ByLawyers News and Updates

Supervised legal practice – A new podcast from By Lawyers and LEAP

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Many small firms have lawyers on the team who are still in their first two years of practice and therefore subject to a condition on their practising certificate that they may only engage in supervised legal practice.

Join our Senior Consultant and Editor Brad Watts and LEAP National Marketing Manager Claire James for a discussion on the ways in which proper supervision is important for both the firm and for junior lawyers and how it can be an essential element of running a successful small law firm, as a means to ensure delivery of high quality client outcomes and a vital risk management tool.

The President of the NSW Law Society recently highlighted the importance of senior practitioners meeting their supervisory obligations to junior practitioners who are subject to the restriction of supervised legal practice in their first 2 years. This podcast discusses the factors which impact – and sometimes impede – proper supervision in small legal practices and how the By Lawyers guides and precedents can help firms comply with their supervision requirements.

The podcast covers the general supervision requirements and also looks at some specific By Lawyers precedents which can assist firms with their supervision obligations, such as Retainer Instructions and To Do lists.

Oh, and with some help from John Grisham, we also learn why Australian lawyers are better than American lawyers!

 

Providing feedback to By Lawyers

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At By Lawyers we love to receive feedback from our subscribers. We are available via email: askus@bylawyers.com.au.

We always respond promptly to issues or suggestions about our guides and precedents.

For LEAP users there are two additional ways to provide feedback:

  • When in a LEAP matter, in the top right hand corner of the screen there is a blue Question Mark icon. Clicking on it reveals a drop-down box for the LEAP Community pages – one of these is ‘Help, support and feedback’.
  • When using any precedent in LEAP, there is  always a ‘Provide Feedback’ button in the ribbon at the top of the document, next to ‘Save to matter as PDF’. This opens to a feedback form where any issues or suggestions regarding the precedent can be provided. Where such feedback relates to a By Lawyers precedent, LEAP send it on to us and we will always address it promptly, directly with the user.

By Lawyers have often introduced new precedents or enhanced our commentaries as a result of subscriber suggestions. Whenever we see a need for the proposed additions or amendments we are happy to oblige, so as to benefit not only the firm that made the request but all of our other users as well. Sometimes our subscribers will not only identify an issue, such as a new precedent that might be needed, but they will also provide us with the resolution – a precedent they have developed themselves and are happy for us to publish for the assistance of others. The law is, after all, a noble profession and helping each other in a collegiate way is one of the hallmarks of being a lawyer.

Our goal at By Lawyers is to help our subscribers enjoy practice more. Responding to feedback is one of the ways we do it.

Practice management for small law firms

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Practice management is both one of the most important and one of the most frequently neglected aspects of being a lawyer. The imperatives of doing the clients’ work too often mean that practice management takes a back seat and the future direction, expansion and profitability of the firm becomes an afterthought.

The 11 Habits of highly successful small law firms is an article by Richard Hugo-Hamman, the Executive Chairman of LEAP Legal Software, who has been helping small law firms to make more money for over 25 years. This very informative and inspirational article was recently published on LinkedIn and Richard has kindly permitted us to reproduce it within the Reference Materials folder in the By Lawyers Practice Management guide.

The article contains numerous valuable insights for anyone running a small law firm or thinking of doing so. Richard draws on his enormous international experience to distil the key habits that define highly successful small law firms.  In summary he concludes that:

  1. They are efficient;
  2. They enjoy practising law;
  3. They employ smart people and treat them really well;
  4. They have selected areas of law they like and focus on them;
  5. They dedicate time to building the firm as a business;
  6. They are early adopters of technology;
  7. They confront the challenges of getting paid and solve them;
  8. They have standard processes and procedures in place for all matters;
  9. They make compliance a natural consequence of running a firm well;
  10. They become experts in customer service;
  11. They understand their finances.

We highly recommend reading Richard’s article, which calls upon you to ACT!

Trusts – New precedent – Deed of termination

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Following a subscriber request, we have added a new precedent to our Unit Trusts Guide, being a Deed of termination of trust.

There are many reasons a client may wish to terminate or dissolve a trust prior to the vesting date. There are also several methods of bringing a trust to an early end including:

  • complete distribution of the trust property by the trustee;
  • revocation by the settlor or trustee;
  • the beneficiaries or unit holders consent to end the trust; and
  • a Court ordered termination of trust.

When brining a trust to an end there are many important issues for the trustee to consider including:

  • the procedures prescribed by the original trust deed;
  • all possible creditors; and
  • all possible taxation consequences – particularly CGT arising from the sale of any trust assets or in specie distributions.

The need for a deed confirming the termination of the trust was suggested by one of our subscribers. Having considered the issue, By Lawyers have created a simple new precedent Deed poll, terminating the trust. This will allow practitioners to ensure that when their trustee clients terminate a trust it is evidenced and supported by proper documentation.

