Accountancy for Lawyers

A client hands you Rs 50,000 in cash for court fees and expenses on the first day. Six months later the matter ends, and she asks, “How much of it is left?” If you can open a ledger and show every rupee received, every rupee spent and the balance, you are a professional. If you cannot, you have a problem that no amount of legal skill will fix. Accounts are where ethics becomes arithmetic.

In two minutes

An advocate holds client money in trust: the Bar Council of India rules require accounts showing what was received, spent and charged as fees, prompt intimation of receipts, no diversion of expenses into fees without written consent, and a copy of the account on demand, and breach can be professional misconduct under s.35 of the Advocates Act.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Practical Training – I: Professional Ethics and Professional Accounting System on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.