Linda Lambert HonFILFM

B.Com (Acc), ILFM (Dip) HonFILFM

Hi, my name is Linda Lambert and I have been delivering training for the ILFM since 2003. My subjects have included Payroll, Credit Control, Steps 1 and 2 (double entry book keeping, and final accounts), now part of Fundamentals of Legal Cashiering, and Step 3 which later became Financial Management for Legal Professionals, which I delivered until 2018.

From 2006 I took on the SRA Accounts Rules training, and I now also deliver Fundamentals of Legal Cashiering - double entry and Accounts Rules together. With book keeping being my first love and having a long-standing interest in the Accounts Rules, this has meant I am training in subjects I really enjoy. 

The SRA Accounts Rules have proved both challenging, with numerous changes over the years, and also very rewarding. I started with a blank sheet - no notes at all - and have, of course, been updating the material ever since. I particularly enjoy meeting up with delegates that have attended  before as well as training to a diverse audience including solicitors, software and third-party managed accounts providers as well as cashiers in all of their many roles in a solicitor’s practice accounting function.

I have also been the Tutor for the ILFM Associate Accounting for Legal Finance Professionals Course since 2003. The course looks at final accounts, accounting concepts and standards as well as interpretation of accounts and, latterly, company accounts too. The course has changed over the years to reflect the fact that many partnerships are now LLP’s although we still do most of the course using the traditional partnership model. I support the students, write the exam and mark it, as well as run revision courses as and when requested. I enjoy teaching and started off doing numeracy skills with Art students at my local college - the ILFM students are much better motivated!

I live in Shropshire and have been a self-employed SRA Accounts Rules Consultant and Cashier since 1994. I have managed several startups, worked as a Practice and Finance Manager in several sizes of firms as well as consulting and cashiering in a variety of places including Worcester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Birmingham and Bromley South. I have experience of handwritten records as well as computerised systems, using several different packages over my career. I also do consultancy work, from one day to a rolling contract, covering all areas of cashiering and financial management as requested; an aspect of my work I really enjoy as this means applying my knowledge to specific circumstances.

My background includes Exhibition Design, and I have a degree in Accountancy from Birmingham University. My working life has taken in banking, accountancy and further education lecturing, as well as cashiering since 1985 (yes, a long time - just as well I enjoy both working for and with solicitor practices). My hobbies are patchwork and quilting, gardening and classical music - mainly just listening!