Members of the Institute of Legal Cashiers and Administrators protect law firms agains fraud. Yet they have not been accorded the status that they deserve, reports Grania Langdon-Down


What do Alison Gorringe, outgoing chairwoman of the Institute of Legal Cashiers and Administrators (ILCA), and Florence Nightingale have in common? They have both led groups of under-appreciated professional staff, mainly women, who spend a lot of time clearing up the mess left by their so-called superiors, predominantly men.



So says Antony Townsend, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), who raised this question at the institute’s recent annual lunch: ‘When will legal cashiers and administrators emerge more fully into the limelight?’



The sooner the better, says Ms Gorringe. She wants her organisation to achieve formal recognition by the SRA, which would lead to the institute becoming the regulatory body for the non-lawyer arm of legal accounts departments. ‘We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary next year and we have been very active over the last three or four years in trying to get our name more widely known. It’s all very well being an institute, but if no one knows you exist, it is a waste of time.’



A key element of the Legal Services Act is moving the SRA toward regulating not just individual solicitors but the whole organisation, including non-solicitors. Mr Townsend said the ILCA’s plans could, therefore, fit in with the SRA’s objective of bringing the regulation of solicitors’ firms ‘out of the Crimean War era’.



Ms Gorringe says: ‘His comments that law firms could demonstrate their commitment to quality and high standards by employing our members was a significant boost. But he also said to me that, as an institute, we are “babies” and we have to be patient. It is not that we aren’t patient but we would like to move forward.’



The ILCA has nearly 3,000 members. The majority are legal cashiers, but there is a growing constituency of finance controllers, practice managers and administrators. Alongside training programmes and a series of exams taking members through diploma level to associate and then fellowship, the institute has recently been involved in the development of a new foundation degree course in practice administration at Wolverhampton University’s School of Legal Studies, and is introducing CPD points next year. It also has its own disciplinary rules and processes.



However, there is not the same pressure for members to be regulated as is the case for other groups, such as costs draftsmen, says Ms Gorringe, because they do not have rights of audience. But she says: ‘We are working with millions of pounds on a daily basis, including client accounts. We are obviously answerable to the partners but we are not answerable to any regulatory body.



‘It’s also to do with qualifications. There are people who say they are legal cashiers and yet they don’t know the first thing about the Solicitors Accounts Rules. You wouldn’t go to a solicitor unless you knew they were properly qualified – and the same principle should apply to us.’



She takes comfort from Mr Townsend’s view that professional groups do eventually metamorphose into formally regulated professions, although she also acknowledges his ‘bad news’ that ‘there are some among their employers who resist professionalisation because it is a threat to their status and costs too much’.



She observes: ‘The accounts department is the focal point of a law firm and if it doesn’t work, the whole firm doesn’t work. Yet I have come across firms where they will go for the cheapest option when hiring staff and take on someone without experience or qualifications because they don’t want to pay for the extra value that brings.’



While the accounts staff may be very competent, she says, they may also be breaching rules daily if they are not aware of working within the parameters of the accounts rules, and this is one scenario where solicitors intending to misappropriate client funds can play on vulnerable accounting staff.



Ms Gorringe, who recently joined US law firm Kaye Scholer as head of finance for its London office, has been the institute’s chairwoman for the last three years and hands over this month to Dawn Chapman, practice manager at ten-partner Durham firm Meikles & Co.



Ms Chapman also stresses that cashiers are the first line of defence against mistakes or fraud and yet, she says, some firms are ‘wary of non-fee-earning staff costing them money’. However, she says most fair employers would like to see their staff properly qualified.



Among those is Oldham firm North Ainley Halliwell, which successfully put its head cashier, Marie Hluschyk, forward for the ILCA’s first Barry Hilton scholarship, in memory of its former honorary president, to do the new foundation degree course. Senior partner John Ainley says Ms Hluschyk deserved the opportunity because ‘she has seen us through 27 years of accounts and IT development, and has striven hard to achieve academic and professional success’.



One development Ms Chapman welcomes is the prospect of legal cashiers and administrators being able to work their way up to partnership under the Legal Services Act as a way of creating a proper career path. Legal disciplinary partnerships (LDPs), with 25% of non-lawyer partners, should become a reality in early 2009.



At present, she says, many people – herself included – ‘fall into’ the job. ‘But once you start, you get hooked. With [LDPs], you won’t have to stay in the back office and there is nothing to stop someone going through to partner level.’



Traditionally, legal cashiers have been women because the posts, particularly in small firms, were often part-time. Ms Chapman says: ‘I have met quite a few male students coming into this work. What I would like to see is more women becoming financial officers and practice managers. The legal world has traditionally been male dominated but things are changing. My own practice now has equal numbers of male and female partners.’



Ms Gorringe agrees: ‘Cashiers tend to be female and directors of finance tend to be male. There should be more of an equal split.’



In the meantime, the institute is doing its utmost to raise its profile, both to win recognition and to encourage more people working in legal accounts to join. The Law Society is backing the ILCA’s work in improving law firms’ compliance with the accounts rules. President Andrew Holroyd says: ‘The ILCA is playing an important role in providing training support and qualifications for legal cashiers.’



Sarah Charlton, accounts manager for two-partner Pembrokeshire firm Eaton-Evans & Morris, is taking over as the institute’s new vice-chairwoman. She says: ‘It’s about ensuring that the quality of staff is far higher by being a member. We are introducing CPD points next year, initially on a voluntary basis, but it will become mandatory in the future.’



So are standards high enough at present? ‘No,’ she says firmly. ‘The onus is on solicitors to oversee what is being done and they are responsible for the receipt of client account money. But there are not many solicitors who actually do the books. However, there are no generic standards for law firms and they are able to employ people from any background. It is ludicrous when you think of the volume of money they have to control and monitor.’



Ms Charlton, who is also in the Territorial Army and has done operational tours in Bosnia and Iraq as part of the logistics unit responsible for pay, would like the SRA to set a minimum requirement that there should be one person in the accounts department who is a member of the institute. ‘It’s all well and good having five people in the department, but if they have all been trained by someone who isn’t qualified or experienced, they could be learning bad habits.



‘It may be salaries will be higher but the staff will be more efficient. The accountants will therefore spend less time in the firm because there is less chance of any errors and when there is an SRA visit, there is less chance of partners’ time being consumed. So, yes, it does cost money to train staff but the benefits far outweigh it. What it comes down to is how much you value your practising certificate.’



She welcomes Mr Townsend’s comment that employing ILCA members will enable the SRA ‘to rely more upon the integrity of the firm’. Ms Charlton says: ‘He didn’t go as far as we would have liked but it is still progress. It is a recognition that there needs to be some standards in the non-legal arm and we feel confident that we can work closely with the SRA in enhancing them.’



She points out that, once the Legal Services Act comes in, there will be greater competition and more emphasis on having qualified accounting staff to increase profitability, adding: ‘It doesn’t pay for a senior partner on a large charge-out rate to be managing the firm when you can pay someone with a marketing degree or an accounts degree to do the job

for you.



‘The dynamics of practices are going to change. I don’t think it is necessarily welcome in the legal field but it will be an inevitable result. If you have an employee who is a crucial part of your firm, then you won’t want to lose them. And if that means you have to give them a percentage of the profits or the status of being a partner, that is what most firms will do.’



Grania Langdon-Down is a freelance journalist