Canadian Lawyer

Brodeur. Under the system currently in place at the barreau, trust account reports are submitted once a year. The third system under consideration is France's La Carpa, short for la Caisse de réglements pécuniaires des avocats, an association created in 1957 that is staffed by 40 people and presided over by the head of the Barreau de Paris. It manages all sums of money in trust in one collective account, issues trust cheques itself, and features realtime monitoring of all transactions. The model is used by bar associations elsewhere in France and has also been implemented in other countries like Morocco and Tunisia and some Frenchspeaking nations in Africa, with each bar having its own single trust account and member lawyers assigned an individual account number. Beside increased protection for the public, the Carpa system is attractive because it is largely self-financed and can result in increased revenues, says Brodeur. Given that the amount of money held in one trust is much greater than those held in multiple individual lawyers' trusts, there is greater bargaining power to negotiate preferential interest rates. Additional financial logic could come in the form of better risk management for professional liability insurance premiums. As well, says Brodeur, additional revenues help finance access-to-justice and education initiatives. Brodeur says the barreau is investigating different software technologies and is talking with a sole practitioner, a medium-size law firm, and one large law firm about testing one or two of the systems for a few months alongside their existing trust account management operations to gain feedback about ease of use and any difficulties encountered. The regulator will make its choice on which system to adopt, or the development of a hybrid system, based on a review of administration requirements and management and implementations costs, says Brodeur. As for how much change individual lawyers and law firms can expect, Brodeur says what degree will depend on what model is eventually chosen. Alberta's system, which took five years to develop, has not experienced any major difficulties with implementation and indications are lawyers find the system simple to use, she says. "We have satisfactory control in place but we cannot ignore improvements (to systems) elsewhere and we want to be at the front of the parade." — Kathryn Leger kathryn.leger@videotron.ca SMART LITIGATION. NOW EVEN SMARTER. Michal Fairburn has joined Stockwoods after more than two decades with the Ministry of the Attorney General - Crown Law Office (Criminal) where she was General Counsel. She brings unparalleled appellate expertise and unique insight into complex criminal law and regulatory problems. Michal's addition strengthens our capacity to deliver top-tier advice to clients about their civil, regulatory or criminal law risks – and the complex relationship among all three. Smart Litigation. stockwoods.ca Untitled-4 1 www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m 13-09-11 5:05 PM October 2013 9

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