Matter files and client records, modernised.
Records management and information governance for South African law firms, accounting firms, and consulting firms. Privileged records handling, conflict checks, matter management, client confidentiality, sector code compliance — built for firms that take all of it seriously.
Book Free Assessment →Records that protect the relationship.
- i.
Privilege is a recording-and-handling problem.
Attorney-client privilege, litigation privilege, common-interest privilege — all of them depend on the record being created the right way, stored the right way, accessed by the right people, and produced (or withheld) the right way. The records system either supports privilege or undermines it.
- ii.
Multiple regulators care about your records.
The Legal Practice Council, SAICA and IRBA for accountants, professional indemnity insurers, sector codes of conduct, and (for almost every firm) FICA. Each looks at the same client file through a different lens. Each expects to find different things.
- iii.
Conflicts and confidentiality at firm scale.
As the firm grows, the conflict check becomes less reliable, the confidentiality wall harder to enforce, and the “who has access to what” question genuinely difficult to answer. Records management is the underlying infrastructure that keeps the firm's answer credible.
What we map your records against.
- Legal Practice Act and LPC rules — for law firms, including trust account records, client file retention, and professional conduct.
- SAICA and IRBA standards — audit and engagement file requirements, ethical record-keeping.
- FICA — the accountable institution obligations that catch almost every law firm and accounting firm.
- Sector codes of conduct under POPIA — legal sector and audit sector codes in development.
- POPIA — particularly the operator/responsible-party relationship with clients and the cross-border processing rules.
- Professional indemnity — record-keeping expectations under your PI policy and the discovery cycle when claims arise.
Six things, firm-tuned.
- i.
Matter file management.
Matter opening, conflict check, engagement letter, work-in-progress records, matter closure, archive, retention. A consistent matter spine that survives partner moves, mergers, and the inevitable client follow-on years later.
- ii.
Privileged records handling.
Privilege flags built into the records architecture. Access controls that respect ethical walls. Production logs that prove what was withheld and why. So privilege survives both daily operations and the cross-examination later.
- iii.
FICA records at firm scale.
Client onboarding, beneficial-ownership verification, ongoing due diligence, transaction monitoring records — held in a structure that survives both an FIC review and an LPC inspection.
- iv.
Conflict-check infrastructure.
The records side of the conflict check — client records, party records, related-party records, historical engagements — held in a structure that makes the conflict question answerable in seconds rather than days.
- v.
Trust account records (for law firms).
Trust banking records, deposits, transfers, reconciliations and the audit evidence the LPC and the firm's auditors expect. Audit-ready throughout the year.
- vi.
Information Officer-as-a-Service.
For firms that don't want to ask a partner to take on the statutory IO role. Named senior IO with sector experience, sitting between the firm and the Information Regulator.
Right-sized for the firm.
Sole practitioners and small practices typically sit in Essentials Lite. Established mid-size firms (boutiques, regional firms, mid-size accountants) sit in Foundation. Larger mid-size and growing national firms sit in Professional. The top-tier law firms, Big 4 accounting firms and large management consultancies sit in Enterprise. Professional services is one of the sectors where the package boundary genuinely matches the firm boundary.
Sector close but not exactly this?
Professional services means more than law and accounting — consulting, financial advisory, actuarial, surveying, engineering, advertising, architecture, executive search, and the firms that sit alongside them. Many of them have similar records realities, with different professional bodies. If your firm isn't exactly what we've described, tell us what you do and we'll show you what's relevant.
— T.