Risk Management & Business Continuity

The Law Society is shortly to introduce a new Code of Conduct for solicitors to replace the current Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors. For the first time it will be a mandatory requirement for solicitors to have in place provisions for the management of risk and business continuity.

Rules 5.01(1)(k) and 5.01(1)(l) provide that risk should be addressed throughout the firms overall management framework. The assessment of risk should take place in relation to each area of a firms operations and should extend to both client-related and business-related risks and include for example provision for addressing the risk of legislative non compliance, IT failure & abuse, damage to offices, professional negligence, complaints and client related credit risks and exposure. As part of the risk management strategy the firm is required to have in place a business continuity plan to protect the firm and its clients in the event of a disaster or emergency.

A firm will only be considered to have complied with the rules if they have identified, evaluated, monitored and regularly reviewed their risk management procedures.

Quality Rating can assist you in preparing and implementing a Risk Management Strategy and Business Continuity Plan to meet the needs of your firm and ensure compliance with the new Code of Conduct. Our consultants have considerable experience in advising and implementing risk management provisions under the requirements of the Law Society’s Lexcel Quality Standard.

Should you be interested in considering the matter further, and would like an informal discussion in respect of the services we offer, please contact Chris Ward, Managing Director, at cward@qualityrating.co.uk or Myles Ellis, Operations Manager, at mellis@qualityrating.co.uk.

 

Managing Your IT Risk

Any Risk Management Strategy and Business Continuity Plan must cover IT failure and abuse. IT is an integral part of all businesses but are you aware of the potential dangers (UTM – Unified Threat Management) of hackers, intrusion, viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, adware and other malicious code ? If proper protection against these is not in place then your IT infrastructure and network(s) are at risk and could be compromised.

Is your data being backed up regularly, do you ever test that you can restore in the event of losing data or a disaster ? Do you have a contingency plan should your PC’s and /or server become unavailable as a result of theft or fire ? Is your software licensing up to date, is your anti-virus software updated on a regular basis, are you protected against ‘spam’ e-mail, who do you turn to manage all of these issues ?

Quality Rating are working closely with CIM Computer Services Ltd who can manage all of the above issues for you – they do for Quality Rating. Should the above issues be of concern to your practice then you can contact CIM Computer Services Ltd who would be pleased to discuss all IT matters with you in confidence. Please contact Chris Middleton, Managing Director at chris.middleton@cimcs.co.uk or visit their website www.cimcs.co.uk.