitive design that aids collaboration with clients and peers alike, access to a library of highly-automated forms and precedents specific to litigation and continued productivity when out at court, managing matters via the LEAP App. Contact Details Web: www.leap.co.uk Email: info@leap.co.uk Tel: 0843 713 0135
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38 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial
Outsourcing your cashiering? Why choose Quill? By Julian Bryan, Managing Director, Quill
Once you’ve decided to outsource your legal cashiering, any supplier will do, right? After all, the way these outsourcing providers manage your accounts and support your business is the same, isn’t it? Surely the only difference will be the price you pay for the service, won’t it?
by Quill cashiers. It’s a common platform, facilitating common procedures, maintaining common standards, empowering a common experience for all users of our Pinpoint outsourcing service. No deviations. No inconsistencies.
The answer to these conundrums is a resounding ‘no’! There are an increasing number of outsourced cashiering suppliers – legal software companies are forming partnerships with outsourcing bureaus to expand their offerings; new bureaus are being established; freelancers are setting up as virtual cashiers to work from home – so you’ve certainly got plenty of choice when it comes to outsourcing your back office accounts function.
Overseers: Monitoring by senior staff As an additional guarantee of quality service provision, our cashiering operation is closely monitored by experienced, knowledgeable team members who cast a trained eye over completed tasks, checking for accuracy, speed, volume and consistency, reinforced by metrics from our powerful quality and performance management Interactive system, interpreting data processed by all the cashiers. Our cashiers work in teams of six with a supervisor heading up each group. Any anomalies or discrepancies, including items highlighted by Interactive, are spotted and resolved straightaway, giving you confidence in error-free bookkeeping. No other cashiering bureau can boast access to such management information intelligence drawn from one central software platform.
While there are some familiar threads running between these various suppliers, in comparison to Quill, they’re poles apart. We’re going to show you why… Commonality: Shared use of Interactive Have a quick browse through the ILFM’s Software Guide and you’ll see the long list of legal accounts systems available in the market. This isn’t an exhaustive list either. These competitive systems contain effective tools to help legal cashiers maintain accounts in a compliant, secure, due diligent manner. But the way you perform an accounting task on one, let’s say posting your daily transactions, will vary on another. Also, not all systems will contain warnings and notifications for actual and potential breaches of legal accounts rules. The range of functionality makes one system a very different beast to another. As well as being the toolkit for in-house cashiers, these same systems are operated by outsourcing providers too. And, as any workman knows, his work is only as good as his tools. In other words, the ensuing service you receive will fluctuate pretty drastically from one supplier to the next, depending upon the legal accounts system opted for. The inconsistencies between them can be fairly extreme. In terms of our software, Interactive is backed by a dedicated software development team based in our Brighton office so new and enhanced functionality is constantly being rolled out, benefiting end users whose daily work is made easier, more efficient and categorically compliant as a result. Interactive’s also a recognised market leader, having been around for 40+ years and boasting two ILFM software awards. Not only is our software high quality, which enables us to work better than other outsourcing providers, it’s used universally
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Where speed’s concerned, any law firm knows about the strictly enforced deadlines for filing month and year-end accounts, including those all-important VAT returns. Our system also holds key compliance dates specified by each firm’s designated regulator (SRA, CLC or Law Society of Scotland) to generate management alerts of overdue tasks. For example, we can identify sites not being closed quickly enough at month end which is set as the 7th of each month by the CLC and track that VAT submissions are lodged in time for the relevant quarter. Close monitoring, and intervention if needed, ensures accounts are submitted on time, every time. On the volume side of things, this behind-thescenes management information also tells us how many e-chits are being processed by each cashier. This helps us to allocate the right mix of sites to our cashiers so everyone’s got a similar balanced workload and no one’s being overworked. For end users, you can be reassured that your assigned cashier’s got the capacity to give your accounts their proper attention. By not being stretched too thinly, we’ve got your back. There are a plethora of reports within Interactive, accessed by the Pinpoint management team, supporting the delivery of consistency across hundreds of clients. This starkly contrasts with other bureaus which lack the same control mechanisms thereby compromising consistent standards, and allowing opportunities for mistakes and bad habits to creep in. Collaboration: It’s a team effort Pinpoint is a close alliance between you and
us. We’re connected together by Interactive. You enter daily e-chits into Interactive – which is essentially a daily record of monies in and out to your client and office accounts – and we pick up from there. We literally do everything else – billing, reporting, VAT returns, ledger and bank account management. It’s likely you’ll interact with your named cashier every working day. As such, you build a strong relationship. Pinpoint clients repeatedly tell us how their cashier feels like another employee, just someone not based in the same office. We rely on you to log all transactions. You rely on us to keep your accounts in order. By each fulfilling our side of the bargain, it’s a successful partnership. There’s a point to be made about team working within Pinpoint as well. You see, our cashiers don’t operate in isolation. If your assigned cashier doesn’t know how to rectify any accounts-related problem, he/she will simply call upon the help of his/her colleagues and supervisor. As the largest outsourced cashiering bureau in the UK employing some 50 legal cashiers, they possess a combined total of approximately 300 years’ experience. And that’s a conservative guess. We’ve seen it all before. No issue is novel. You can bet your bottom dollar that we know the solution. Automatic absence cover is provided with the service too. If your cashier is off work on holiday, sickness, maternity, paternity or other leave, as everyone is from time to time, his/her designated deputy will manage your accounts instead. Obviously you don’t get these advantages with a one-man-band type bureau. Next step: Find out more If we’ve sharpened your appetite for more, read our earlier articles on the subject of outsourced cashiering, published on the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers website. There’s ‘Outsourced cashiering and your bottom line’, ’Ten reasons to outsource your cashiering’ and ‘How outsourced cashiering works’ for beginners. To find out more on our Pinpoint outsourced legal cashiering service, please visit www.quill. co.uk/Outsourced-Legal-Cashiering, email info@quill.co.uk or call 0161 236 2910. Julian Bryan joined Quill as Managing Director in 2012 and is also the Chair of the Legal Software Suppliers Association. Quill is the UK’s largest outsourced legal cashiering provider with 40 years’ experience supplying outsourcing services and software to the legal profession.