Hello. My name is Katie Jackson. This web night is about four reviews. That's what we're going to be talking about today. So what we're gonna be talking about in today's session is while we conduct file reviews, what are our compliance requirements, what is the value that's there for your law firm And how can we access that and use that in a supportive way across the law firm. We're gonna be talking about how we conduct file reviews and giving you some sample file views alongside the slides and this video content that's part and parcel of this webinar. You've also got some notes that company and those notes primarily for this webinar comprise information that I've put together over many years of working as a compliance consultant, as an inspector and working with law firms to think about the kinds of things they should look for on their files and what I've put together is a full different pack of different types of file reviews that you can take and using your firm if you want to or as I advise to take and taylor to the requirements of your firm. So none of the file reviews can necessarily be comprehensive but you might have a different reason for conducting different types of fire reviews or might want to do many file reviews in relation to followers as well to ensure that different aspects of the file are covered in different ways or by different people. So there's a full pack there for you to take away and have a look at or perhaps to give you some inspiration for the kinds of things that you can do in your firm. So that's really intended to be practical and intended to be helpful and positive for the kinds of things. Take that away and start to use those within your firm when you're doing that tailor them to your own policies and procedures, add bits and take bits out and use them across the firm. A really a very practical set of documents that accompany this webinar. So the agenda for today's session is thinking about why do we conduct file reviews and what is the value that we can gain from conducting a file review? We need to have a think about file review requirements. So thinking about how we make sure that we're compliant with the sl race requirements and how those are changing Relation to the new standards and regulations that are bringing in. And we're currently expecting them in November 2019. So we're in a situation now where we're still looking at those, they're still pending. There could still be late changes in respect of those and we're now trying to put together a situation where we understand what's required of us. The new standards and regulations do free up firms to do things in different ways and you might find that you want to take a different approach to the way in which you are conducting file reviews or the way in which you are managing your files and that's fine. This is intended to give you the new standards and regulations, the flexibility to do things in different ways. So taking the file reviews that they're within your notes, use those as inspiration. Can you do this in a different way or could you digitize it, for example, can this be done automatically by a computer system or can you build it to do so? There's lots of different ways in which you can think about the way in which you manage the files and how they dealt with. So we've got compliance requirements, regulatory requirements and then we'll think about how to use file reviews when dealing with quality standards as well, such as lex L and also seek us and we can use and see that we can use file reviews sometimes for dealing with investigations so far reviews can be used for counter forward purposes or for different means of um supporting your compliance team in on your money laundering officer, your cold or your coffee as a means to understand if there's anything unusual going on in files and fulfilling that kind of obligation in terms of anti money laundering and counter forms. Um you can also use fire reviews in a broader risk management sense. And we'll think about that as well. I have a different ways in which file reviews can contribute to managing risk management and how that can help and using and pulling out that data to say, can I do my processes differently. Is there anybody who needs any additional help and support with doing things differently? And what's that telling me about the way the firm is run over also. It can be used as a management tool within your pack. As I've already said that cos this you've got different file reviews and some of those are specific to certain things. So for example, like sell some of them are specific to counter fraud. Some of them are specific to coffers, some of them as specific to certain areas of law. So my background is with the solicitors regulation Authority, with a counter for licensed conveyances, as an investigator, an inspector and as a manager, um and then subsequently as a compliance consultant for some years. Now, I've been working with law firms on their compliance. So my background really is on the regulatory and compliance side and the file views that there are really linked to that. However, in the areas of law where I have some experience, I have included some file reviews related to that, although they're not intended as legal advice and there is a compliance orientation to them. Do take the opportunity to develop your own file review and that can be done quite simply by setting out the different parts of the transaction that you would expect to see from the area of law that you work in. What would you expect to see and how would you expect to see it done in most fast and then putting that into a table and ticking the box when you see it. And if not, can you specify remedial action, how they should be done or should the advice have been given differently? Put some boxes at the bottom of your forms, you'll see those are all there on the forms that I've got. So it's allowing for comments, remedial action and then making sure that that remedial action has been signed off and this is generally required under quality standards such as lex L so those that information is there and there's further information in your notes around what's required by Alexa, what's required by secrecy and how those things can be built into your to your file review forms. If you design them as well, we're going to have a look at some ideas around individual and firm management and responsibility. Sometimes people are giving far review feedback and that can straight into a form of management and you have to think about who's delivering for reviews, what kind of role they have and whether they have the sufficient experience and credibility to do that. Whether they need any additional support in doing that and what view the firm takes in respect of that. We're going to have a think within that context about conducting reviews and giving feedback and how to support people in doing that. Some ideas for delivering that. This webinar is generally suitable for most levels within the firm. Whether you're starting out by understanding what file review is or you're working as a new firm, for example putting in place a file review procedure, what Sydney to look like and have a look at some example file review forms, this webinar will supply that. Or if you're looking to develop your file review procedure a little bit more. Looking for some ideas and inspiration from a compliance perspective, hopefully that will deliver that. And if you're a cult or a coffer or money laundering reporting officer and you want some ideas and inspiration, hopefully that's going to provide that as well if you're fear and you just like to know a little bit more about file views and how they conducted. Perhaps you're starting to do some with your colleagues and starting to look at different files. Hopefully that that's something, you know, you'll find something as you use as well. So it's suitable for all levels this particular webinar and can be used in lots of different ways. Hopefully it's very practical webinar when you start looking at the documents that accompanied the webinar. So let's have a look then at why do we conduct our reviews? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind as a regulator, former regulator and as somebody delivering compliance, those kinds of things. The reason why we would expect us to regulate when I was there at the CRC and the S. R. A. To think about file reviews is from a supervision angle, so to make sure that firms are adequately supervising the people that work within the firm and that's taking the advanced knowledge of somebody with a lot of experience, such as one of the partners for example, somebody has been there a very long time and ensuring that's been passed down to the more junior members of staff have only just started working that area of law. And this can help prevent complaints. It can help reduce negligence claims. It can ensure the quality of service and advice being provided to decline is appropriate. So there's a supervisory element there that goes alongside file reviews that sits within that and is a key tool to say what is the work being conducted and making sure that it's of the appropriate quality. We can also use fire reviews to ensure ethical behavior and to ensure compliance. And there's a new requirement as we'll see within the standards of regulations to take effective steps to ensure that for the cult to ensure that they're compliant and to take steps to ensure people do not cause or substantially contribute to a breach the SRS and regulations. So there is an element of that. But we can also use a file review as part of an investigation as well, has something gone wrong within the firm or are we seeing something go wrong and what does that look like? Can we use a file review then to conduct are part of our investigation and we can see that investigatory capacity is required and expected by the Ceo and also appears to be implicit as well and what the IRA does. So they're asking people to be compliant with that and to make sure that test to see if there's any serious breach of the requirements under the new standards and regulations, there is implicit with that within that an investigatory capacity. In addition to that, there are requirements to monitor relationships in respect of money laundering. They're also red flags and warning cards to be aware of that. The regulators are publishing relating to money laundering and it's required under the money laundering regulations to be aware of that. So taking the time within a far review procedure to cover. That is also worthwhile. And it's going to be really good evidence to demonstrate how the firm has put in place policies and procedures to ensure these things are being considered and looked at after a few goes on fire of you. You start to embed these things in your mind. So, if there is anything that you want people to be particularly aware of any particular red flags that are relevant to your area and in particular things that your firm has had, um, causing difficulty around compliance and ethical behavior, always make sure that you put them in your file review procedure because they'll get picked up, people will get that feedback and you'll start to see the correction taking place. People will start to become aware of it. I don't want that to come up on my next and therefore I'm now going to take steps to correct that So