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LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT complaints or negligence or insurance claims. "We discovered when reviewing lawyers [working] in larger firms that there is a significant internal infrastruc- ture to help support them in their prac- tice activities. So they don't need as much assistance as lawyers working in smaller environments," says Miles, who is hoping to complete 500 reviews this year. The Law Society of British Columbia also has gotten into the act, though it has taken a completely different tack. It decided nearly 18 months ago to use its trust assurance program as "Geiger counters" to determine if lawyers should be subject to practice reviews, says Kensi Gounden, manager of standards of profes- sional development with the LSBC. "The trust assurance program is the detector," explains Gounden. "We use accountants as our resource to bring issues back to us to determine if there should be a practice review. We believe that by adopting this integrated approach, we are more agile and can deal with the serious problems really quickly, and the less serious ones in a different time frame." Expected to join the ranks is the Law Society of New Brunswick, which is planning to unveil a practice manage- ment program that will be operational next January. Far more modest in scope, the N.B. law society expects to review between 25 and 35 lawyers, at least in the first two years of its operation. The Law Society of Manitoba, which considered implementing a similar initiative three years ago but decided against it because benchers did not see the justification behind introducing a program that would intrude into "their day-to-day lives," may yet establish a practice management program in the future, says CEO Allan Fineblit. "We're aware of what other people are doing," adds Fineblit. "We're always looking for best practices, and that's why it would not surprise me if at some point in the future, based on the experience of other jurisdic- tions, we adopted a similar initiative." All of which bodes well for lawyers, if one is to go by Mireille Vincent, a Montreal lawyer who was reviewed twice in the span of eight years. A fam- ily law practitioner, Vincent says while a practice management review is in ntitled-1 1 some ways intimidating, intrusive, and time consuming, she is grateful for the experience. "The practice reviewer gave me precious suggestions that I applied immediately after she left," says Vincent. That's a sentiment echoed by Sharma. He spent a few thousand dollars to imple- ment a series of recommendations made by the reviewer, and he has no regrets. He has installed a new computer backup system, acquired a speech recognition software program that has saved him precious time, changed the signage to more accurately reflect his practice, and implemented a host of small but invalu- able recommendations made by the reviewer that let him better serve his cli- ents. "When I was selected for the prac- tice management review, I asked myself, 'why me?' Now I realize I was one of the lucky few who was able to benefit from this exercise." Practice Management Client Identification & Verification Now Available in PCLaw Know Your Client Law societies across Canada have introduced new rules for client identifi cation and verifi cation. billing and accounting software now provides functionality to capture and report the client information required to comply with the new rules. Are You Compliant? PCLaw™ Limited Time Offer! 10% OFF† Use Promo Code "ACE4A" For more information, call 1-800-387-9785, ext. 2 or visit: www.lexisnexis.ca/pclaw Download and Try PCLaw for FREE* † Purchase PCLaw by June 30, 2009, and receive a new licence at 10% off. This offer cannot be combined with any other offer. * Download PCLaw free for 30 days. Certain conditions apply. LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are registered trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under licence. PCLaw is a trademark of LexisNexis Practice Management Systems Inc. © 2009 LexisNexis Canada Inc. All rights reserved. www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JUNE 2009 19 5/13/09 12:09:56 PM