Accountants for Legal firms

Accountants for Legal firms

Running a firm of solicitors involves sector-specific challenges and responsibilities. At Haslers accountants and business advisers in East London and Essex, we understand the issues you face and can use our experience in working with solicitor clients to provide forward-thinking advice.

We recognise that solicitors are focused on providing their own clients with the best possible service, so it can be difficult to allocate time and resources to planning for their firm’s growth and development when also dealing with day-to-day business management and regulatory issues.

Whether you are a sole practitioner or a multi-partner practice, our accountants and tax advisers can help you run your legal firm efficiently and cost-effectively and achieve your financial and business objectives.

For your practice to operate effectively, your day-to-day financial matters need to be in the best possible shape. We can assist you with general business support services including outsourced bookkeeping, accountancy and payroll and tax and VAT advice.

We also offer a range of other specialist services designed to meet the needs of solicitors.

The Haslers’ services for Legal firms include:

Accountants for Legal firms

Having the right finance in place at the right time is crucial to the success of any business, including legal practices.

At Haslers accountants and business advisers in East London and Essex, we have a particular specialism in corporate finance and can provide comprehensive advice to legal professionals and their clients.

Our corporate finance advice on major transactions – such as practice or business sales, acquisitions, mergers and management buyouts or buy-ins – includes advising on the tax efficiency of different funding options or investment in a business.

We can also advise on grooming a legal practice or other business for sale, by preparing practice, business or company valuations and provide financial due diligence services for investors.

Where legal practices or their clients have existing funding arrangements in place, we can carry out reviews of these and examine the structure and cost. If these are not providing the best value, we can help to source more appropriate and cost-effective alternatives, through our contacts with both traditional lenders and the new breed of non-bank funders. We can also help to present funding proposals in the most robust and persuasive way.

To complement these services, we offer mediation services relating to corporate finance issues through Haslers’ partner Michael Watts, an accredited mediator and a member of the Register of Qualified Mediators at The Academy of Experts (TAE).

Issues on which Michael is able to mediate include shareholder disputes, acquisitions, share and business valuations, mergers and demergers and turnaround issues. As well as acting directly as a mediator, he can advise on the benefits of mediation as an alternative form of dispute resolution.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms, please contact us.

Accountants for Legal firms

When a dispute involves financial issues, having access to the skills and knowledge of an experienced forensic accountant can be crucial to achieving the right outcome.

At Haslers accountants and business advisers in East London and Essex, our forensic accounting services complement our accountancy, tax and business advisory expertise and are designed to provide independent, specialist support to assist legal professionals and their clients in resolving challenging financial matters quickly and cost-efficiently.

Whether the issue involves money going astray in-house, a dispute with shareholders or a share valuation for a business sale or as part of divorce proceedings, we believe our forensic accounting advice will represent a wise investment that will deliver real value for money.

We’ll identify and analyse financial data, interpret and evaluate evidence and provide accurate, independent reports, to support legal advisers and their clients every step of the way. Areas where we can assist include:

  • business, company and shareholding valuations
  • business interruption claims
  • expert determinations
  • expert witness services
  • insolvency-related litigation
  • loss or earnings/pensions claims
  • matrimonial matters
  • professional negligence cases
  • shareholder and partnership disputes.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms please contact us.

Accountants for Legal firms

If your legal firm is not making as much profit as you believe it should, it makes sense to seek expert advice on improving performance. That’s where Haslers accountants and business advisers in Essex can help.

For fee-based businesses operating in a competitive marketplace, financial stability is crucial. We can assist with setting appropriate fee levels, financial forecasting and managing and improving cash flow. We can also assist firms of solicitors to make sense of key financial information and use the data effectively to tackle problem areas and strengthen their operations for the future.

We will also work with you to set financial targets, as well as identifying the tools and actions you will need to achieve your objectives. Our independent advice will help you to look at your firm with fresh eyes and develop a strategy that gives you a focus for the future.

By regularly reviewing your progress against your targets and working with you to update your strategy, we can ensure it keeps pace with your firm’s progress and keep you on track to achieve your targets.

We can also assist with the growth opportunities created by alternative business structures (ABS), such as enhanced access to capital and greater funding flexibility, as well as the potential for becoming a “one stop” shop or consolidating a particular specialism within your firm.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms, please contact us.

Accountants for Legal firms

Compliance with the Solicitors’ Accounts Rules (SAR), to ensure that clients’ monies are comprehensively safeguarded, is a key priority for every practice.