far abuse can be a useful tool in order to manage the situation and in order to demonstrate your compliance to the regulator, to anybody else who might come looking in respect of what's going on within the firm. And that can also be relevant for quality standards for lenders, how they perceive things being done if you're working and conveyancing, and also for your insurer as well. And anybody else who might come and have a look in respect of your obligations in respect of the money laundering regulations, for example, it gives you that investigative capacity which lowers the impact, potentially of human risk within the firm. So the potential of somebody, for example, coming in with malicious intent into the law firm seeking to infiltrate the law firm. From a criminal perspective, you are going to have the opportunity to catch people who are intending to do some harm in respect of a law firm. It can help with complaints and claim handling. So it gives you the opportunity to take stock of a file to understand what's happened and to sometimes conduct an independent review in respect of a file? A rule, yes. Somebody might have submitted a complaint to you, but is that what's really been complained about. And the same with a claim. Has anything else happened on that file? That's gone wrong, that we should know about. Do we need a heads up before it goes any further. So, conducting a full file review of anything where there has been a complaint or has been acclaimed regardless of what that's about. Taking the opportunity to have an independent pair of eyes on it. From a different perspective. Now, I want you to not focus on the complaint or the claim and just think about this as a far of you might give the opportunity to pull out some different information that hasn't clouded the situation. It might allow you to look at it with fresh eyes. It might allow you to identify where something else has gone wrong that hasn't been picked up because perhaps you clouded the issue in some way. It can help us with regulatory reporting in terms of saying has there been a serious breach on this farm? You might have had as the corporate coffer, a report from somebody in saying, actually, I think there's been a breach in respect of this file, which might need to be reported to the taking the time to do a review of the file? Can then give you that investigative capacity to say, um, you know, do we need to make a report in respect of this? Is there another reasonable legal explanation or other explanation as to what's happened in order to explain? Actually, it was due to something else completely different. And again, during the fall review circumstance allows you to do the investigation has taken place and allows you to say yes, actually, we found something else on the file that does explain what's happened. This is why we decided not to make a report to respect that. And this is the investigation we've conducted. And again that works across a number of regulators and a number of regulatory arrangements. You're going to do file reviews potentially in respect of lex. You also can do with file reviews and respect of conveyancing quality standards. There are lots of different standards out there that require those kinds of processes. And I. S. O. Is also another one that I do continuous improvement in processes. So thinking about all of those things, I can say to people, you know, having those badges of honor and those quality standards can be a good, I can help you win contracts and can help you win, tenders can help you demonstrate to clients, this is a professionally managed firm. So conducting those interviews is important. So you've got a second pair of eyes on something. And so you can say actually, as a firm, we look at this, a number of people would look at this and that ensures the quality of what's happening and we have people going and give a second opinion so that we can all continuously improve and benefit from that. We can also use it as an opportunity for people to learn. So it goes beyond that supervision, it becomes part of professional development for people and seeing it as an opportunity to learn something new and professionally develop is important. So you might have somebody who's just learning the vote, for example, trainee while if they're coming in, they might have a lot of their files reviewed and that gives them the opportunity to say, how can I do this differently? What does that look like for me and how can I seek that feedback in my work? We can all use feedback in our work from different things, particularly from people who see things from a different angle or who are more experienced in us and we can all take the opportunity to learn, particularly if it's from someone new or different. I've been a compliance consultant now for seven or eight years and taking the opportunity to work with other people in my field, always yield something new for me to learn and to take away from that situation. So I think it's important to say that we can all use far reviews in different ways from a regulatory angle or from a professional development angle, there can be an opportunity to share learning points through the team as well through different feedback. So, if you establish something on a file review, it might be something that you can share with the team with the permission of the person involved. Actually, I think this might be something where we can all benefit from a situation where we can all learn something. It's an unusual point of law. It's something novel the opportunity to take that and report that back to the team. This is how we've dealt with this situation has come up on a file view and this is what we've learned. So there is a positive aspect there to emphasize to people that file review can be all about coaching, can be all about sharing and developing new knowledge and best practice in different ways. You can also take data. So we've talked about whether you can build in your fire of you to be automatic in a way if you like. Are these things being completed on the system? Has a client care letter been sent out for example, have you filled in the information relating to um AML checks? Have we scanned in identity? Have these things been completed and checked off? Have they been checked by another person? And if you're a firm that is using an advanced computer system or computer system that's been developed and where you can add these things on. These are the things that could be captured electronically and form part of management information that allows you to immediately identify whether these things been completed or not. So there are different opportunities for data. Different firms to see spot trends as well by doing automatic file reviews in relation to some of these things and developing their policies and procedures accordingly. Using that management information to feed back into situations. There's lots of different uses for file views and different ways in which they can be done as well. You might have somebody quite experienced doing file review who can give that coaching opportunity to people. Or it might be something where it's an administrative file review and that might be for example checking your client care letter has gone out, checking the AML information has been received in and those kinds of things could be done by somebody more junior or by somebody more junior within compliance team. So there's different roles that can be fulfilled in file reviews as well depending on the information that's being checked and how that's being delivered. So let's move on to thinking about how far will the requirements sit and where some of those father review requirements might come from. So we're required to um as part and parcel of dealing with the S. R. A. Have supervision arrangements in place but also ensure that the firm managers risk and also ensure that there aren't breaches of the S. R. A. Regulatory arrangements and you have to take reasonable steps to do that Under the new standards and regulations. How far reviews were given as an example in guidance within the authorization requirements in the current handbook we're now April 2019 when we get to November that guidance is going to disappear. However, there are still requirements on people to make sure that they're taking reasonable steps to ensure compliance with regulatory arrangements and far reviews is a great way of demonstrating that when we're talking about the Information Commissioner's office, they require you to have investigative capacity in place but also to bake the G. D. P. R. Into your policies and processes and it's a good opportunity to check that off. Have we given people their privacy notice information, for example, are people aware of what we're doing with their data? Have we thought about that and have we respected that confidentiality within our file and follow through on that? So it allows you the opportunity to check to make sure those things are being dealt with and then further bake that into your policies and procedures. The clC also has requirements around supervising but also around risk and reporting as well. So do bear that in mind. There are requirements to think about risk assessment and to highlight and deliver on respect of, you know, having a look and making sure you're dealing with any money laundering situations, making sure that staff are making reports you might need to work with staff in order to ensure they understand their responsibilities and file review is a great way of doing that. Are we going through the files to make sure that any warning flags are being flagged up and that they have been done appropriately. If it's being left to the Fiona, maybe they need some supervision and some help in doing that. There are warning signs that are set out by the legal sector affinity group guidance. They are warning sector flags set out by the Financial action Task force and there are requirements to keep a risk assessment and risk assess and deal with those warning flags that are set out by the money laundering regulations. Far review if you use some of those warning flags and use the counter forward and some of the example file views that are in your notes around anti money laundering is a great way of demonstrating that there are requirements and specifically for cults and coffers and hopes and offers as well depending on the type of body that you're in. There are also requirements under Excel to do file reviews if you're doing it for Excel. You know, this is a big part of the lexical accreditation is to ensure that your files are being regularly reviewed similarly with seek us as well. So that support in that file and your lender insurer might have requirements or offer more reasonable terms depending on the far review arrangements that you have in place. So the lenders that you work with and the panels that you all might have requirements. The insurers that you're dealing with and we're going to be different people for quotes that might come up on the insurance form that you're putting into place the proposal for and might be something that an underwriter would consider. So there's lots of different reasons to conduct, file reviews from that requirement perspective. Let's have a look at the current s our principles and follow reviews. Give us the opportunity to demonstrate some of these so that we uphold the law and proper