Ben
Johnson
CONSULTANT

Since I qualified as a solicitor in 1988, I have spent over 25 years as a partner in some of the top 100 regional, national and international law firms.  Initially, I worked as a corporate finance lawyer for both public company and private equity clients. In 2008 (as the regulatory focus on law firms intensified) I became Head of Best Practice & Risk guiding my firm through the first transition to the SRA's outcome focussed regulation and being appointed the firm’s first Compliance Officer for Legal Practice.

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The Best Practice & Risk role, naturally, encompassed compliance & quality but I also had management responsibility for knowledge management and learning & development.

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The combined roles affirmed my belief that strong knowledge management and learning in law firms is one of the greatest assets in controlling several professional and regulatory risks.

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Since joining 3Kites in 2022, I have worked on a number of projects providing the lawyer perspective and experience. These projects have included:

 

• A number of reviews for law firms of their client inception/onboarding processes

• A comprehensive review of the Knowledge Management function at a leading international law firm;

• A review of the client experience and supporting systems for a growing multi-office regional practice; and

• Supporting the risk management perspective on a practice management selection process

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Prior to joining 3Kites, my Best Practice & Risk role exposed me to a number of systems developments and projects. The key projects being:

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• Selection (as a client of 3Kites) and implementation of a bespoke matter management system with enhanced integration capabilities and applications outside the legal practice areas including:

  • Client & Matter Inception

  • Conflict checking

  • Milestones & critical date;

• Legal process review (as a client of 3Kites) and implementation of various outcomes;

• Implementing new house styles and templates for precedents and other knowhow sources using Document Excellence Group conventions;

• Overhaul and re-certification of my firm's quality management system to ISO9001; and

• Attaining certification of the firm's information security management system to ISO27001.

 

The key lesson I have learnt is the importance that compliance requirements for a law firm (particularly KYC/AML) are tailored to 'living' risk assessments.  Getting the right balance between prescriptive rules and valued risk-based judgements is very hard but is essential to encourage correct use of the processes and reduce compliance friction.