A common theme in attorney discipline cases is the lawyer’s failure to properly handle client funds. Law school, unfortunately, teaches lawyers-to-be little if anything about basic accounting principles or financial record-keeping. Lawyers owe a fiduciary duty to their clients which includes proper handling and documenting their money.
For those interested in getting a basic understanding of lawyer accounting, you may wish to consider tuning in to “Accounting 102 for Lawyers” available online at myLawCLE. The live rebroadcast will be on Thursday, December 3, 2015 from 2-4:00 pm Eastern and will qualify for 2 hours of CLE credit.
According to the myLawCLE webite, Accounting 102 for Lawyers:
is a basic overview of the most important concepts and documents attorneys should be familiar with in order to accurately and successfully represent their clients in a wide range of matters, such as corporate law, estate planning, and criminal law. We first provide a general overview of accounting and discuss accounting principles. Next, we provide an in-depth analysis of the three basic financial statements: balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. The presentation will then close with an overview of how financial statements should be used, and a summary of the importance of becoming familiar with accounting concepts in the legal field.