Law Firm Ethics Compliance Review

Pull every matter opened this quarter from the PMS conflicts database (Clio, Centerbase, IntApp Open, etc.). Confirm the search ran across client, related entities, opposing party, and key non-party witnesses — searching only the client name is a common Rule 1.7 gap. Flag any matter opened without a documented conflict-clear timestamp.

For every attorney who joined this quarter, verify the imputation analysis under Rule 1.10 was completed and that signed screening acknowledgments are on file for any walled matters. Confirm the lateral has not been billing time or accessing the DMS folder of any screened matter.

Pull the NetDocuments / iManage / Clio Documents access report. Confirm departed attorneys and staff are deprovisioned, and that ethical-wall folders are restricted to walled team members only. Rule 1.6(c) requires reasonable safeguards — stale access is the most common audit finding.

Send a test encrypted message through Mimecast / Proofpoint / Microsoft Purview and confirm recipient flow. Re-circulate the inadvertent-disclosure procedure (FRE 502 clawback notice template, who calls opposing counsel, who quarantines the sent item).

Walk the homepage, practice-area pages, and attorney bios. Verify required state-bar disclaimers, office-address-of-record, and any prior-results language carries the appropriate qualifier. Some states still require ad pre-approval — confirm submissions are current.

Run the last-communication report in Clio / MyCase / Smokeball. Any open matter without an outbound communication in 30 days is a Rule 1.4 risk. Forward the list to the responsible attorney with a 5-business-day cure window.

Sample 10% of matters opened this quarter. Each engagement letter must define scope, fee structure, retainer terms, communication preferences, and a fee-dispute mechanism. Scope-creep gaps are the leading source of fee-related bar grievances.

Pull the state bar's CLE transcript for each licensed attorney. Verify general hours, ethics hours, and any state-mandatory diversity / mental-health hours separately — meeting the general total but missing the ethics minimum still triggers non-compliance.

Reconcile the bank balance, book balance, and sum of individual client ledgers under Rule 1.15. All three must match to the penny. Confirm no individual client ledger is negative — IOLTA overdrafts are auto-reported to disciplinary counsel by the bank in most states.

Trace each line back through deposits, disbursements, bank fees, and uncashed checks. Common causes: disbursement issued before retainer cleared, bank fee debited from IOLTA instead of operating, client check NSF after deposit. Document root cause and the corrective entry; notify the managing partner same-day if commingling is found.

Confirm every pre-bill issued this quarter has a responsible-attorney edit timestamp before client send. Unedited pre-bills with verbose junior-associate entries are the most common driver of fee disputes and write-downs.