Engagement/retainer management

There are many reasons why a lawyer should decide to end a retainer. Knowing when to part ways with a client and how to do it, is an important part of your risk management toolkit.

Non-engagement communications are a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of legal practice management. They inform parties who have consulted with a lawyer that the lawyer has not been engaged or will not be representing them.

Text messages and instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp and WeChat are used by some practitioners to communicate with their clients. While messaging can be a convenient and efficient communication tool, its use gives rise to a number of challenges and risks for law firms including record retention, data security and confidentiality.

Law firms using text messages and messaging apps need to be alert to and manage these risks by implementing clear processes and procedures governing how, when and in what circumstances they are to be used and how messages are to be preserved and retained.

From time-to-time LPLC is contacted by practitioners who are contemplating dabbling in interstate work. Taking on work in a new jurisdiction which is outside your usual area of expertise and experience, or which you don’t practice in regularly is high risk and may lead to a professional negligence claim.

Developing new ways to provide legal services to accommodate the needs of clients is increasing in this current environment but it brings with it challenges as lawyers need to define whether they are acting as independent lawyer or inhouse counsel and how that affects their insurance cover.

Managing the receipt and payment of trust money is not a simple administrative task and needs careful attention by practitioners to avoid claims.

The preparation of thorough file notes is a core part of prudent legal practice and something practitioners should aim to fine-tune. The importance of a detailed file note cannot be overstated, both as evidence should a negligence claim ever arise, as much as for matter management, continuity and reference.

From midnight Wednesday 5 August 2020, most law firms in the Melbourne metropolitan area will be required to close their office and work remotely in accordance with Stage 4 COVID-19 restrictions. This article outlines the key actions you should take now to ensure commitments are met and any employees effectively supervised during this period.

There are several considerations that go into deciding what makes a ‘right client’. Thinking about this at the beginning and making sure it is communicated openly, can save you a headache later.

This cyber claim case study looks at a deceased estate matter that fell prey to cyberfraud due to a compromised client email. This case illustrates that law firms are susceptible to the risk of receiving bogus email instructions from apparently legitimate email accounts which have been infiltrated and monitored by cybercriminals.

Lawyers are obliged to know the law and keep themselves informed about the constantly changing and evolving areas in which they practice. Austlii and the Law Library of Victoria provide free online resources to assist with legal research and keeping abreast of changes to law.

In our final blog about the key pillars of a comprehensive engagement process we turn our attention to timing. We ask, is it the right time for you or your firm to take this on?

Well run firms have a clear business strategy about what work they will and won’t do. It’s not in a firm’s best interest to take on a wide range of work — particularly if it is outside the firm’s area of expertise or experience. This article discusses some strategies you can use to examine whether a matter is right for you.

What steps should you take to ensure your potential new client provides complete instructions? What if the proposed work is complicated by the involvement of an intermediary purporting to have the client’s authority, such as a spouse, child, relative, friend or another advisor? It is risky to just let the matter drift without proactively managing the retainer.

This blog covers how long should you keep your file after a matter has concluded.

Serving on a company board can be rewarding for practitioners in various ways. However, when taking on a directorship, including for a non-profit, you need to be aware of the risks including the potential for the separate roles of director and legal adviser to become blurred.

Do you know what your purchaser precedent letter says? When was the last time you thoroughly read and thought about your purchaser precedent letter?

When sued by a client, the reaction from some practitioners is ‘What did they expect for what I charged?’

One risk of running ‘general files’ is failing to confirm in writing when your obligations in connection with discrete tasks are to be treated as concluded. If you fail to clarify this, you might remain ‘on risk’ for issues beyond the discrete task.

Advice on a ‘cross roads’ decision for the client, such as whether to proceed with a contract of sale or bring it to an end, should always be recorded in sufficient detail in a file note and confirmed in writing to the client. It is important not to cut corners, even when the advice seems routine in nature.

Tasks fall between the cracks when practitioners fail to communicate proactively and effectively with colleagues.

You should always be aware of the risks when a matter moves into unfamiliar territory beyond your expertise. This often happens where the matter starts within a practitioner’s normal area of practice but subsequently takes a turn into another area. Sometimes the practitioner thinks ‘it can’t be that different’ from the area familiar to them.

Sometimes claims arise because of a lack of attention to detail combined with copying over a document from an old file for use in a new matter.

LPLC often receives queries from practitioners who have been served with a subpoena issued by a third party to produce a client file. The issues for practitioners are the file is ostensibly owned by the client, an ongoing duty of confidentiality is owed to the client and the client will usually have a claim for privilege over at least some communications on the file.

This blog from 2014 covers things to consider while closing a file.

The following article contains a case-study discussion of what constitutes an undertaking.

This article from 2009 considers how a supreme court decision of that year highlights the importance of taking good file notes.