administration of justice, provide a proper standard of service to clients, behave in a way that maintains the trust, the public places in you and in the provision of legal services, comply with your legal and regulatory obligations and deal with regulators and ombudsman in open timely and cooperative manner. Run your business and carry out your role in the business effectively. And in accordance with proper governance and sound financial and risk management principles, and also protect client money and assets. While we can take steps to demonstrate all of those things through for reviews. So, for example, upholding the law and the proper administration of justice, making sure that people are being given an appropriate legal advice and that's been delivered appropriately and then people are behaving appropriately in those legal settings, providing appropriate standard of service to your clients. And again, the quality of advice can be checked on a file of you behaving in a way that maintains the trust, the public places in you and again, providing that quality of advice, but also that investigative capacity and opportunity to have that independent review, complying with our regulatory obligations. And this is about ensuring that you're taking reasonable steps as required by the new standards and regulations will see, but ensuring that people are dealing with the regulatory responsibilities correctly. That those have all been ticked off, but also that we're reporting when things go wrong as well. And then the last one or the last but one there run your business and carry out your role in accordance with proper governance and sound financial and management principles is definitely served by a fire over you. You're definitely undertaking a risk management situation there in order to manage the risk to your business of something going wrong in respective on a particular file that perhaps hasn't been looked at, maybe somebody is being a bit secretive about it somewhere and this can pose a risk to your business. You're also taking steps to protect client money and assets by having a second pair of eyes on anything that's happening at all within the firm. Let's have a think about the general requirements are in place at the moment. Thinking about cold and cough for now, this webinar will go forward beyond and into November 2019. So when we're thinking about the new standards and regulations, but it's important to be aware that just because the new standards and regulations have come into force doesn't mean we throw away everything that's gone before these is still relevant to know that the S. R way considers this to be appropriate professional behavior. And there is a case for continuing in this way, What the standards and regulations are doing is opening up the opportunities for you to interpret this in different ways and having more freedom in your business. However, there's nothing wrong with continuing in this particular way and also having regard to what's gone before as well. So general compliance requirements that they've got listed there having clearly defined governance arrangements and providing a transparent framework for responsibilities within the firm. Having appropriate accounting procedures. Having a system for ensuring that only the appropriate people authorized payments from client account. Having a system for ensuring that undertakings are given only when intended and compliance with them is monitored enforced. And again some of these systems in place can be filed reviews. Okay. And again, checking your appropriate accounting procedures that can be done through a system of review that looks at the accounts in order to generate our views and works on the file where you've used together with the accounts and in the accompanying notes and example forms. There are examples of how you can use a coffee related form in order and a call for a review of the accounts to pick out anything unusual to then pick up files as well to say, Is this strange, is this unusual? Let's go away and have a look at the file and doing it on a formal basis. So that allows you to underwrite that in that way and demonstrate him and again, ensuring systems in place for um undertakings, ensuring systems in place for authorizing payment from client accounts. All of those things can be checked on the far review, putting new checks in place on staff or contractors if they're doing phony work, again, it can be far review that relates to this ensuring basic regulatory deadlines are not missed. So this is really more about ensuring the role of the cold and the coffer. But it is relevant to ensuring a system for monitoring and reviewing and managing risk. So having in place a system that's there for monitoring, viewing and managing risk can come out of our views. Let's have a look at the outcome of our farm reviews for this month. What start telling us about the state of the work that's being delivered? How can we manage that and what are the risks of the firm? It can help you down manage any risk as well so that you're not that's not being escalated. It can help you cut off something that might have been the negligence claim, for example or a complaint if we're identifying it at an earlier point and so that investment then potentially becomes worth it if that saves you thousands, ensuring issues of conduct, given appropriate weight in decisions. The firm takes whether our client matters or on firm based issues. So again, you're weighing up there and this was really around a concern that conduct issues would not necessarily be considered along in the same way as commercial decision, but doing a far view allows you to assess the situation and allows you to make sure those decisions are being made appropriately far reviews are specified as potential compliance requirements and appropriate systems for supporting lee training and development of staff. Fire views can be used and demonstrate how people have improved their professional practice over time and that things have been picked up and acted upon. So it is and can be appropriate to do that. And then um, there's an opportunity there at the bottom to demonstrate arrangements that put in place arrangements to ensure that duties declines. I know there's a fully even when staff are absent. So if you have to bring in somebody to cover somebody else's work, you can, for example, do that with the support file reviews to ensure client services still being met and that person has the appropriate support in place in order to do that. So far. Our views are a really useful tool across the business in order to support those requirements. So let's have a look at the new requirements from the in the IRA standards and regulations and these ones are pending introduction in november 2019. So there could yet be changes. But what the principles say is that you act in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law and the proper administration of justice and you act in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitor's profession and in legal services provided by authorized persons. It also requires you to act with independence with honesty with integrity and in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion and in the best interests of each client, follow views within your firm are going to help you demonstrate that so helping you demonstrate people are being given a good quality of advice that's been done independently. And that your using your compliance requirements there as well. You're meeting those which can help uphold public trust and confidence in legal profession as well. So, all of those requirements that are there and set down and designed to enable people to have confidence, people behaving in a professional way, and that they will meet the requirements that are placed on them. It also, as we've seen, can be used in an investigatory capacity to help demonstrate that the firm is acting honestly and with integrity as well. So, there's lots of different uses for a file review system. Let's have a look at the code of conduct reforms. Let's have a think about what it means in terms of the the systems and requirements that people require to be in place. What they, what it says is you have effective governance structures, arrangements, systems and controls in place to ensure that you comply with the sRS regulatory arrangements as well as with other regulatory and legislative requirements which apply to you, your managers and employees, comply with regulatory arrangements which comply to them. Your managers and interest holders and those that you employ or contract with. Do not cause or substantially contribute to a breach of the SRS regulatory arrangements by you, your managers or employees. So there's different things there. But the important thing is the people are taking steps to ensure they're not um causing or substantially contributing to a breach of the regulatory arrangements. Now, it is important to take those steps and to have, as it says, that effective governance structures, arrangements, systems and controls in place to ensure those things. And if you have a look at the requirements placed on cults and coffers which are contained within your notes, you'll also see that that requirement is also placed on the culp in order to take reasonable steps to ensure that people within the firm do not cause or substantially contribute to a breach of the SRS regulatory arrangements. So the culp and also, um, the firm as well, have have both have obligations to have those structures in place and for the cult specifically to take reasonable steps, but the firm has to have governance structures in place and arrangements and systems and controls. If we think about the role, the coffer, the coffer has have arrangements in place to ensure compliance with the council's. So there are specific requirements that are placed on those two individuals and specific requirements that are placed on around governance structures. Arrangements and systems and controls. It also requires you to keep and maintain records to demonstrate compliance with their obligations under the regulatory arrangements. And having far review records can help you demonstrate that as well. So you're taking those steps to say yes, we have checked these files. Yes, something might have gone wrong, but it might be an anomaly. Or we can disprove what has happened or this is something that's completely out of the norm. Because we can normally see that in this situation, we've got all of these file review records to demonstrate how well managed and how well run the firm has been. And sometimes you can't possibly cover every eventuality. So sometimes something will slip through the net. But if you've got systems and controls in place to demonstrate that you called other things, for example, those things have been well managed. This is more likely to demonstrate that, you know, generally speaking, the farmhouse complied. So, um, it also goes on to say you remain accountable for compliance with the regulatory arrangements where your work is carried out through others, including managers and those of your employer contractor. So, if you have somebody coming in doing work on a temporary basis for you and they're doing fear only work again, having that far review arrangements in place does allow you to demonstrate that what it says is you identify