Solicitors Conference

Welcome and Introduction

Janet Taylor FCA, Taylor Mowbray

This regular annual review keeps partners and managers abreast of all the latest developments, developing practice and reporting issues in the SRA Accounts Rules.

The session will include a review and discussion of:

• Any SRA Accounts Rules changes or developments in their Guidance over the last 12 months.
• Risk factors and ongoing common problem areas.
• Any changes to the work approach by Reporting Accountants and/or the number and nature of qualified reports being filed.

Refreshment Break

Zulon Begum, Dr Robert Millard Nick Leale & Corinne Staves
CM Murray

This session will cover:

• How PE and AI are reshaping law firm strategy and service delivery.
• The drivers behind accelerated market consolidation.
• Implications for talent, succession and profitability.
• Risks and opportunities for law firms.

Refreshment Break

Luke Dickinson, Hazlewoods

This session explores the key responsibilities of the COFA and the areas a reporting accountant should focus on when assessing compliance. We will examine what the review of the bank reconciliations can tell us, analyse how the breaches register has been maintained and assess wider compliance controls including policy documents, training schedules and ongoing compliance projects. The session will highlight practical indicators of good financial governance and common warning signs that may require further investigation.

Refreshment Break

Pat Nown, Mercia Group

This session focuses on new and recent developments primarily in Inheritance Tax (IHT) including:

• The changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) for individuals and trusts.
• IHT and pension funds- the story so far.
• IHT and Tax Status.
• Other new developments.

CPD Hours: 3

Janet spent over ten years with a top 20 accounting firm heading up their specialist solicitors’ group. A highly experienced presenter Janet provides relevant and practical training on a number of financial issues for lawyers and accountants. 

For over 20 years she has regularly presented training on the SRA Accounts Rules to a wide range of accounting and law firms through in-house and public seminars. 

Clients have included several major international and national law firms as well as their reporting accountants. Janet is the current Subject Matter Expert for the ICAEW’s Solicitors Community Advisory Group and co-author of the current version of the Law Society Solicitors and the Accounts Rules manual.

Zulon Begum has extensive experience of advising professional and financial services firms and senior equity partners on a whole range of partnership and corporate matters. Zulon has particular expertise in transactional work and regularly advises senior management in partnership businesses on a broad range of sensitive and strategically important issues.

Zulon acts for clients in diverse sectors, including law firms, accountants, architects, real estate consultants, patent attorneys, insurance/reinsurance brokers/underwriters, private equity houses and hedge funds. She has played a key role in a number of high-profile professional services firm mergers, both national and international.

Zulon’s expertise and experience includes:

• Advising UK and international professional and financial services firms on mergers and acquisitions, including advice on corporate and regulatory structuring.

• Advising on optimal business structures, considering liability, succession, cultural and regulatory issues and implementing internal restructuring, including conversion to LLP or company.

• Advising on partnership and remuneration structures for partnership businesses, with in-depth expertise in current market practice.

• Drafting and reviewing LLP and partnership agreements, including review of governance structures, partner indemnities, discrimination issues, family friendly rights and restrictive covenants.

• Advising on international network structures using Swiss vereins or limited companies by guarantee, including advice on liability, profit pooling and shared network services.

• Advising on partner investigations, disciplinaries and exits, as well as lateral hires, team moves and restrictive covenants issues.

• Establishing SRA regulated law firms (including Alternative Business Structures). Zulon is an active member of, and speaker at, the Professional Practices Alliance, (of which CM Murray LLP is a founding member) and the Association of Partnership Practitioners.

Dr. Robert Millard is the Director of Cambridge Strategy Group, an advisory firm he founded in 2012. Previously, he served as an in-house business strategist at the global ‘Magic Circle’ law firm Linklaters, in London.

For over 25 years, Robert has advised law firms ranging from the global elite to regional and national leaders across North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. His practice focuses on high-stakes strategy and complex problem-solving. He has also advised major accounting firms and a quasi-governmental regulator.

As a recognised leader in the global legal sector, Robert is a past Chair of the International Bar Association (IBA) Law Firm Management Committee. In 2017, he initiated the IBA's landmark Building the Law Firm of the Future conference, now held annually in London. He is also a past Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) International Law Practice Management Forum (which now forms part of the ABA International Law Section).

Nick Leale is a dual-qualified barrister and solicitor, specialising in professional regulation and compliance. He has extensive experience in professional disciplinary law and regulatory risk, having worked in various high-profile roles throughout his career. He was Regulatory Business Group Head at his previous firm, overseeing a team of over 50 regulatory lawyers. In 2023 he became European General Counsel and Head of Legal Practice at an AMLaw 200 law firm ABS in London, before becoming the firm’s UK Managing Partner.

Unlike other leading experts in the field, Nick draws together expertise developed from different roles in professional regulation that have crossed various boundaries.

Nick has acted for various regulators (including the Solicitors Regulation Authority as an appointed prosecutor and hearings advocate) in numerous complex disciplinary matters and therefore understands how regulators approach disciplinary prosecutions and how best to successfully defend the allegations that they take forward.

Nick was called to the Bar in 1998 and cross-qualified as a solicitor in 2008. Nick has practised solely as a solicitor since his cross-qualification in 2008.

Corinne Staves advises on all aspects of partnerships, LLPs and professional practices law and practice. For individual partners this includes admission, promotion/demotion, regulation, managing difficult conversations and exit. She advises professional firms on these issues, as well as launching new firms, strategic risk and compliance, regulation, transactions (such as mergers, demergers and LLP conversions), governance and constitutional change and structure (including international structuring).

She also has extensive experience advising on bespoke and innovative solutions involving partnerships and LLPs in both a commercial and a family context.

Corinne was the first female Chair of the Association of Partnership Practitioners and is recognised in the Legal Directories as a leader in this field. She regularly speaks and writes on topical issues.

Luke Dickinson is an experienced legal finance specialist and trainer. He provides practical guidance on the SRA Accounts Rules and law firm financial compliance. With a strong background supporting legal practices across the UK, Luke combines deep technical knowledge with an engaging, real‑world teaching style that resonates with both fee‑earners and finance teams.

He regularly delivers training for leading professional bodies, including the ILFM and MBL, on topics such as prohibited banking facilities, best‑practice client money management and recent regulatory updates. Luke is also responsible for conducting financial reviews for a wide portfolio of law firms, providing concise, actionable insights that help firms strengthen their compliance frameworks.

Pat is a tax consultant lecturer at Mercia Group. Pat originally trained and worked in the profession for Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton and KPMG before moving to the University of Derby as their senior tax lecturer. Her time at Derby included undergraduate and professional tax training as well as being involved in examinations and publishing projects for ACCA and other professional bodies.

This led to a ten-year period with the Financial Training Company (now Kaplan) where she was Tax Product Director for the Midlands as well as becoming well known as a prominent exam-based tax lecturer. Over her career Pat has been actively involved in the tax professional bodies including serving as a Council member for 12 years for the Association of Taxation Technicians.