828-674-8282
kathypopenc@gmail.com
Kathy Pope has 30 years of experience in reconciling trust and operating accounts, as well as conducting trust account audits. As a consultant, Kathy is available to design and implement procedures to assist your firm in improving compliance and documentation.
On November 28, 2023, Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to 27 years in South Carolina state prison for the confessed crimes of stealing millions of dollars over the course of a decade from clients, friends, and family. Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and son in March, a crime in which he maintains his innocence. Kathy Pope, a consultant with 30-years of experience in helping law firms manage their trust accounts, provides insight into how Murdaugh’s law firm could have prevented these crimes, and offers tips for ethically managing your trust account. Read More
Trust Account Maintenance is an ongoing job. Below are 5 steps to assist with that process. Step 1: Review all outstanding checks. This must be done before you can truly evaluate the client ledger balances. A ledger with a $0.00 balance listing checks that have not cleared the bank is a prob… Read More
We have all read articles about disciplinary action being taken against an attorney where the cause was listed as “clerical errors”. We envision an unorganized desk, and a bookkeeper shopping online, or chatting on Facebook. I know from experience that is not typically the case.&#… Read More
Answers to questions that will help your trust account records pass to a NC State Bar audit. Read More
Information to make sure your trust account balances when checks are outstanding Read More
Lawyers Mutual has published previous alerts regarding the new filing requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) that went into effect January 1, 2024. After reviewing additional resources, we want to emphasize concerns that we have about the risks and increased potential liability for lawyers undertaking the reporting requirements. This is especially true for the continuing reporting requirements after entity formation and initial reporting.
The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) recently announced additional go-live plans for counties transitioning from paper files to Enterprise Justice (Odyssey), which currently serves Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Mecklenburg and Wake counties. Twelve northeastern counties comprising Track 3, as previously announced, will go live on February 5, and 10 counties comprising Track 4 (Alamance, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Guilford, Orange, Person, Vance and Warren) will go live on April 29.