monitor and manage or material risk your business, including those which may arise from connected practices. And again, having that feedback mechanism through file with you in that does help you meet that as well. In some of these instances there's going to need to be other systems and controls in place in order to support what your file reviews are telling you. However, it does give you that confidence that that that process and procedure. Is there. Now, generally speaking, a file review system sometimes in some form stands alone. Now it might be the responsibility of the coffer, it might be the responsibility of the line manager. It might be something that's undertaken by Technical Advisor. What I generally advocate is for people to work together so that the file review system, for example, if you look in your notes, it can be used by the coffer to spot anything unusual in the account. So having a look as an account check to go through and underpin what's happening in the accounts and then the files that are identified from that passed across to the coffer to have a look at a legal review. Is there any legal reason why this accounting anomaly has arisen? For example, what's happening in respect of this file and how does this operate? Now? That's not the only basis for selecting files. But sometimes these things can work together so become supportive system. You might also have for example, a money laundering reporting officer selecting files out where there's been issues or concerns where somebody's made a report, it can be appropriate or to select them on a random basis to make sure there are there people are following the requirements appropriately to make sure that there aren't any warning flags. For example, all of those things being picked up. You might also have somebody who's in charge of complaints and that might be separate to the firm in the way some of you might remember the old full 15 partner I do back in the day, I'm getting a bit older now, so it's something where um those people may still be imposed or you may have a tradition of that within your firm or you may have somebody specifically responsible for complaints and again, they may be pulling those files as well and passing that information on in order for a file of you to be undertaken by different members of the team with different responsibilities or with different hats on allows people to demonstrate that you've managed potential other risks in other areas as well. So anything where you can pass it on to another person and say actually we underwrite this in a multiple different ways by passing that information between different role holders within the firm and we exchange information and we support and we make management based decisions in respect of that. So your father view system can work in an interconnected basis if you pass it on to somebody else where there's been a problem and ask them to conduct a review from a completely different angle, let's have a look at what the council for license convergences require, their management supervision and arrangements. Code says you should have appropriate arrangements, resources, procedures and skills and commitment in place to ensure clients always receive a high standard of service. So if you're checking off on your farm review, for example, people have received their card care letter, the requirements relating to transparency have been met. You've explained to them the information relating to their privacy notice and how you can handle their data. You've explained to them how you're going to deal with their identity documents and why you require them. You've explained all of these things to them. Then it gives you the opportunity to say yes, we think we are providing it an appropriate standard of service a later file review conducted by somebody might look to make sure the matter has been progressed appropriately, that there hasn't been any delays, it's been progressed in a timely fashion. Somebody else might have a look to say. Actually, we just need to make sure that the quality of advice has been appropriate and all angles have been considered in respect of this so far abuse can help you tackle that and demonstrate it in different ways and it allows you to demonstrate the next requirement, appropriate management and supervision arrangements, help you to deliver these outcomes and require you to act in a principled way. It requires you to maintain a high standard of work which again, can be supported and we talked about learning and feedback mechanism that is there in respect of the file reviews and how you can use that within your firm to target that. You ensure individuals within the entity and competent to do their work. And again, you're going to get a lot of information if you're doing a lot of file reviews about somebody particularly somebody who's new or their contractor within your firm, those kinds of things really are going to get a lot of feedback from doing the file reviews to say actually, yes, we do think this person is competent or no, we don't. And you will spot those issues within the files. You supervise and regular check and again that file of you is a regular check that's happening there. And you regularly check the quality of working client matters. You systematically identify and mitigate risk to the business and declines and if you've got that supportive system that we're talking about, if you've identified a risk in one area, you can pass it on to the next person to the money laundering, reporting officer to the cop to have a look at this and do your checks and see whether or not there's anything there that we can pick up on. And is there anything there that's going to cause some kind of issue in respect of this. So allows you, there might be other people within that circle that I joined the last slide that need to be involved as well. So, for example, anybody who deals with negligent claims, for example, it might be if we're thinking about the coffee and not just thinking about the accounts from an accounting perspective, but also thinking about business shops and viability. Is there potentially large claim that we need to think about that needs to be accounted for as well. So how are we dealing with that? And what does that look like? Is there somebody within the firm who's dealing with the way in which the presser are working and how that looks and operates the publicity that the firm is getting if there's any regulatory decisions that are going to be made house operating and thinking about making sure that you're dealing with the risk to the business, but also within your follow your detail form views, you're going to be actively managed the risks of clients as well. So far, reviews are a great tool that allow you to meet lots of different regulatory arrangements and demonstrate that that might need to be supported by other systems and controls within your firm. So, let's have a look at the requirements under Excel relating to file reviews. The first one is practices must have a procedure to ensure that all those doing legal work, check their files regularly in activity. The 2nd 15 11 practices must have a procedure for regular independent file reviews of either the management of the file or its substantive legal content or both. In relation to file views practices must define and explain. File review selection criteria, define and explain the number and frequency of reviews, retain a record of the file review on the matter file and centrally ensure any corrective action which is identified in the file review is acted upon within 28 days and verified, ensure that the designated supervisor reviews and monitors the data generated by fire, reviews and conduct a review at least annually of the data generated by file reviews. Now bear this in mind when you're dealing with your file reviews, just be aware of particularly the first point there where it says divine and explain file selection criteria, how you define the files in which you're choosing. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that. But also what it says there in terms of practices must have a procedure for regular independent file reviews either of the management of the file first point or secondly, its substantive legal content or both. Now, the file review pack that's provided in your notes covers a myriad of different options for file reviews. Some of those will be suitable for lexa will and some won't. And what I've tried to do in respect of that is mark those up as to whether you would be able to use them or not in terms of the management of the file and how that operates and looks. So there there is an opportunity there for you to separate those two ideas out that being the management of a file and the way in which is conducted and the role of a manager might different to that of the role of a technical advisor, a technical manager and somebody with that legal knowledge wouldn't necessarily be a manager and vice versa. So Alexa willie is separating those two things out in respect of that. There's also pull out some other points there in respect of that, define and explain the file review selection criteria. We're going to talk about a little bit more about that in a minute, define and explain the number of frequency reviews and there is guidance related to that on the next slide which will come onto make sure you retain a record of the file review on the matter file but also centrally as well and go through and think about corrective action. This needs to be followed up and it's really important from the lexical standing point of view, you're going back and checking that that's been followed up so it can be a very time intensive process to conduct these file reviews and follow it all up and ensure that designated supervisor. So bringing that information back in to the person doing the management and saying, you know, thinking about that to say um you know, you have to make sure that you're checking that regularly and we're seeing that data and that management is being conducted of that individual and then taking that and doing an analysis of the data generated. Are we seeing any particular problems, what the trends that we're seeing and how can we manage those overall? And that should be done on an annual basis. Now, let's have a look at the Excel guidance. We're going to talk a little bit about their seek us standard in a minute and you'll see that the requirements and the guidance of almost the same in relation to that. So what the Excel guidance says is the file selection criteria should set out the reasoning behind why and how files are selected for review. So this supports the requirement. The standard that were set out in the previous slide when defining the file selection criteria is appropriate to consider the following. How to select a representative sample of the Fiona's files. Whether files should be selected randomly. If the Fiona is managing high risk matters, then whether those files should be reviewed more frequently. Whether to select files based on activity or lack of activity and how that sort of looks and we'll talk about the different ways in which you can select files. But if you're compliant with the lexical standard, do always bearing one, the rest of this webinar focusing on lots of different requirements. You have to come back to the lexx L standard or to the CQ standard. If that's