Compliance and regulatory · COLP, COFA, risk partner, managing partner
The monthly COLP printable audit bundle
The compliance officer has to be able to show what the firm did, not describe what it intends. The register records every run, verification result, share, document and conflict check as it happens, and this is the monthly routine that turns it into something the risk committee reads.
- Agents
- First draft
- The register is a by-product of the work already done; a printable audit bundle for the risk committee is ready in about twenty minutes.
- Steps
- 6
The problem
Step 01 of 06
Open the register
Six categories: runs, verification, sharing, documents, members, conflict checks. Set the period to the month under review.
Step 02 of 06
Read the four numbers
How much work went to clients, what the verdicts say across the month's authorities, who overrode the hold policy and why, and which matters opened with an unresolved conflict flag.
Step 03 of 06
Check the exceptions
Runs that were shared without a recorded sign-off should be an empty intersection; documents deleted are rare and worth a glance.
Step 04 of 06
Export for the committee
The filtered register exports as CSV for the COFA to reconcile.
Step 05 of 06
Generate the bundle
A printable audit bundle for the period, carrying a content digest computed from the bundle's own contents.
Step 06 of 06
Write the four paragraphs
Volume, verification, conflicts and a recommendation, on top of the bundle, for the committee to read in one page.
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- A count of client links created in the month, each with a partner sign-off recorded against the run behind it.
- A breakdown of authorities checked in the month by verdict, with each needs a check or not found row traceable to what happened next.
- A record of any override of the hold-work policy, named and dated with the reasoning.
- A printable audit bundle with a content digest, so a bundle sent to a regulator can later be checked against a regenerated copy.
Authorities it checks
- SRA Risk Outlook report on the use of artificial intelligence in the legal market (November 2023)
- Ayinde v London Borough of Haringey; Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank (Divisional Court, June 2025)
- SRA thematic review of compliance officers (December 2025)
- SRA guidance update on new technology and COLP responsibility (February 2026)
What it does not do
- The bundle carries a content digest. It is not a tamper-evident hash chain and it is not a compliance certificate.
- It does not replace the firm's own conflict policy or a firm-wide compliance system; it is the record of what happened in this product.
- Ethical walls and information barriers are not a feature. Restricted matters and per-reader redaction are what the register shows instead.