ASSESS YOUR FIRM'S RISK
VIRTUAL ETHICS RISK ASSESSMENT FOR ATTORNEYS & LAW FIRMS
Use Our Free Ethics Risk Assessment Tool for Attorneys
The ALPS Virtual Ethics Risk Assessment, more affectionately known as Vera, was created to serve as your guide to quickly and effectively help you understand where you fall in terms of risk management within your firm. We also hope you have a little fun along the way. The full assessment shouldn’t take any longer than 20 minutes to complete. Don't have 20 minutes? You can tackle each subject one at a time too! Whichever approach works best for you, you'll receive your customized Vera report upon submittal.
Getting Your Free VERA Report Is Easy:
1. Take The Quiz: Choose from any of the seven sections below, or take the full assessment. Select the answers that you feel best describe your firm. Keep in mind that this process is meant to be fun, which means the available answers to some questions may not perfectly describe your firm.
2. Get Your Results: Once you have completed the process, Vera will assign a point value to each answer, tally the results, and provide a link via email that will allow you to download your detailed summary report. Note that any answer left blank will be scored as a zero.
3. Start Decreasing Your Risk: With your firm's recommendations in hand, take steps to reduce your firm's ethics risk.
What Seven Subjects Are Covered by VERA?
Start with one or take them all. Customize your risk assessment with the following sections.
Section 1: Client Intake
Client Intake
Missteps insurers categorize as client relations problems continue to represent a significant malpractice risk. One way to effectively manage such risks is with an effective client intake process.
Section 2: File Documentation
File Documentation
Word against word disputes are commonplace, which can mean that whenever you fail to document something along the way, you increase the risk of having a serious problem down the road.
Section 3: Calendaring
Calendaring
According to the ABA’s Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims 2016 – 2019 Report, over 16% of all claims during the reporting period were a result of a calendaring misstep.
Section 4: The Trust Account
The Trust Account
Trust account problems aren’t just about rogue lawyers. The real problem is that far too often a lawyer was less than diligent about maintaining proper and appropriate financial practices.
Section 5: General Risk Management
General Risk Management
What do the topics of housekeeping, client communication, file review, fee suits, and wellness have to do with managing risk in a law firm? More than many lawyers realize.
Section 6: Cyber Security
Cyber Security
There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those who don't know they have been hacked. (John T. Chambers, Former Cisco CEO)
Section 7: Firm Policies & Plans
Firm Policies & Plans
Truth be told, the failure to plan is a de facto plan to fail.
Full Assessment (All 7 Sections)
Full Assessment
Complete the full assessment covering all seven sections: Client Intake, File Documentation, Calendaring, The Trust Account, General Risk Management, Cyber Security, and Firm Policies & Plans.
Disclaimer
ALPS has developed and made available at no cost to all-comers this Virtual Ethics Risk Assessment (Vera). The driving motivation behind this project was to find a new way to share the intellectual capital of our past and current risk managers in a fun and engaging way with as broad an audience as possible. Vera will be most effective if all questions are answered as honestly and completely as possible. To help you to feel comfortable in doing so, please know that Vera is exclusively an educational tool. While we will collect answer data for the sole purpose of identifying areas where the development of additional risk management resources might be of value to future Vera participants, rest assured in knowing that no information shared during the assessment process will ever be revealed to or used by our underwriting department in quoting a policy or otherwise. Quite simply, that’s just not how we do business. One final note: because Vera is only able to deliver her summary report via an email autogenerated at the conclusion of the assessment, a valid email address is required for participation.