ABS diary | Supervisors, accounts and lender panels

Since we have become an ABS there has been a considerable amount of interest in JWS from other firms, albeit indirectly.

The interest mainly lies in the processes involved in the application to become an ABS, our reason for going along the ABS route, what we think about competition from the big players like the Co-op and how we propose to compete. A couple of our fee earners who went on courses recently have, without instigating any conversation about ABSs, been approached and congratulated on our achievement and questioned along the lines of the above mentioned

Even before our ABS status I was frustrated by the lack of general management information shared by solicitors. Each time I have attended courses or conferences I have found that I have been able to make a considerable contribution on the day, sharing the experience I have gained over the years in my role as a practice manager. This information, which has seemed so straightforward and logical to me, is not always so obvious to senior partners or managing partners, whose predominant role has been fee earning and whose practices do not have the luxury of a practice manager.

I have recently seen a discussion where COLP and COFAs were invited to share ideas over lunch and they were overwhelmed by the response; why should this be such a surprise? With the introduction of the new SRA handbook, the added personal responsibility of COLPs and COFAs, the introduction of ABSs, the passport over from LDPs to ABSs and the new competitive elements in the legal market, it is about time personal experience and management knowledge is shared, especially for smaller firms and sole practitioners – which is also one of the reasons I have agreed to write this blog.

Meet your supervisor

I have been approached by our ‘supervisor’ from the SRA. This came as quite a surprise as, although I have read through the new rules and have just got the ABS licence granted, I was not aware that we would be getting a supervisor.

Initially I thought that we were being supervised as a result of becoming an ABS, but she has assured me that all law practices will eventually have a supervisor to report to. Predominantly, their role is to ensure that all compliance and risk management requirements are being addressed and to be a main point of contact if you have any problems regarding the same. I cannot decide at this point whether this is going to be a good or a bad thing.

Problems solved

Last month I mentioned a complication with our accounting period on becoming a licensed ABS. I am pleased to report that our request to temporarily change our reporting periods has been agreed, and, with the help of the ABS team, the process to do this was quite painless.?Another problem we have encountered since our ABS licence is with lender panels. Not all are up to date with regards to non-lawyer managers.

If you practise conveyancing, you will probably have come across the online application forms to renew your panel membership. On these forms you have to provide detailed information about the partners and also provide practising certificates.

As a non-lawyer manager/partner I do not have a practising certificate and this is foxing the online application process.

The application was returned as incomplete (because of the lack of my practising certificate) but we were able to provide them with a copy of our ABS licence and my licence to be a non-lawyer partner, and the application was then accepted.

We have approached the ABS team about this; they were surprised that this problem has not been encountered before as LDPs have non-lawyer partners, but they have assured me that they will deal with it so that the lenders update their application forms accordingly.