At Haslers accountants and business advisers in East London and Essex, we are experienced in preparing annual SAR reports, providing assurance to the Solicitors Regulation Authority that solicitors are operating in line with required protocols.

Because we believe in working with our solicitor clients throughout the year, we develop enhanced knowledge and understanding of their practices, which supports a streamlined SAR reporting process and causes minimum disruption to business activities when the report is prepared.

As well as preparing the annual SAR report, we will also identify any areas that could be improved and advise on ways to upgrade systems and controls so that they become more efficient and support the practice to function more effectively.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms, please contact us.

Accountants for Legal firms

Building a successful firm of solicitors means that you need to attract high quality people who can develop the practice and move it forward.

Competitive and tax-efficient remuneration packages can play an important part in bringing on board the right team and ensuring a smooth leadership transition as part of succession planning.

At Haslers accountants and business advisers in East London and Essex, we can advise on putting in place tailored remuneration systems for partners, members, directors and key employees, including performance-related schemes and profit-sharing agreements, with a focus on maximising the efficiency of profit extraction.

We’ll tailor our advice to your legal firm’s culture and goals, with a focus on assisting the practice and the individuals who lead it to achieve their goals as well as strengthening the firm’s foundations for future development and growth.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms, please contact us.

Increasing numbers of legal practices are facing financial difficulties, through factors including an uncertain economic climate and sector-specific issues, including changes to legal aid and no win, no fee arrangements.

When a legal firm is struggling, seeking professional advice at the earliest opportunity will ensure the maximum number of options is available for restoring the practice to financial health.

Taking early action can also avoid the need for the Solicitors Regulation Authority taking action to protect clients’ money and assets.

At Haslers accountants and business advisers in East London and Essex, our experience in working with legal firms – from sole practitioner solicitors to multi-partner practices – means we are ideally placed to assist in tackling financial challenges and helping to establish a more robust financial footing.

Our insolvency and recovery services team includes qualified Insolvency Practitioners, who are able to quickly identify problems and put in place robust solutions designed to preserve and protect viable businesses. Where a formal insolvency procedure is the only option, our focus is to maximise the value gained from an orderly winding up.

To assist legal firms in providing added value services, we can also provide expert support where solicitors are advising clients facing their own financial difficulties.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms, please contact us.

When you’re running a legal firm, your clients are your priority. When you’re also dealing with day-to-day business issues and working within regulatory and reporting regimes, it can be hard finding time to think about the future.

But when you’ve worked hard to build and grow your practice, you also want to make sure it continues to develop and succeed as partners or other senior team members leave or retire.

At Haslers accountants and business advisers in East London and Essex, we believe it is never too soon for legal firms to put in place succession planning to achieve continuity in the practice’s operations and smooth transitions of leadership.

Our specialists will help you focus on the key questions, including the financial impact on the practice of equity partner retirements, the future structure of the business and grooming senior staff – or recruiting new people – for future leadership roles.

If the best option for the firm going forward is a merger or sale, we can provide the appropriate advice to support you through the process, including advice on maximising the value and tax efficiency of the transaction.

Retirement planning goes hand-in-hand with succession planning, so that partners, members or directors can organise their personal finances, as well as those of the practice.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms, please contact us.

From paying the right amount of VAT to filing tax returns on time, keeping on top of tax reporting and payment obligations is crucial for any business, including legal firms.

At Haslers accountants and business advisers in East London and Essex, we offer comprehensive tax support to ensure solicitors maintain compliance with the tax authorities while maximising tax efficiency. We can also assist individuals within the firm with their personal tax arrangements.

We are ideally placed to advise legal firms directly on more complex tax issues affecting their own practices, such as business structures and their tax implications, transaction planning or the tax considerations involved in a merger, acquisition or business sale.

We also offer a range of tax advice and expertise that legal firms can draw on to add value to their own services, build stronger relations with their clients and sharpen their competitive edge.

For example, we can provide assistance with issues arising from client trusts or estates, including capital gains tax computations and inheritance tax returns.

We can also advise on issues such as maximising inheritance tax efficiency as part of a will or wider estate planning or mitigating capital gains tax on business disposals.

By bringing us on board at an early stage, solicitors and their clients can avoid both potential tax pitfalls and unnecessary tax liabilities.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms, please contact us.

To find out more about Haslers’ services for Legal firms, please contact us.

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