Client money moves on your word. Make sure it's really your client's.
Settlement payouts, real-estate closings and trust-account disbursements all start with wire instructions, often sent by email. That makes small and mid-sized firms a natural target: one convincing "updated instructions" email can send client funds to a criminal's account.
Where firms get caught
- Changed wire instructions from a "client", "opposing counsel" or "title company" days before a closing or settlement.
- A hijacked real mailbox: the email really comes from your client's address, because their account was compromised.
- Urgency from a "partner" asking the bookkeeper to send a retainer refund or disbursement today, without the usual sign-off.
- Invoice fraud from a "vendor", such as an expert, court reporter or e-discovery provider, with new bank details.
How VouchSafe helps
- A callback before every wire. Changed instructions become a case. VouchSafe texts or calls a one-time code to the number you already hold for that client or firm, from your intake records, never from the email. Only the real person can read it back.
- Two people for trust disbursements. Above your threshold, a second person must approve, and it can't be the person who made the callback.
- In the inbox. The Outlook and Gmail add-ins flag lookalike domains, display-name tricks, reply-to diversions and payment-change wording in the message staff are reading.
- A record of what was done. Every step goes into a tamper-evident audit log you can export, useful for your file, your insurer and your bank.
Professional duties this supports
The rules below are summarised from the ABA Model Rules and formal opinions. Your state's version of each rule and its ethics opinions are what apply to you. VouchSafe is a software tool, not a law firm, and this isn't legal or ethics advice.
- Safekeeping client property: ABA Model Rule 1.15.
- Technology competence: Comment 8 to ABA Model Rule 1.1 refers to the benefits and risks of relevant technology.
- Supervising non-lawyer staff, including the people who send wires: ABA Model Rule 5.3.
- Securing client communications: ABA Formal Opinion 477R (2017). Obligations after a data breach: ABA Formal Opinion 483 (2018).
What it doesn't do
VouchSafe doesn't hold or move money, isn't connected to your bank or trust account, and can't recall a wire. It doesn't replace your bank's controls or your firm's policies; it makes the callback step consistent and recorded. See the full list.
Getting started
Add the clients, title companies and counterparties you wire money to, with phone numbers from your own intake records. Invite a second approver. Set your threshold. Setup takes about as long as entering your key contacts.