what you're complying with and make sure those requirements are specifically met. Um weather files, Whether the files which are selected a different station completion should be thought about. Okay. So you should be thinking about selecting files at different points in order to see how those files are being progressed. And what it's saying is about the issue there in respect to 5.11 C, which is retained a record of the file view on the matter file. And centrally the requirement is not that the 45 will be held on the matter file but rather that it be apparent from the file and that has been that it's been reviewed. So there should be something on the file say that it's been reviewed overall and what they're going to say is increasingly common to have a central record of file reviews. And so this might be on the computer system, for example, increasingly common for firms to have those types of more sophisticated systems nowadays in order to maintain that um and what they say is this will be compliant provided that its power from the man to file that has been subject to a file review and that the outcome of the file review can be easily traced. Now, as I've already said within lexical, there's lots of different requirements for the kinds of things that should always be on files and I've put a separate file review form within your pack in order for you to be able to check that um you know that go through the files to make sure that they're meeting the standard and that will be the lexical 6.1 which is the current standard as at April 2019. Let's have a look at the conveyancing quality standard um and again very similar to the lexx L practices must have a procedure for regular independent fire views of both the management far and its substantive legal content. And so this goes further than what's in the Excel. It does say it must have a procedure and it says you have to have both management and substantive legal content in relation to file views practices must define and explain file selection criteria, define and explain the number of frequency of reviews, retain a record of the file review on the matter file and centrally and ensure any corrective action which is identified in the file view is acted upon within 28 days and is verified. Were also saying, ensure that the designated supervisor reviews and monitors the data generated by far reviews and conduct a review at least annually of the of the data generated so against is very similar to what's in the Excel standard. And going through there we've got 28 days um corrective action. We've got thinking about making sure that you're thinking about for review selection criteria and how they're being dealt with and defining and explaining the number and frequency of reviews. So what you need to have is a policy or procedure in place in order to deal with regular independent reviews. The seek us guidance is almost word for word the same as Alexa will guidance. And so I'm not going to read that to you. I'm just going to pick out the one of a couple of important points there and one of those that were going to touch on a little while is that you have to select a representative sample or to consider. It says when defining the file selective selection criteria. It's appropriate to consider the following how to select a representative sample of the Fiona's files. And so thinking about that, how are you going to select a representative sample? This is quite a complicated process and if we do it in a true representative sample size that can be quite a lot of files and we'll talk about that more later on in the webinar. And so what we've seen so far from both the lexical standard and also from the U. S. Standard is the need to have a procedure in place specifically related to far reviews. Now that's not necessarily covered in respect of the requirements in the account of licensed conveniences and also the requirements in the S. R. A. Which are more flexible in the in the way in which they set out governance arrangements. However, what have done is specified that within your notes, the kinds of things that should be covered within any procedure that you put in place and so that is contained within the notes that company, these webinars and that's then supported by all those different example file reviews that you can use to put into place just being aware that if you're doing something related to lex l seek us, you need to have that specific procedure in place that covers all of those points. And so some of those ideas are expanded on and gone through further within your notes. So when we're talking about risk management and this has been highlighted by a number of different things and it should also be borne in mind that yes, it's highlighted by the S. R A. Yes, it's highlighted by the C R C. But also risk management is also part and parcel of what's required by AML and also mentioned within the lexical standard and also pulled out there in quite a bit of detail in terms of, you know, having those requirements in place. Now, I'm not going to go into detail in terms of what for example, the lexical standard says in terms of risk management because we would be here all day talking about how far reviews can help you meet lots of different parts of those policies and procedures and how you can use file reviews in different ways as such, a powerful tool that you can put into practice but they can help you manage lots of different uh situations, for example, your financial position. If you've got some particularly large files going through that are going to earn you lots of money in respect of how they're being built and what they're looking at. It's important potentially that those ones get reviewed so you might use it to support your financial position. Do we think this case is going to conclude in the right way? Our bill is definitely going to be paid? Is there anything that's put in that situation at risk at all? So, using the file review procedure potentially to support your business viability in your financial position could be a good use of time and a good investment, making sure that people are supplying quality advice. So this helps prevent negligence claims. And if you're doing file reviews regularly on your members of stuff, this is going to help reduce the number of negligence claims that come in because that quality of advice will be checked, particularly if you've got somebody who's a real expert in an area calling on that is going to be important. Looking at business continuity and how that's being dealt with. So, again, thinking about and supporting, using the following process to support that in different ways. Do we have anybody who is going to, for example, not do well in their appraisal because of the we might have picked that up from a file review procedure and that allows us then to plan how that person is going to be supported. But what knock on impact does that have in terms of staff arrangements so far? All the views are important for gaining that intelligence and thinking about him. But also if we have temporary staff and contractors come in and we made an arrangement to do so, we're going to need to have file reviews in place in order to support that and make sure they're doing their roles and delivering their roles effectively as well. It allows us to manage human risk. And sometimes this human risk can be the risk of people doing something malicious or the risk that, you know, we're just all human beings and sometimes we make mistakes. So it allows us to manage those mistakes appropriately. It allows us to deal with technological risks as well. So we might see warning signs of cyber crime, for example. We might see warning signs that email addresses have been hacked. Sometimes having an independent pair of eyes or something allows us to deal with the situation that is a little bit unusual. But perhaps that person hasn't picked up on, they've maybe been put under pressure in different ways. Taking an independent pair of eyes can help us ray that situation. And also, if we have paper baseball review system sometimes as well, we've got a full record of what's on the file. So we might be in a situation where we might have been reliant, for example, and things being checked off on the system. Are those things subject to any manipulation and if so, what does that look like? Can somebody manipulate the computer system in order to ensure those things have been ticked off when actually they haven't. So an independent review allows us to see whether some of these things have been circumvented. It allows us to think about physical risk and to manage that as well. And you'll see there's a management file review form that sits within the following reforms that are supporting this webinar that you can go away and practically use with in your firms. And that one of those questions asked is how's this bargain stored correctly? Have we got any physical documents that belonged to the client? Do they need to be returned? For example, allows us to double check these situations, make sure everything's in the right place before something gets our kind, for example. And it allows us to do that and to make sure that we're going through the right process is in respect of all of our physical files. If you're getting files out from storage and considering for destruction, Do you need to do a file review in that situation or can your file review that gets pinned onto the front of the page. Can that assist? We're giving you comments in respect of what's contained in the file and how that works and operates? So that can also provide a useful option. Now, in terms of the physical risk to the file, we might also want to make sure that Fiona's are storing files correctly. Okay, So they're not, for example, being left on window sills where people can look in through the window and their confidentiality might have been breached. There's lots of different ways in which we can see. There can be physical risk of ours. We want to make sure that they're stored correctly and that can be checked off as well within a management file review, we can think about external shocks to the business and how that could be met and dealt with if we've got a competitor coming up in the area to offer our views demonstrate that there might be a challenge to us from that. I'll be seeing different things from different clients, how does that work and operate? And it allows us to provide an external point of view of what we're seeing, the quality of the advice we're providing and we're vulnerable in a particular area and how does that work and operate. And also, again, making looking at that financial position of the firm overall. It definitely also allows us to manage the risk to clients and make sure that we're maintaining that trust and confidence and also any fiduciary position as well in respect of client money is held. So allows us to provide that independent review to ensure those risk to clients. The risk client money for example, and the risk of the quality of advice are all being managed and that that can be demonstrated so from a risk management perspective for review is an extremely useful risk management tool. Now when we're talking about lexa will seek us and other standards such as um I. S. O. Standards, there can be an emphasis on continuous improvement. So conducting file of you and giving the feedback to the Fiona