Solicitors and Legal Services IAAG A CCH Industry Accounting and Auditing Guide

CCH's Industry Accounting & Auditing Guides provide detailed guidance on working with clients in a particular sector, with the information used by many practitioners as an introduction to a completely new area or even as a more in-depth guide and a reference for the partners in the practice.

New editions of this popular series of guides are being produced this year with all information updated to include changes to relevant industry sectors, with online versions of the IAAG also available. Online subscriptions are reviewed quarterly and updated regularly.

Solicitors and Legal Services IAAG 

In October 2011, major changes were made to the regulation of legal services. At the same time, the door was opened to Alternative Business Structures (ABSs), allowing business entities (with one or more non-lawyer owners) to provide regulated legal services to members of the public. ABSs must be licensed to provide such legal services. At the beginning of 2012, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) became a licensing authority for ABSs. The SRA now authorises and regulates traditional firms of solicitors (where all owners are lawyers) and ABSs. All the SRA’s regulations (including the new SRA Accounts Rules 2011) are now to be found in the SRA Handbook 2011 and apply to all authorised SRA firms.

Since the publication of the last edition, there have been significant developments in the way legal services are provided to the public as a result of the Legal Services Act 2007. Licensed ABSs (Alternative Business Structures, partly or wholly owned by non-lawyers) are now permitted to provide legal services alongside authorised traditional law firms. New regulations have been introduced by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (responsible for licensing the majority of ABSs and traditional law firms) and these are contained in the SRA Handbook 2011.

The latest edition of the Solicitors and Legal Services IAAG provides guidance on all these changes for those advising members of the legal profession. All accounting and audit requirements for both traditional law firms and the new ABSs can be found in this updated edition. The title is available in book format as well as an online version which is reviewed quarterly and updated as necessary.

The contents include:

• An overview of Legal Services
• Financial accounting matters
• Choices of trading entity
• External capital investment
• Mergers and demergers
• Joint ventures
• Management information
• Reporting law firms' accounts
• Taxation of practice profits
• Taxation of employees
• VAT
• Other taxation aspects
• SRA Accounts Rules 2011
• The assignment programme
• Regulations, compliance and sanctions
• Other management indicators