A supervising practitioner assumes more than tortious liability for the conduct of employees.
Rule 37 of the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules 2012 imposes a positive duty to ensure that a “reasonable supervision” regime is in place.
Failure to do so may result in disciplinary charges against the supervisor, especially where trust account defalcation arises. Appropriate supervision requires active steps to check that employee conduct is appropriate, and this onus cannot be discharged by simply accepting assurances; Queensland Law Society Inc. v Cummings [2004] QCA 138; Maree Westbrook, ‘Supervised legal practice & the Legal Profession Act 2007’ (2009) 29(5) Proctor 31–32.
There is some carrot to go with that stick, however.
Effective supervision – an essential element of effective delegation - is also an important profit and morale driver. Rather than being yet another “must do” to cram into an already hopelessly overcrowded schedule, effective delegation will return stolen hours to the working week, and do so without betting your financial health and reputation on every file.
Good delegation and supervision are skills that take time and practice but will have a lot of positive benefits to a practice of any size. For comprehensive information, see clause 2.9 of the *Guide to appropriate management systems.
Author: David Bowles, Ethics Solicitor, 13 May 2014
*updated in 2017