At By Lawyers we are always grateful for any feedback on our precedents and will happily accommodate subscriber requests for new documents where appropriate.

 

 

SMSFs – New precedents – Retainer instructions

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We have published two new Retainer Instructions precedents in our Self Managed Superannuation Funds Guide.

The Retainer Instructions – Self managed superannuation fund is designed to assist practitioners when taking instructions from clients who are establishing a new fund. It covers all of the essential information required for the superannuation trust deed, including trustee and member details.

The Retainer Instructions – Existing self managed superannuation fund is designed to be used when a client wishes to make changes to an existing self managed superannuation fund that has already been established. It can be used to record instructions for a variety of situations including:

  • changing the fund trustee;
  • amending the rules of the fund;
  • making a new death benefit nomination or reversionary pension nomination; and
  • establishing a limited recourse borrowing arrangement.

Retainer instructions, which appear in “Getting the matter underway’ on all By Lawyers matter plans, are not only a useful precedent for file opening and matter management, they are a critical risk-management tool ensuring that all necessary information is obtained from the client and recorded.

Family Law – FCC costs increases

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There have been costs increases in the Federal Circuit Court for itemised costs in family law and child support proceedings, pursuant to Schedule 1 of the Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001.

The increases are for initiating applications and other hearing-related costs.

An alert has been added to the By Lawyers Children and Property settlement publications.

Formatting of By Lawyers deeds and agreements

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Over the next month or so you will notice a minor change to the formatting of the By Lawyers precedent deeds and agreements.

By Lawyers has received and responded to feedback that the line under headings in deeds and agreements can be troublesome when users are customising precedents. The line under headings is currently a ‘top border’ applied to the 1st paragraph of the clause. We are swapping that line to a ‘bottom boarder’ of the heading paragraph, which is a more intuitive – and hopefully a less troublesome – place for the line formatting to be applied.

We all know formatting can be tricky. If you are having trouble please see our Tips and tricks for working with By Lawyers precedents, found in every publication, at the end of folder A. ‘Getting the matter underway’ on the matter plan. If you are still stuck – don’t hesitate to call or email us; our team is here to help you!

 

Wills and powers of attorney – Costing & Storage

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Costing wills and powers can be difficult. It is often not clear at the outset the extent of work which will be required. While many wills are ‘simple’, the complexity of a client’s financial position or their family arrangements can mean hours of time spent taking and confirming instructions and sometimes reviewing documents such as their self managed superannuation fund deed, or a family trust deed. The intended uses for a power of attorney are many and varied and may involve detailed advice. Any issues of capacity may also add significant time and expense.

Is a flat fee for a ‘simple’ will or a ‘standard’ power appropriate, or should an hourly rate apply?

Are there any scale costs that can be used as a guide? What costs disclosures must be made to the client?

What arrangements should be made for the storage of original wills?

How should copies of documents be managed?

These practical questions are dealt with in new sections of commentary on Costs and Storage in our NSW, Vic, Qld, SA, ACT, Tas and WA wills and powers publications.

All of these publications include the By Lawyers wills and powers Costs Agreements and example invoices, which meet costs disclosure requirements and include disbursements, billing and payment arrangements, client rights notice and solicitor’s lien provisions, among others.

Superannuation and downsizing

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The By Lawyers Self Managed Superannuation Guide has been updated to provide greater detail about contributions to superannuation as a result of residential downsizing.

From 1 July 2018, superannuation fund members aged 65 and over who downsize by selling their principal place of residence are able to contribute up to $300,000 from the proceeds of sale into their superannuation fund as a non-concessional contribution. Both members of a couple can take advantage of the concession for the same family home, allowing up to $600,000 per couple to be paid into superannuation from the sale proceeds of the family home.

Downsizing contributions are exempt from inclusion in the $1.6 million total superannuation balance cap. Instead, the contribution is included when the total superannuation balance is recalculated at the start of the new financial year.

This measure is available to superannuation fund members who have held their principal place of residence for 10 years or more, for contracts that are exchanged after 1 July 2018. The contribution must be made to the fund within 90 days of settlement of the sale.

Importantly, despite the term ‘downsizing’, there is in fact no requirement to purchase another home.

For more information about superannuation contributions, see the By Lawyers Self Managed Superannuation Funds Guide.

Client Details and Verification of Identity certificate

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We have added a new Client Details and VOI precedent to every one of our publications. This handy document is designed to be used at the first point of contact with a client.

The front page is for the client’s general contact information and identification. The second page includes the formal Verification of Identity Certificate.

The Client Details page can be completed by the client while they are waiting to meet with the solicitor, saving time for the client and the practitioner in the process.

Having the Client Details and VOI as a separate document leaves the Retainer Instructions for collecting the matter-specific information.

We have placed the new precedent immediately before the Retainer Instructions on each matter plan.

We think this will simplify and improve the client engagement process. We would love to hear any feedback from firms as they use the new document.

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