The Role of the COFA in a Law Firm

Description

An Overview & Refresh of this Important Role

Introduction

It has been a while since the role of the Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration
(COFA) was introduced – 13 years to be precise. They were introduced alongside ethe
Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP) with the introduction of the SRA Handbook in
2011.

Every law firm must have a COFA – chosen by the firm and authorised by the SRA but what
does this role entail and what are the responsibilities of being a COFA?

The SRA Accounts Rules saw dramatic changes in 2019 with the introduction of the SRA
Standards and Regulation 2019 – the number of rules dropping from 52 to just 13 less
prescriptive rules.

But did this make the role any easier? Indeed, we had to really think about the policies,
procedures and systems that were required to keep us compliant.

This one hour webinar will take us through this important role from the very beginning
when you are chosen to be the COFA to what your role covers now.

What you will learn

This webinar, suitable as a refresher for COFAs already in role, new COFAs just starting out,
deputy COFAs, finance staff and compliance team members will cover the following:

• Being chosen and obtaining authorisation for the role of the COFA
• Meeting your obligations
• An overview of the key SRA Accounts Rules
• Records you need to keep – breach registers, policies and procedures
• What is a ‘serious’ breach and when to report to the SRA
• Matter files reviews
• Real case studies – what’s in the news

The Presenter

Joanna Morris has over thirty years’ experience of working in solicitors’ practices from being
a legal cashier, practice manager and training manager. Joanna is a freelance trainer and
consultant, having previously been the Risk and Regulatory Compliance Training Manager at
a top 40 law firm.

Jo currently delivers training in many compliance subjects, both to the public and in-house
clients, on AML, GDPR, SRA Accounts Rules and courses designed specifically for the MLRO,
DPO, COLP and COFA. She is a qualified NVQ assessor and holds a Certificate In Education
for Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector.

She was highly commended in June 2011 by the Legal Education and Training Group (LETG)
in the category Best Programme for Lawyers for Solicitors Accounts Rules training. She was
shortlisted in the Compliance Trainer of the Year category in the C5 Women in Compliance
Awards in 2014.