If a law firm holds funds of NC clients in an out-of-state account, how should that account be set up?
. Under the Rules of Professional Conduct, all general trust accounts must be maintained at a bank in North Carolina or a bank with branch offices in North Carolina. As the comment to the trust account rules notes, a law firm with offices in another state may send a North Carolina clients funds to a firm office in another state for centralized processing though the client funds are still subject to the requirements of the NC Rules of Professional Conduct. Therefore, the NC client funds should be placed into a general trust account, the interest from which will be remitted to NC IOLTA.
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- If a law firm holds funds of NC clients in an out-of-state account, how should that account be set up?