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The route to becoming a Legal Accounts Manager in a Law Firm

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By guest writer, Nichola Macciocchi FILFM, a Fellowship ILFM member and Legal Accounts Manager at a leading law firm in Northumberland.

Always a driven child, I was really into my sport and loved art at school and quite competitive! Like many of my peers I never dreamed of becoming a legal finance professional! Once I started in this journey in law and accounting however, I worked hard in the profession as found it a rewarding one.

My dad passed away when I was quite young, so it was just me and my mum and I knew that I had to start working as soon as possible. At the tender age of 16 my life in law and finance began, being offered a job in a local firm of solicitors.

Beginning of a career in Legal Finance

Initially I started off as an office junior, later working as the receptionist (often the unsung hero requiring excellent communications skills, understanding of law firm due diligence, and gatekeeping abilities!). Whilst working at this firm I had a supportive Senior Partner who thought I should study for Business Administration through an NVQ.

Working and studying paid off and I gained NVQ levels 2, 3 & 4. This gave me the confidence and knowledge to take on the role of Office Manager.

As in many small firms everyone helps each other when they can. I often found myself helping out in our accounts department. This is where I found that I enjoyed the data and realised that I was pretty good with money management and law firm requirements. It was time to study again and further my career in finance, so I studied in bookkeeping and then through AAT for their accountancy courses and qualified with levels 2, 3 & 4.

PWC or Law Firm Accounting

Wondering if a life more suited to working in corporate accountancy would interest me, I began working at Price Waterhouse Coopers. It was an interesting year of experience, but I found that I was working more in quality control than accounts and hankered after the skillset I had formed back in legal life.

I have to say that I did enjoy my time at PWC and would recommend everyone to step out of their comfort zones to try something else in their career, either to realise a new pathway of passion or to embrace the path they were already on.

College for Accounting and Legal Cashiering.

Now working at my current firm and AAT qualified, one of my colleagues in the accounts department was a member of the Institute of Legal Finance and Management and had studied the ILFM Diploma Course for Legal Cashiering. This is when my commitment to law firm finance really started.

I was able to get started, with the support of my partners, and commenced my studies with the ILFM’s correspondence course to continue my learning in legal bookkeeping, a specialist bookkeeper in law firms.

Once I had qualified to become an ILFM Diploma grad, I went onto study further with the ILFM on their Associate Course. The ILFM’s Associate Courses have exemptions for AAT accountants (amongst other exemptions too). It’s not for the faint hearted, it’s a lot of work, but if you’re like me, competitive, driven and enjoy learning and progression, it is really rewarding.

The Associate Course (all ILFM qualifications are courses are done through “correspondence” so extremely flexible) focuses on these areas

ILFM Correrspondence Course Advice

Correspondence course means that you are able to study through email and post, i.e. you don’t need to attend a venue to study with your tutor.

For many working full or part time, studying via a correspondence course method is perfect. For me, before I had my daughter, I could easily blend work and studies - evenings and weekends, whilst staying committed to my studies and receiving prompts from my tutor and having my law firm ask how I was getting on.

Once I had my daughter (and many of us studying whilst working are doing this to further our careers!) then timings and life changed!

Tips for Working and Studying

My personal tips would be to first understand what drives you to study, work and look after your children at the same time! If your heart isn’t in it, then is the effort and investment into the course the right time for you?

Pre children I had more time on my hands, I was able to study effectively in slots around my work/life balance at weekends.

Once I had my daughter and decided that it was a good personal and career development move to continue to study, I had to be realistic with what I was able to do and commit to it.

Determination, discipline, drive and passion to succeed and commit are necessary when working, studying and parenting!

For me, I had to look at my diary – schedule time in for lunch breaks, look at when my daughter’s weekend activities were and diarise my studies. She came first but my firm were supporting me with the investment into the studies and I ultimately wanted to do this.

Making time for yourself is so important. I still, to do this day love sport (and art), and I make time to embrace nature and downtime by walking my dog and going to the gym. We all need downtime, and we are no use to anyone if we burn out.

ILFM Fellowship – Legal Finance Management

I appreciate that undertaking the final step in ILFM qualifications is a big leap, but I loved my job, appreciated my firm’s support and enjoyed being given a more diverse role including the management of our accounts. Experience and knowledge from time in the firm coupled with my qualifications not only gave me more confidence but ensured the firm was protected with compliance at a higher level. This is a high-risk profession and the SRA have higher fining powers to protect client money.  

To summarise my life as a Legal Accounts Manager in a busy law firm, it’s rewarding, busy and interesting. I like staying on top of SRA Accounts Rules’ updates and further compliances but there’s nothing like a double ledger that balances!

 

 

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