The Random Audit and Common Accounting Mistakes

For over 40 years, the New Jersey Supreme Court has mandated permanent disbarment in all cases where a lawyer has knowingly misappropriated a client’s property.
Knowing misappropriation has included cases in which an attorney withdraws money from a trust account and repays it before the client needs to use the money.

New Jersey is one of only eight states that do not currently allow a disbarred attorney to apply for readmission in certain instances.

Many cases of misappropriation are discovered during the random audit.

Every practicing lawyer in New Jersey must maintain both a trust and business account, and is subject to a random audit by the Office of Attorney Ethics. The purpose of the Random Audit Program is to ensure that law firms maintain required records of clients' funds and attorneys' fees. While the idea behind carefully maintaining these records is clear, some of the rules and procedures may not be.

With this informative and interesting new program, you’ll learn the most important strategies and time-saving tips to properly create and maintain your trust accounts, document your financial transactions, and avoid violating the recordkeeping rule (R. 1:21-6) and the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC 1.15). You’ll hear from an ethics expert as he explains why you must always be “audit ready” - and how to maintain your records and bookkeeping so that the random audit process is smooth and painless. In the end, you’ll also learn how to spot record and trust accounting red flags, and how to avoid inadvertent pitfalls and mistakes that can result in professional discipline.