New Financial Services and Asset management practice area

It has been quite a while since we have seen the introduction of a new practice area into the Accredited Paralegal Status so it is with great delight that we are able to introduce to you the newest of our practice areas, Financial Services – Asset Management.

So how has this come about? Well, we were approached by one of our Accredited Paralegals, at a point in her career when she was just about to make the move from private practice to an in-house role. Having checked out our current practice areas, Laura Mack, a member of our Accredited Paralegal Committee, discovered that we did not have a practice area covering the type of work she would be carrying out. So what now? Laura had two options.  She could retire her accreditation or alternatively, take the bull by the horns and ask us about the possibility of creating a new accreditation.  As you can imagine we were pleased as punch to help.

So after a lot of drafting, gathering feedback, redrafting, and making our final amendments, we have been able to mould and create a new practice area and we are pleased to invite those of you who work in Financial Services – Asset Management  and believe you meet the competencies to have a look and apply to join.

A paralegal applying to join this practice area should be competent to:

• Maintain and update fund offering documentation.
• Conduct legal research on various topical mattes and proof reading
• Prepare board minutes and resolutions
• Implement procedure to call an Annual General Meeting, General Meeting, and Board Meeting
• Comply with the various timescales related to the work of a Financial Services Paralegal
• Maintain precedent documents and checklists
• Identify a potential or real conflict of interest and seek the correct support from supervising solicitors

You will still be required to be working under the supervision of a Supervising Solicitor who holds an unrestricted Practicing Certificate,  whether this is in house or in private practice.

This was a great opportunity for me to work closely with members which in itself was a valuable experience and in fact the creation of this practice area has led to the possible creation of a second practice area with the Banking and Finance sector …. So keep an eye out for more information on that.

More importantly, in taking the plunge and asking us about possible new areas of accreditation, Laura has  highlighted the need for the creation of more practice areas. So if you or someone you know is working in an area where we have no accreditation then please do get in touch.  We would love to hear from you. Drop me a line at janetrieu-clarke@lawscot.org.uk