How Common is Employee Theft in a Law Firm?
Employee theft at law firm is probably more common than you think. I saw two articles just last week about employees stealing from their firm. In New York a secretary who stole over $600,000 from her firm was sentenced to 4–13 years in prison. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania a paralegal who stole $75,000 from her firm received house arrest.
This happens in Mississippi all the time. I personally know of three firms that pressed charges against employees who stole from the firm within the last eight years. In each case, I also knew the employee and they all appeared trustworthy. Without question, they were all hard working and were good employees except for the stealing.
Employee theft has occurred at large Capital Street Jackson firms and at solo practices. It has happened all over the State. And the scary thing is, everyone does not get caught.
Lawyers need to think about this and develop a plan for preventing employee theft from happening. There are resources on the internet that list steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of employee theft. In deciding what to do your gage should not be whether you think that you can trust your employee(s).
