Practising certificate renewal
Annual renewal with the regulator before the autumn deadline, with the fee paid and the certificate kept on the file.
For solicitors
The solicitor's year of matter deadlines, client money and regulatory returns
A solicitor works to dates other people set, and a limitation date or a filing deadline does not move because the file arrived late.
No account needed to see the proposed desk.
The recurring work
What solicitors have to keep on top of
Every one of these has a date attached, a document behind it, and somebody who notices when it slips. This is what goes on the desk.
Continuing competence declaration
An annual declaration that the required competence and reflective learning are being recorded, made at renewal alongside it.
Anti-money-laundering supervision
Registration, annual supervision fee and a firm-wide risk assessment, with source of funds evidence held on each matter.
Client account reconciliation
Regular reconciliation of client money, with any shortage or unreconciled item reported to the regulator without delay.
Professional indemnity renewal
Annual cover meeting the minimum terms for the practice, including the run-off or extended reporting arrangements on closure.
Undertakings register
Every undertaking given or received on a matter recorded, followed up and discharged, rather than remembered by the fee earner.
Conflicts and client due diligence at matter opening
Conflict checks and identity verification completed before work starts, with the outcome recorded on the matter file.
Limitation and court dates
Limitation periods, filing deadlines, directions and hearing dates diarised with the steps counted back from each one.
Dormant and closed file reviews
Files with no movement reviewed on a cycle, and the retention and destruction schedule applied to closed matters.
Solicitors Regulation Authority returns
The annual information return and any change to the practice's structure, ownership or office details notified when it occurs.
What it costs to carry it
The calendar is set by courts, opponents and regulators, and none of it waits for a file that has not come back from the client. A limitation date that passes unrecorded ends a claim that was otherwise sound, and it ends it for reasons that had nothing to do with the law. Client account errors carry the same weight: the correction is not the hard part, it is the notification that follows.
What the desk takes over
The desk works this list to its own schedule and reports what it did.
The matter diary
Limitation periods, directions, filing dates and hearing dates held per matter with the preparation steps counted back from each.
Conflict and due diligence checks
Checks run at matter opening and the dated result written to the file before any work begins.
Undertaking follow-up
Undertakings given and received tracked to discharge, with a written reminder to whoever owes the step.
Client money record
Client account entries reconciled on a fixed cycle, with anything unexplained raised to the person responsible immediately.
Renewal and return preparation
Practising certificate, indemnity cover, competence records and the annual return prepared for review and signature.
What stays with the solicitor
The advice, the advocacy and the signature stay with the solicitor, and so does the professional judgement on a conflict or a risk. The desk keeps the diary, the chase and the file note that support it.
Questions
Will the desk give legal advice?
No. It prepares, records, chases and watches dates, and anything requiring a solicitor's signature stays with the solicitor.
How are undertakings kept track of?
Each undertaking is recorded with the party, the matter and the discharge date, and the step is followed up until it is confirmed done.
Does the desk see privileged material?
It reads what is needed to identify the dates, parties and outstanding steps on a matter, and the practice sets the scope of what is shared with it.
Put the solicitor's recurring work on the desk
Start with a name, a website and one sentence about what the business does. The desk proposes the list; the solicitor corrects it.