COURSE DESCRIPTION
This program provides attorneys with essential guidance on managing client funds to ensure compliance with ethical and legal obligations. Participants will learn about common mistakes, such as commingling funds, improper disbursements, and inadequate recordkeeping, that can lead to disciplinary actions. The program will also offer practical strategies and best practices for safeguarding client funds and maintaining accurate financial records. By the end of the session, attorneys will be better equipped to avoid pitfalls and uphold their fiduciary duties with confidence.
- Understanding ethical rules and fiduciary duties related to managing client funds.
- Identifying common mistakes, such as commingling, misappropriation, and improper disbursements.
- Best practices for maintaining accurate trust account records and complying with financial reporting requirements.
- Practical strategies to safeguard client funds and avoid disciplinary actions or malpractice claims.
Speaker:
Thomas E. Spahn is of counsel in the Tysons Corners, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, where he advises firm clients on professional responsibility issues and properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. He has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and is a Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has written extensively on attorney-client privilege, ethics and other topics, and has spoken at over 2200 CLE programs throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries. Through links on his website biography, he has made available to the public his summaries of over 1,600 Virginia and ABA legal ethics opinions, organized by topic; a 300 page summary of his two-volume 1,500 page book on the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine; over 1100 weekly email alerts about privilege and work product cases; and materials for 40 ethics programs on numerous topics, totaling over 9,000 pages of analysis.