Morecrofts Solicitors pass SRA AML audit with help of Access Legal Learning
- Morecrofts were successfully able to prove to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) during an audit that their staff had completed all their mandatory training by simply using a report from the Access Legal Learning system.
- Using Access Legal Learning has simplified the way its staff learn, giving them to option to complete more engaging training at a time that suits them.
- Access Legal Learning reinforces Morecrofts’ culture of compliance and Learning & Development, giving managers the power to see what training their team have done and when.
The lockdown in 2020 presented a major challenge to the entire legal industry, but for Alison Lobb, Managing Partner and COLP at 200-year-old Liverpool law firm, Morecrofts LLP, there was another challenge – an SRA Anti-money laundering (AML) audit.
With staff forced to work from home, proving that all the correct processes had been followed could have been difficult, but Access Legal Learning’s Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) for Law Firms package, which includes a suite of AML training courses specifically for law firms, allowed Morecrofts to meet their training requirements easily and efficiently. As part of the learning platform, Alison was able to simply produce a report showing that all staff had completed the required training and could satisfy the SRA that Morecrofts are following all the correct procedures and staff are all trained to the appropriate level.
Alison said, “We had the SRA AML audit during lockdown and passed with no problems, but it really brought home how important, not only having these systems in place is, but also in having a strong culture of compliance and learning and development.”
A strong culture of compliance
Morecrofts is a multi-disciplinary firm operating across six offices in the Liverpool city region. Having a large family law team, as well as doing a lot of conveyancing and private client work means that the firm face a number of regulatory risks on a daily basis. AML, data protection and cyber security are all important risks that need to be mitigated and are done so by having a strong culture of compliance.
“Compliance is a big part of our culture.” said Alison, “I’ve been the COLP (Compliance Officer for Legal Practice) since I took over as Managing Partner in 2014 and compliance seems to be taking up more and more time as the years go on.
“We’ve been Lexcel accredited since it started and also CQS accredited so there’s lots of hoops to jump through.”
With the requirements of these accreditations and the daily compliance issues thrown up in a law firm, balancing the role of COLP and Managing Partner, becomes a challenge, as Alison explains, “Balancing the two roles is difficult as compliance is always urgent.
“It’s difficult to plan what you’re doing on a day-to-day basis because if something comes up, it potentially means having to drop everything else. I probably spend around half my time on compliance, customer care and service issues. I’m also involved in the marketing and business development side of things, so I don’t get as much time as I’d like for planning the strategic direction of the firm,”
On top of these roles, Alison is also the firm’s training principal, in charge of training for all Morecroft’s employees.
The importance of learning and development in Morecrofts
“L&D is really important to the firm and is something we’re trying to make a strong part of our culture, where every month everybody completes some learning. It’s a difficult process, but we’re getting there!”
“I recently completed our annual review of training records in the Access Legal Learning system for our practicing certificate renewal and I’ve actually found that since the start of the first lockdown, our people have actually managed to do more training”
“Personally, working from home I’ve had more chance to partake in webinars and complete training as there’s nobody coming into your room to disturb you, which has made quite a lot of difference.”
“It’s certainly a big change from where we used to be. Prior to buying the Access Legal Learning System, every year, we would do mandatory training for all our people, bringing together everybody from all six offices into our boardroom so we could talk to them for two hours.
“I’d talk to them; David, our COFA and Finance Partner, would talk to them; and Craig, who’s our IT Manager would talk to them and we’d all go away completely worn out and not sure if anybody had actually taken anything in.
“It’s not the best way to do it as people learn in different ways. Some people are quite happy being lectured to for a few hours, but many people prefer visual learning, which was a key reason why we invested in the Access Legal Learning platform.
“We initially had some pushback from other partners who felt it was unnecessary as we could provide the training ourselves, but the fact you can get people to do it in their own time, without having to travel anywhere, in smaller chunks and without me boring them for a few hours means the solution has worked really well for us.”
“Feedback I’ve received on the courses has been good. I certainly haven’t received any negative feedback and personally, I think they’re great! I think the fact you have to pay attention to them, they’re interactive and you have to complete a short quiz at the end, means you have to concentrate and take in the information being presented to you. Otherwise, you could just play a video in the background without paying attention and nobody would be any the wiser.”
Alison’s comments are backed up by Access Legal’s own research where webinars (69%) and e-learning (65%) proved to be the most popular method of learning, with engaging content being by far the most desired factor (75%).
Greater clarity over who’s done what
Using the Access Legal Learning platform has brought some great benefits to Alison and her team enabling her to meet the training and compliance challenges she and her firm face on a daily basis.
“It helps us as managers because you can see who has done what. When we had the AML audit, we were able to go in and show the SRA that everyone had done their training. It’s the same for Lexcel audits.
“I also think in terms of our people, the fact that they can access the training whenever they want is really beneficial, rather trying to do something internally that means downtime for our staff, where people have to travel from other offices.
“The system helps to reinforce our culture of compliance and learning and development, giving our people the freedom to complete their mandatory training at a time and place that suits them.”
