TFLP revolutionises family law provision with VP

Towcester Family Law Practice is revolutionising family law provision

New start-up firm Towcester Family Law Practice (TFLP) is not only a trail-blazer in terms of delivering an ‘out-of-office hours, flexible venue’ service to clients but also in the choice of IT systems and accounting support for the business. The firm has opted to use Virtual Practice’s on-line legal accounts software – an outsourced ‘always-on’ service which simplifies keeping the books up-to-date and provides the reassurance that the accounts fully comply with Law Society regulations. The service which costs less than employing a part-time legal cashier is also contributing to TFLP’s low overheads  and highly competitive rates.

Heather Rose, LL.B Solicitor and  member of the Solicitors Regulation Authority Family Panel, who founded the practice in February 2008 came up with the idea of visiting clients at home at her last firm when she would occasionally drop by to visit clients on her way home from work. Specialising in family law, she quickly became aware that clients, who are often in an emotionally vulnerable state because something dire has happened, found these home visits or meetings at a venue of  their choice far less stressful than a visit to a solicitor’s office.

“I see clients when and where they want to see me. I knew that it worked and of course it also avoids the overhead and expense of setting up an office and paying front office staff. I can keep my overheads low and pass the savings onto clients. I am hoping that I am making legal advice a lot more accessible, manageable and much more flexible,” says Heather Rose.

“I have set up a virtual office and rather than people coming to the office, I take the office to them. There is nothing that I cannot do or access when I’m with a client.”

IT was an early consideration during the setting up of the practice. Heather Rose explains: “I was rather concerned about complying with all the accounts regulations  – I’m a solicitor and if I had wanted to be an accountant, I would have trained to be one. I didn’t want to be distracted from providing legal advice and find too much of my time was being taken up by the administrative side of the business.”

TFLP was recommended to investigate Virtual Practices through a family friend. TFLP liked what they saw on the web site and got in touch. “From the beginning Virtual Practices was incredibly helpful, sending one of their legal cashiers out to see me, showing me how to set up the whole service at my home. I was so impressed by it that I went ahead straightaway. There was nothing that I could ask that Virtual Practices couldn’t answer and they were always on hand to help and overcome any nerves that I had in using the system. They have always been incredibly professional and approachable.”

Virtual Practices, a division of Solicitors’ Own Software (SOS), offers smaller firms and start-ups access to the case management features and benefits of  SOS Connect delivered as a service via an Internet connection and paid for on a subscription basis. What was also of particular interest to TFLP was the fully managed legal cashiering service, which Heather Rose describes as a safety net. “It’s like having someone watching over you ensuring that everything is fully compliant with the regulations; that bills are paid on time and clients moneys’ are accounted for properly. The system provides the checks and validation to ensure that mistakes are not made. Virtual Practices is also on hand to provide reassurance that I am doing things correctly.”

Equally important is the saving in learning curve: “I haven’t had to learn the intricacies of legal accounting, Virtual Practices does it all. I have just had our first set of monthly reports pinging up automatically on the screen. There is everything that I could have asked for and things I wouldn’t have thought to ask for about the business. We certainly benefit from Virtual Practices knowledge and experience. I have everything I need to keep on top of running the business. “

TFLP has initially taken the Virtual Practices legal cashiering service but expects to take advantage of the case management service as the business builds. The ability to go mobile, with the system capturing information while with clients at remote venues, is also planned.

TFLP acknowledges that the overhead of implementing an accounts packages would have been much greater both in terms of understanding how to deal with it and the worry of putting garbage in and getting garbage out. The issue of scalability was also important. “If TFLP takes on more staff in the future, which is expected, the system will grow with us – I don’t think that we can outgrow it. It is absolutely tailor-made for a small, local practice and considerably less expensive than employing even a part-time cashier.”

When clients such as TFLP enter information to the system on-line, these are checked by legal cashiers before posting to the accounts system. The service is always on and as Heather Rose remarked: “Even information entered late at night is picked up and posted very early in the morning. Virtual Practices’ turnaround times have always been well within the agreed service levels. Above all the service gives me the peace of mind that things are being done properly and that the Law Society won’t be chasing me for late or inaccurate reporting.”

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Virtual Practices deals with all my legal accounting headaches… this frees up valuable time so that I concentrate on developing my practice and devote my time to doing the job that I was trained to do.

Jane Levy, Lawyer

+44 (0)1225 787710