individually on that particular file, but that can be used to improve process at that point in time. But also there's that opportunity to do and the requirement in some standards to do that annual review. So you're taking all of that data that's come all of those central records. And you're saying how often as the issue come up that we've seen on this file, is there a pattern or a trend? And is this something that we need to think about as the firm overall and it gives us that opportunity to tackle it or not? For example, having negligence claims, we can't be criticized for the quality of the work and standard of service or we're not ending up with a material or serious breach that needs to be reported in respect. Something that gives us that opportunity to tackle it and put it right. And you remember that the S. O. Is interested in systems controls governance and all of these things can be put in place to say, actually we have got a system in place allows us to tackle these things and put them right And also we'll spot it if there's a pattern and we'll tackle that pattern and the S. O. A. Thinking about dealing with issues such as ours, remedial action being undertaken evidence the firm has put in place systems and procedures to put things right. All of that helps when dealing with these situations. So it gives that feedback into the process. Um So feedback can take lots of different forms and you can use it to improve the process and then evaluate that if you want to or it can be for example advice into a team and then you go back and you monitor your file reviews subsequently in order to ensure that that advice has been followed through and those things been dealt with in a new way. There's lots of opportunities to demonstrate continuous improvement. Now let's move on to talking about sampling and you remember that both Alexa and seek us have specific requirements there for thinking about conducting a representative sample, what the wording is is thinking about how to conduct a representative sample. But also in addition to that they've got to think about the kinds and types of files are going to be selected and how they be selected. They also suggest that you need to conduct a respectable excel. You should conduct either something relating to the management of the file or the quality of advice and respective seek us. They require both the management of the file and the quality of advice. So you can do lots of different types of farm of you and you might for example have somebody quite senior within your team doing the who's quite experienced with that knowledge, that technical knowledge, doing your quality of advice. Now you need to make sure that's an appropriate person doing that and they have got that experience and knowledge in order to do it. So quality of advice is something can be tackled from your from your perspective in terms of that and within the file of reforms that are giving you, their very much got compliance angle because they are very much about my background as a regulator, former regulator and as a compliance consultant. Now, individual solicitors will be able to construct right down the different elements of the transaction and say all the different things that they would take into account in respect of that at any one time. People can pull those things out in order then to create a file review form for you to go and maybe put tick boxes next to it if it needs comments, has this been done appropriate? What else we've done in respect to this and that can then be the basis of your father review for. So you definitely need one on quality of advice and what I've given, There are the basis therefore compliance or management related file, few forms or ones where you can combine the two of them together and all you're doing is tailoring that form to add in your aspects of quality of advice either before afterwards or you can come up with your own relating to quality of advice. So those forms are there there are specifically related broadly to compliance issues, including in different areas of law that you can put in place. There's also you can also do a management file review as well. So that is really thinking about the file stored, for example, what is this? Has the file been progressed appropriately? Have our relationships with other people been approach, have any referral fee has been paid in accordance with arrangements? Is there any evidence of undue influence from the outside? Is there anything that poses a risk to our business viability, for example, a large complaint or negligence claim, how does this work and operate for us as a business? Are there any reputational issues and impact? So there's lots of different things that we can consider on fire reviews overall. We can do hot versus cold review. So some can be hot. So those are files that are going at the moment where we've got the opportunity to tackle an issue and we can put it right now, sometimes this can be a challenge the Vienna involved and even to the case strategy that's being pursued However, being brave about that and if it's an agreement with everyone can change the course of something and can help prevent complaints. For example it can help prevent bad advice being given overall. But care needs to be taken to make sure that is the right course of action. Cold file review is something where a file has been closed and completed. And you remember from that, let's sell guidance, seek us guidance that there can be an opportunity to take file reviews throughout the process. So you're capturing the two of them. So you might take an example where you say we're going to do a certain number of file reviews relating to the quality of advice. We're going to do a certain number of reviews relating to compliance issues. We're going to do a certain number of file reviews relating to open files and a certain number of file views relating to closed files or different stages within the process. You might have random file reviews in supplementing that as well so that you then say and certain will be random or just pick down the list of reasons open and recently closed, put them all into an Excel spreadsheet and go down the list at random in order to ensure that the sample that you're doing is actually fair. You know you by doing something random where you're going to pick out something that you haven't necessarily considered before. You can also use the accounts to sample as well. So as I've said and there are forms in there that allow you to check the account, allow you to pull something out from the accounts and then spot anything unusual and refer that across. So that can also be a method of sampling as well. You can then use that to cross refer between coffer. As I said, the different points within the process to ensure that you're mitigating risks overall. You can ask for a file views on any faults where there have been complaints, where they've been claims, where anything is particularly high risk. So if you've got a lot of fees riding on a particular file or if there is a high risk of money laundering, if there's something that's particularly sensitive and confidential, if there is something where the quality of advice is going to have to be first class because this is a very complex and unusual matter. Do you want another pair of eyes on that and an independent review being done with that? So anything at all like that might be appropriate for it to be reviewed and to build into that procedure where you've got a new start or somebody who's been placed under supervision for whatever reason, increasing their file reviews or having more file reviews relating to that person is highly likely to be appropriate in order that they have the appropriate support within their role. You can also have any other warning flags that come up where there might be a serious breach, for example, where there might be money laundering anything at all where any fruit has been reported bringing that back in again or there's any warning flags that can be an indicator that a father of you may need to be undertaken. If somebody goes away on holiday, it can be an opportunity to have a look at their files. And some firms do institute mandatory holidays in order that you minimize that human risk and you minimize the risk of somebody doing something wrong. So it gives you the opportunity then to somebody else to have a look at those files and for that person to be away from the office when they do that and somebody else take those things on and have a look. And this can also be an opportunity to do far reviews as well. To minimize that human risk of, for example, theft, for example or something malicious happening. If you have a lack of activity on a farm for a long period of time, you might be able to pick that out from your computer system. There are different things that you might be able to pick out as risk factors and you might be able to pull those out for five reviews all. Don't forget to countenance some of that. There's some random ones as well just to see and make sure that you're not just picking on the ones where there looks like there's something unusual and there might be fire was being run in a way where they're not going to be picked. So there can be two sides to the coin. So do some random ones as well. Now let's move on to thinking about representative sample size within your notes. I've put a link to bristol university sample size calculator which is a good sample size calculator and it works in lex L and it's easy to use. It's not internet based, you can download it and keep using it represents example is required by lex cell and also by seek us. Some people over time might have come to an agreement with their lexical access er about how many files need to be sampled and the way in which you put that into process technically a representative sample is one that reflects and meets a degree of confidence and has a degree of confidence interval. Your insurer might also have requirements for sample size as well as to how that's being delivered. Now sample size if you do it correctly, mathematically can be a large amount of files. So a representative sample size of 30 can come out. You know, if you have a story, a representative sample of a population of 30 can come out at 28 depending on how you calculate it and the confidence in the book that you want but also the expected incidence of something going wrong in respect of something. Now if you do a lot of samples of somebody's work. For example if you do a lot of file reviews in the beginning of somebody's work and then you find that actually they're expected incidence of something going wrong is quite small. So for example, there are part of the very experience, you can alter that within your sample size calculator and this can bring down the number of file views required quite significantly. So um this then gives you that opportunity to look at whether or not something is likely to go on with somebody's files according to their experience and that brings that down appropriately and allows you to set the confidence interval do you want accordingly as well. Now, if you'd like to narrow the field and bring that down, there are different ways in which you can um stratify your sample so pick out anything unusual. Um and so you might for example take the accounts as being an example, complaints, negligence, those constants we