Your Procedures Look Fine on Paper.
This Check Reads What Actually Happens.
Twelve questions on how the firm runs under real conditions: the rules you watch, the files you keep, the checks you actually perform, and what would happen if the bar, a carrier, or opposing counsel looked at the work today.
6
Areas Checked
5-8 min
Estimated Completion
12
Scored Questions
Built For
Most Problems in a Small Firm Do Not Start With a Missing Policy
They start with the day-to-day. The procedure exists. The policy was signed. The checklist is in the drawer. But the work runs differently than the firm describes, the file does not show what actually happened, and no one notices until someone else starts asking.
Steps that exist on paper but get shortened when the week is busy
Items with no owner, so nothing happens when they are missed
File notes and records that show what should have happened, not what did
Small shortcuts that settle in and become how the firm works
A bar auditor, a malpractice carrier, or opposing counsel reads a file for exactly this: whether the record matches the work. That gap is what this check measures.
What the Diagnostic Actually Measures
6 areas of practice, with two questions each: questions about written procedures, everyday practice, and the records the firm could produce. The distance between those two answers is where the exposure sits.
Rules and Rule Changes
Whether the rules that apply to your practice are written down, watched for changes, and looked at when a change lands.
Client Files and Records
Whether a file holds together from intake to closing, and whether you could produce it completely and in order.
Written Procedure vs. Practice
Where what the firm describes and what happens day to day drift apart. This is the gap a bar auditor or a carrier looks for.
Fixing What Went Wrong
Whether a problem that has come up before stays fixed, or returns the next time the same pressure hits.
Bar and Carrier Readiness
Whether your own file reviews find problems before a bar auditor, a carrier, or opposing counsel does.
Client Information and Systems
Whether email, devices, and access are controlled, and whether the firm could get back to work if it were locked out.
A Scored View of Where the Firm Actually Stands
A self-reported snapshot a small firm can use to decide what to check next. Your answers are not independently verified, and the scores do not determine compliance.
Overall Score
One number for how the firm is holding across rules, files, practice, fixes, readiness, and systems.
Area Scores
Scored results for each of the six areas, so you can see which are held and which are not.
Findings Ranked by Severity
The gaps that need attention first, each tied to the question that surfaced it.
Written Down vs. What Happens
Where the firm describes one thing and does another. This is the gap complaints and claims are built on.
Priority Plan
Immediate, 30-day, and 90-day steps, ordered by what would hurt first.
Built for Solo and Small Firm Lawyers Who Want Answers, Not More Paperwork
Solo practitioners
Who carry the trust account, the files, and the client relationships themselves, with no one checking the work.
Small firm owners and managing partners
Who want a straight answer on where the firm is exposed, before a carrier renewal, a bar audit, or a fee dispute.
Office managers and support staff
Who handle keys, files, deposits, and onboarding, and often hold the only accurate picture of where things actually live.
Bookkeepers and outside IT providers
Who need to see what the firm expects of them, and whether the pieces they own are being checked.
Built From Investigative Field Work, Not a Generic Framework
This check was built from field-level experience investigating how operations fail, and from reading the records small firms keep about their own work.
It is not built from a generic framework. It is built from the patterns that repeat when controls fail in a small practice: the step skipped during a busy week, the item nobody owned, and the file that no longer matches the work.
These are the same questions a careful outside reviewer would ask. The difference is that you see the answers first.
Investigative Methodology
Built on how controls actually fail in small operations
Firm Practice Experience
Trust accounting, client files, conflicts, and bar and carrier reviews
Practice-Focused
Every question asks what happens day to day, not what the policy says
Know Where the Firm
Actually Stands
The check takes under 10 minutes.
The gaps it surfaces usually take longer to explain.