Law firm business continuity plan review checklist
A business continuity plan (BCP) ensures a law firm can continue to serve clients through disruption — cyber incident, power outage, pandemic, or natural disaster. This checklist is for firm managers reviewing their BCP annually.
This is a 12-step business continuity plan review checklist for Australian law firms. It covers risk assessment, recovery, testing, and governance.
The checklist
Review business impact analysis
Review the business impact analysis identifying critical functions and dependencies.
Review critical systems list
Confirm practice management, document management, email, and trust systems are prioritised.
Review recovery time objectives
Confirm RTOs for each critical system are achievable and current.
Check data backup strategy
Check daily offsite backups are operating and tested.
Check disaster recovery site
Confirm DR site is current and can host operations.
Review staff remote working
Confirm remote working capability and required access.
Check client communication plan
Review the client communication plan for a disruption.
Check trust account continuity
Confirm trust account access and reconciliation continuity under legal profession legislation.
Review court deadline management
Check how urgent court deadlines will be met during disruption.
Check insurance cover
Review professional indemnity and business interruption cover.
Conduct tabletop exercise
Conduct a scenario-based tabletop exercise to test the plan.
Update and approve plan
Update the plan and obtain partnership approval.
When this checklist applies
Use annually or after any incident that stresses the firm's resilience.
Common pitfalls
- RTOs aspirational rather than achievable
- Backups not tested in restore conditions
- Remote working not tested at scale
- Trust account continuity overlooked
- Tabletop exercise not conducted
Run this checklist on a real matter
Quillio can review a law firm BCP and identify gaps against best practice. See /practice-areas/firm-management or start a free trial.
General guidance for BCP reviews. Apply firm-specific risks and jurisdictional obligations.
Use this checklist on your matter.
Quillio can run this checklist on a specific NSW conveyancing matter — confirm each item, calculate adjustments, and generate the supporting documents. The free trial requires no credit card.
Start your free trial