Understanding who does what between the accountant and the lawyer is often difficult for the client.
Each of them contributes their expertise, skills and experience to solving a company's problems.
This article focuses on the complementarity between lawyers and chartered accountants in order to clear up any confusion you may have.
But first you need to know what they have in common. They are both part of a professional order (lawyers and accountants). These are professions known as «regulated», This means that the law reserves for them certain areas of intervention, a monopoly of activity, a title, etc.... In return, they have obligations and constraints such as obtaining qualifications, complying with professional standards, compulsory insurance, etc.
These two professionals are company directorse but above all self-employed and may sometimes disagree as a result.
The question is, when should one or the other be involved? We often find that there is some confusion or misunderstanding when, as a chartered accountant, we advise our client to involve a specialist lawyer. They think that we could provide the service. They are also concerned about the financial aspect, as they are used to paying fixed fees. But lawyers generally charge on the basis of time spent.
What is the benefit to the client of involving 2 professionals, the lawyer and the chartered accountant?
There is an obvious benefit in your accountant and lawyer working in perfect harmony. In the first part, we will explain their area of intervention to clear up any misunderstandings. We will then demonstrate your interest in this complementarity. Finally, we will look at how these two professionals work together.
What areas are involved: who does what?
The areas in which the chartered accountant could intervene at the same time as the lawyer have been reduced to a few subjects. There is a convergence of professions and specificities.
However, each of the regulated professions has its own monopoly. Legal services are reserved for lawyers, and accountancy for chartered accountants. However, the latter are authorised to carry out legal acts when this assignment is ancillary to the accountancy service. To be more precise, let's take the following example: when we are tasked with presenting the annual accounts (drawing up the balance sheet, for simplicity's sake), we can hold the ordinary general meeting to approve the annual accounts. However, a prospect for whom we do not have an accounting assignment cannot ask us to hold this same ordinary general meeting. The lawyers' monopoly reserves this service for them.
In the case of lawyers, they cannot do the bookkeeping for their clients, even if they know how to make accounting entries. This monopoly is reserved for chartered accountants.
Joint areas of intervention
We list the 3 areas where the boundary between the chartered accountant and the lawyer may seem blurred.
- Business law Business law: our accountancy studies include a lot of business law. Business law covers a number of areas, including company law, contract law and the law of obligations.
- Tax law Tax advice: preparing tax returns and assisting clients in the event of a tax audit is the responsibility of the chartered accountant. On the other hand, litigation and court proceedings are the domain of lawyers.
- Employment law : The chartered accountant monitors the company's pay slips and social security returns. We often draw up employment contracts and termination procedures for our clients. Now, when an employment contract has to contain very specific information, we systematically delegate it to a lawyer, who has much greater control over the clauses to be inserted. A typical example is the clause relating to IT development in start-ups, involving the writing of lines of code. If it is badly drafted, the employee will be co-owner of the work carried out. You can understand the difficulty when the employee leaves the company and claims a right to the work. The same complication can be found with non-competition clauses in employment contracts for key company executives. If they are badly drafted, they will be unenforceable and you run the risk of a competitor setting up shop who knows you inside out.
In other areas of the law, there is no debate: the lawyer's competence is indisputable. To put it simply, criminal law is the exclusive preserve of the lawyer. Lawyers are also preferred for business transfers. Rules specific to this profession, such as the sequestration of CARPA accounts, make the lawyer your preferred partner.
How do they complement each other? Why do it?
Complementarity is first and foremost for our customer. It is defined as the provision of skills held by two professionals to meet the customer's needs.
The skills are either :
- a speciality (e.g. intellectual property law required for start-ups, business valuation as part of the acquisition of a company)
- An experience For example, a lawyer might have sold a lot of pharmacy businesses. For a chartered accountant, for example, this could mean working with a large number of clients in a particular sector, such as furnished property owners. Repeating a skill frequently is beneficial for the client because the professional has mastered his or her field.
- A network of professionals For both professions, they often have contacts who will be useful to their clients. For example, your lawyer will call in another colleague who is more competent than he is to solve your problem. Chartered accountants work with other service providers such as bankers and insurers. Their areas of expertise give them different points of view that are useful for certain financial and legal arrangements. In the case of a restructuring, for example, the chartered accountant will provide a financial view of the operation, while the lawyer will provide legal security. When incorporating a company, the accountant will assess the feasibility of the project, while the lawyer will draft the articles of association as effectively as possible to avoid any operational problems or future disputes within the company.
We see that complementarity is useful to the customer in its ultimate purpose.
3. How can we get them to work together?
As mentioned above, the chartered accountant and the lawyer are both self-employed professionals. They each work in their own structure and have their own customers. Very often, they work separately and communicate very little. When their points of view differ, this can lead to problems for customers.
In our experience, most contacts are a success in terms of collaboration. Neither of us has any interest in our clients complaining that their case is not progressing. So, in good understanding, the cooperation is going very well.
On a deeper level, this interprofessional is an opportunity to learn from each other. Our curiosity, our taste for contact and confrontation in the positive sense of the term is an invaluable source of experience. The proverb «alone we go faster, together we go further» takes on its full meaning.
As an example of how chartered accountants and lawyers can work together, here is a case study of a client who had a tax audit. As a chartered accountant, we assisted our client during the audit because we had drawn up the accounts and associated tax returns. Despite all the evidence we provided, the tax authorities severely reassessed our client's tax affairs. Knowing the case, we felt that this reassessment was unfair and disproportionate. We put our client in touch with a lawyer specialising in challenging tax audits in our network. After study and procedure, she succeeded in getting the effects of the reassessment reversed in court. We preferred to put this lawyer in touch with our client because we knew of his expertise and experience, which helped our client's case move forward.
The reverse is also true. We are often consulted by lawyers to value a company, particularly in the context of litigation.
When the two professionals listen to each other and look for a useful solution and contribute their skills, the customer wins.
Novalliance Avocats and Novalliance Expertise Comptable, a true complementarity
As we have seen, as a customer, you are the first person interested in having these two professionals work together. Each has their own area of expertise and brings their own added value to serve your interests. However, it is important to find the right useful complementarities for you. Collective intelligence is generally along these lines. Besides, everyone knows their limits and their skills. Let's not forget that the notion of responsibility the fact that legal and accounting professionals appreciate working together for their customers and their happiness.
To illustrate this complementarity, Novalliance Expertise Comptable and Lilia Bariki have created a joint structure, Novalliance Avocats. The aim is to provide business expertise through genuine collaboration. We realised that mastering the subtleties of the law was time-consuming if we were to be at the cutting edge of this practice. By teaming up with us, our clients gain a real competitive advantage. quality service, a responsiveness that is out of all proportion to a controlled rate. Once the customer has given his consent, we discuss the matter regularly to find solutions. Imagine the stress of setting up your own business. The inter-professional approach offered by Novalliance means that your chartered accountant can handle the financial side of your business, while your lawyer can set up your company in your best interests.
The cross-view of the chartered accountant and the lawyer is a source of inspiration.’innovation and legal certainty for everyone. We learn from each other. The customer is the first to benefit from this complementary approach.
