Steve Keeling

Role and Background

Steve worked at the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) in a variety of roles over a 16 year period. Steve is a very experienced Contract Manager, has considerable knowledge of the Agency’s systems and approach to contract management and audit activity and can provide advice on how to prepare for LAA visits and avoid making errors.

Steve has also held the following roles at various times with the LAA: SQM auditor, National Not-for-Profit Lead Contract Manager, with responsibilities for liaising with representative bodies; and Audit Manager, working within the Operational Assurance Team. Steve has undertaken writing and running several training courses over the years and is an experienced public speaker.

He has a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and has a lot of experience in providing coaching. Steve also became one of the first LAA contract managers to become accredited with the IACCM (International Association for Commercial and Contract Management) in 2015 and has passed courses in PRINCE2 and with the Association of Project Management.

Prior to working with the LAA, Steve worked in Business Banking for the National Australia Bank for 5 years and therefore has a good understanding of commerce and how to interpret financial information and accounts.

Remote SQM Audits During Covid-19 Webinar

On 16 June 2020, Steve delivered a free 15-minute webinar to assist firms who are due to undertake their SQM Audit later this year, outlining options available and offering advice on how to prepare for such an audit.  The webinar covers the following areas:

• Your options
• Will on-site assessments be allowed?
• Staff availability and furlough
• How to prepare for a remote audit
• Key elements required for a remote audit to take place
• How to overcome difficulties in providing remote access to files and central records
• How corrective action will be dealt with

What Clients Say

For anyone with a legal aid contract in Crime I strongly recommend DG Legal with particular reference to Steve Keeling. His expert knowledge, thoroughness and response rate are all second to none. We are retainer client’s and I must say the service really is impeccable. We have held a legal aid contract for a very long time now however, since being with Steve Keeling, whom not to mention was previously employed by the LAA for a number of years, we have passed all of our audits with flying colours. At the end of a recent audit the auditor in fact stated the LAA was very impressed with our firm. I have to say DG Legal really are the best when it comes to compliance.

Gurdip Kaur
Practice Manager, Mann & Co

Steve has and is still assisting our Firm, in several areas, from Lexcel Accreditation, Billing through to CM audits. His training sessions are invaluable. Steve gives clear advice, always in a timely manner. He has a wealth of knowledge and is another extremely approachable member of the DG Team.

Paula Berry
Director, Rahman Ravelli Solicitors

Steve Keeling is a fantastic addition to the team at DG Legal. He is knowledgeable and tactical, correctly pre-empting precisely what would be covered in a recent audit. I followed his suggestions and throughout the meeting, I felt he and his colleagues had helped me to prepare well. David Gilmore has quite an impressive team at DG Legal.

Shanaz Patel
Director, City Criminal Lawyers

Contact us

To discover more about how we can help your firm with compliance issues, please either call 01509 214 999 or send us an email.