pick up on all of these things to increase our confidence that we're picking up on different situations that going on within the firm. You can also encompass, encompass any check at all that's going on. So it might be a coffer review that happens in respect of firm to make sure the accounts being managed appropriately, there might be a part and parcel of the overall accounts check, It might be a review by another team member to think about the quality of advice or the management file, it might be an opportunity to take some advice from compliance or from management. So if you have to give your file over to compliance team, all over two, a partner to have some advice on what to do next. In particularly complex situation. For example, if you've got a conflict of interest, you have to take the file for advice. Somebody has a look at it, they can at the same time fill out the fire of evil. Okay. So it all builds into the process and taking the opportunity to do your file reviews whenever you can always gives you that opportunity then to make sure that you're meeting those far review requirements of Excel and seek us. Some firms meet them by every file being checked in some way or another by another team member. And this can be at different stages in the process and by many review or four review because the file is being passed on to another person at that point in the process. So those files are being checked at that point in time. So if you have any of those aspects within your service, that also counts towards building in that representative sample and lowering your risk, make sure that you're encompassing all of this within your policy if you're dealing with Excel and seek us and also record that a file that has taken place but also that that century held and using that feedback to build back into the process. Um so you can do whatever you like with that, that sample size calculator and use it in different ways to think about your confidence intervals, how that works and operates. You don't have to use that necessarily though. It can be lots of different ways in which you can think about sampling size and that's just one example. So the farm reviews that are contained within your information, packing notes that come with this contain lots of different information. So for example, there are cult file views, calculated file reviews. There are general file views. There are coffer reviews. There is also a management section which relates to a monthly check that can be undertaken my coffee and an annual accounts check that will pull out anything unusual at all. And it will allow you that management review of the account of a particular file. And then from that you can build that across to a cult with your money laundering, reporting officer review or a complaint of you to say what's happened in this particular space. And of course any time that these things are coming someone's attention, I would recommend doing some form of file review in order that you're meeting your targets. Because sometimes these things get done. You get advice from compliance. For example, you might get advice from partner. You might get advice for somebody dealing with complaints. You might get advice from the Cold War, the coffer, but they're not always doing the file review at the same time. And it might be a case where they could very quickly fill out that form? Review form and then you've got that record there. It's been done and it's been dealt with and that counts towards that amount has been done for excel. So sometimes you'll be in that situation where you're duplicating the work that's already been done. You can also use a combination of reviews and do many reviews of certain things as well. Just be careful when you're doing that though to make sure you're still meeting the requirements of lex l So bringing that across to say, we're actually going to think about all of these different parts within a review can be useful. But do you remember that you need to do both? A substantive legal advice with you. And also a management review as well. There's an example, management review within their but do take the opportunity to build your own and think about the kinds of things within your policies and procedures that you want to see on the file. So you can take your office manual and build that in order to build in the kinds of things that you expect to see within the file. For example, if you have down the side of the fire some people do where they have to fill in key dates for example and this is required and Alexa will you might use your key dates in order to build your father if you form so to say has this statement that the stages in the process and they're often linked to those key dates and have they been achieved. But also what's the advice given that these different times has the former being appropriate? Has the action of the fear and have been appropriate in respect of all of those things. And then within that within your pack, you've also got some different file reviews relating to different areas of law. Now I can't give legal advice so I can't structure those file reviews in order to build in the kinds of things that you might like to see in particular areas of law because that in my opinion would amount to giving legal advice about the kinds of things that you would expect to see on any particular. However, I can highlight compliance related issues that you might want to pick out and build into a file review process. So where those related particular areas of law, I've built that in as well and you could use that to then say, okay, we'll supplement that with a review of the quality of advice and the stages in the process. Have they been dealt with appropriately overall. So you need to make sure that you're considering both compliance angle and also quality of appliance. There's also Alexa, all five of you in there that encompasses all of the different requirements and Alexa will and making sure that they've been dealt with. Now you can mix and match that Excel file review isn't there to meet all of the requirements of Alexa within the file review process. Although it does tell you what lexa will expect to see on each file. Hope that makes sense. What you you need to do is work that in combination with other file reviews in order to make sure that you're doing that appropriately. However, there's lots of different examples in there. Take the bits out that you like from each of those forms and build your own ad the things in from your from your policies and procedures to the things that you would expect to see. Okay so write your own and use the father views that are there. You use them you know, lots of different ones of them across the phone or use them individually in order to tailor yourself support what you're doing? Um you know to have that practical application within the firm. Let's think about what happens now in respect of feedback and how that should be delivered. Now this is an important part of for you. So making sure that the person who is delivering the feedback that your um that you know that you're getting has sufficient seniority, has sufficient knowledge in order to be able to do that and it's credible with the person. Are they appropriately qualified in order to give that person feedback? But are they appropriately qualified to have done the file review and got to the correct conclusion in the first place. So that person has to understand and trust that person's knowledge and have to understand that that person can deal with the situation as they arise. Okay. So you need to think about, as we've said, seniority or perceived seniority and expertise of the person delivering it and making sure that a person is delivering that follow view is important. It's a bit like saying, making sure that the cold and coffer have sufficient. Um, it's a bit like saying, making sure that cold and coffer have sufficient seniority and influence within the organization in order to perform their role. There is a requirement there that somebody doing that far review form if you wanted to contribute to issues of risk management. If you wanted to contribute to issues of maintaining honesty and integrity and be part of part of investigatory functions within the firm that that person has the knowledge to deliver, that has the credibility to deliver that and would be viewed so independently. There wouldn't be necessarily grumbles from that person doing it. Person must have all of those things, Otherwise it could call into question the whole thing and also whether that person was appropriately equipped to do what they were doing. So let's think about seniority and their knowledge and their experience, the person conducting the farm, you should normally be the person delivering the feedback. However, sometimes there can be challenges around this, around people working part time, for example, and you might have people working together if they know each other well and they understand for example what somebody's written notes me, then that's something where somebody can deliver that feedback on their behalf. Um in terms of delivering the feedback, sometimes people might need support in in doing that. If they've only just started on that delivering feedback journey by having a calm demeanor can be important in in these situations and ensure that the person who you're giving the feedback to understands the, understand the file review process has had it explained to them and they might need to have it explained to them before, but they also might need to have it explained to them when that person is giving the feedback and understands why that person is going to involve you and what it is, that person can contribute to the situation overall. It's important in a situation where sometimes people are being given negatively back or they're not happy about feedback. Sometimes that reaction can be negative, they might need support from the manager and have the confidence that the person delivering the feedback has the confidence of the management in doing so, and also has the support of the management in doing so. Being aware that delivering feedback on the far review basis can be very different to having a managerial role in relation to something. And sometimes those two roles can be confused and sometimes it might be a management file review that's been done on a farm, in which case that person has the authority to do that. If they're the manager of that particular person, otherwise there can be some challenge and push back. In respect of that. I would always advocate taking as much time as a person seeing the feedback required. Um my basis for delivering feedback over many years of doing so many, many, many years of final view through a large amount of my career. Starting all the way back with the Legal Services Commission is really just a where people down with politeness and say yes, I have done this. Well of you. There are reasons why I've been doing this, you know, have been trained to do it. And these are the points I've picked up and I'd like your agreement, you know, and giving that person as much respect as necessary and to say that I do understand where you're coming from. I do understand, you know, your seniority in this situation and how that relationship between the two of us works. However, I would like your agreement just to act on these points for me because I have these obligations and compliance to meet. We both have these obligations and compliance me. And it's about listening to that feedback when it comes back as well. So if that person has any objections, then feel free to make them to me because I am in a situation where I'm going to listen and take on board what you've got to say. And if I can I will help you respect that. However, there might be situations in which I have to enforce the policies or policies to regulate or somebody else in respect of that. It's important also to understand the basis of which the file has been selected and also any consistency that you can explain to somebody in respect of that. And if there is any particular situation in which somebody is having extra files will be, for example, that might need to come from somebody with authority in order to ensure that credibility is there. So there's not that pushback mechanism within the firm isn't important to stay calm and sometimes just to reiterate the point in different ways and perhaps using different language will help you get your point across in different ways. I have also been in a situation where I have practiced file reviews, delivering photography feedback with other people who are willing volunteers to help me do so. And I've had that videoed. Um, and sometimes this can be useful. So you observe yourself and so say what you need to do in this particular situation. So, for example, common feedback for me was you need to improve your confidence in delivering that feedback. Someone you're very quiet when you're doing it. So these are the kinds of things that can come out. Somebody else might be more direct in the way that they deliver the feedback and might need to give the other person more time in order to process that feedback and give any comments and observations. I've also been in a situation where there's been a kind of computer says no sort of situation when I've been given feedback. And also I've seen it with other people and people have complained about it as well. And when I was first trained as an inspector, this was one of the things we were told to be aware of when we were giving feedback to people when we've done this for a process. So just taking the opportunity to listen to somebody and not, you know, seeking recourse from a manager, an independent third party and having respect to that person to do so can also help generate goodwill within the process as well, so that somebody else can come in and intervene and say actually on a review of this situation, I'm going to come down on this particular side. This is the remedial action that we're going to put forward and having the confidence to be able to do that as the far of you knowing where to go and who else we can go to to ask for another opinion is also a powerful tool as well. So this process is consistent. This process is fair being done fairly and we'll listen to that feedback. And if we think that there's remedial action to be undertaken and that could be undertaken in the most appropriate way. Now. hopefully if somebody is extremely experienced, there wouldn't necessarily be that need to do their fire reviews in the, in the same particular way. And also just to emphasize that this can be supported by corporate communication as well. So if you're a senior manager within the law for your thinking about bringing in a file review system, you know, communicating that in a corporate way from the top and I'm going to support this is not personal feed, it's required to ensure that we're delivering advice in this particular way or that we get the quality standard or that we um you know, do this because we needed to win the tenders to bring the work and all of these are legitimate business reasons to allow people to say this isn't personal feedback, you know, something designed specifically to have a go, it's something where you are there giving that feedback something that's got a wider business reason and this needs to be put right in order to do that. I personally advocate given personal feedback. People are taking as much time as they need in order to build that relationship and goodwill for later. But you can also give feedback by video link. For example, you could give feedback by email if you've got to know somebody over a period of time. You could do it over the telephone, however, works and supports you in doing that. But at the beginning point of delivering all feedback or instituting a new file review process or doing it with somebody new for the first time, I would always sit down and explain to them in detail why it was being done and what kinds of things being looked at, make sure they've seen the file review for and understand how the files have been sampled in order to for them to understand what the overarching objectives are in relation to file review and how that's been put in place and that they will be supported in respect of that. So all of those things hopefully can contribute to that. But if there's somebody that wants to have that learning in terms of providing feedback, I do think videoing somebody providing feedback to somebody else, our willing volunteer in order to learn from. That can also be a useful experience. And that can also be something that if that person is, you know, willing can also be something where that person gets some feedback themselves on delivering feedback and that can help everybody realize that this is a learning opportunity for everybody and a growth opportunity for everybody overall. So that brings us to the end of the session. Let's have a look at what we've looked at today and what I want you to do in respect to this webinar is to go away and have a look at the path that comes with it now that is absolutely full of information relating to file reviews, talks about things that you require in respect of your policy but also in addition to that, there's lots of example file reviews for you to use within that within your firm. As I said, take those file review forms, tailor them to your own policies and procedures. See if you can use them within your firm in order to achieve the goals that you want to achieve overall. Just be aware that if you're dealing with lex, I'll and seek us, you have to do a legal quality advice with you and I advocate that generally in order to demonstrate your meeting those requirements, those principles and the standards and regulations. The same with the clc as well. And also that you are looking at and thinking about the quality of advice and standard of service that's provided to clients. So let's think about what we've covered. We've looked at why we should conduct file reviews. The reasoning behind that. Some of their good reasons why far reviews can be useful within our firm. We've looked at far review requirements or things that have been met by, you know, the different governance arrangements, the different requirements that are in there that can be met by conducting file reviews. And we need to remember that just because there's a change in november doesn't mean that the S. R way want to stop seeing professional behavior of law firms that we can all benefit from conducting. File reviews overall. And this can help us meet and demonstrate our obligations of having appropriate systems and controls in place from around um you know from lots of different angles and pulling that in um you know that information and using that feedback into our processes is useful for law firms to be doing far reviews in those particular ways. So far reviews are something that, you know, it's a really useful tool for meeting lots of those requirements, even if they're not explicitly required by the S. R. A. And the CRC, there's still part parcel of what we would expect to see within a professionally run firm for most people. However, the new standards and regulations do give you that freedom as to how you're practicing and how you set your business up. So there can be some different ways of doing it. For example computerized system that gives you that feedback in different ways. So we've looked at five review requirements and how it can help you meet compliance regulation um and different quality standards. And we've specifically looked at lexa will seek us. We've also looked at how it can help you conduct investigations as well in the various different investigative capacities that can be assisted by conducting a file review. We've thought about five reviews as a function of risk management and there's so much out there where you're required to have risk management in place and you know file reviews can be a real assistant and contributory support in terms of that. We've looked at the idea that you can have different types of file reviews and how they can be pulled so you can have a compliance review and management, file viewer quality of advice for you, you can have a file review of an open file, a file review are closed by a review of a complaint file. There's lots of different types of file reviews that are out there and within the notes that support the we've got some examples. There are different types of file views and the kinds of things that you might look at on a file review. Those are also linked into areas of law but very compliance oriented and what you'll need to do as I've emphasized throughout this session if you want is to build in your own area of law in relation to that to have a think about what's there and you might want to tailor what's there or take different aspects of the forms. Taylor, what's there to what you require overall. Okay. There are also different requirements for thinking about the firm's responsibility in terms of file views. We can also link into cold and cough and we've seen some examples and I've put some information in your notes in respect of the new requirements for cults and coffins as well and how you could use a file review system to support some of that. There are other requirements as well. It wouldn't just be those things that wouldn't necessarily provide a complete defense. However, um, it might go some way towards demonstrating you're thinking about having in place those systems and controls. We've talked about giving feedback as well and just drawing on some of my own experience in terms of giving feedback and what's useful and not useful in terms of that. And also ensuring that the people delivering that file view in order to have that credibility with the regulator to provide the appropriate advice and pull out those things need to have that technical knowledge themselves. So it's important to think about that when you're selecting your file review process, who's going to be nominated in order to do the follow views and how is that going to be supported? So that's what we've covered today. What I'd like you to do now is there's a short quiz and so complete that but then go away and have a look at the notes that company this course for further information about what should be included and brought about in any policy and procedure as recommended. Also there's lots of those file reviews and there's a link to the useful links section. There's a link to that sample size calculator that we talked about from bristol University that that's in Excel as well. I hope that's all helpful and practical for you to take away and implement within your firm. Thank you for watching
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