The LSAG AML Guidance: What Law Firms Need to Know [Free Guide]

The LSAG AML Guidance: What Law Firms Need to Know (Download the Free Guide)

What is the Legal Sector Affinity Group AML Guidance?

The Legal Sector Affinity Group (LSAG) has published its Anti-Money Laundering guidance for the Legal Sector 2021. As set out in its background, LSAG aims to “aid… compliance and to effectively protect against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing risks”. The LSAG guidance is an invaluable aid to those in the legal sector, and has been written in light of changes to the Regulations. While an invaluable aid to those in the legal sector, the complex guidance is over 200 pages long.

Why is Anti-Money Laundering Guidance for the Legal Sector Important?

Though it is not officially mandatory, the LSAG guidance is vital for protecting your practice. The SRA website says that “for firms supervised by the SRA for AML [the LSAG guidance] now constitutes official guidance,” and as stated at the start of the guidance, “legal sector supervisors will consider whether a legal professional has complied with this guidance when undertaking its role as regulator of professional conduct”.

Core Concepts of the LSAG Guidance – VinciWorks Free Guide

VinciWorks has created a concise guide highlighting the core concepts of the LSAG guidance, including practical tips. The guide includes an introduction to the guidance, an overview of risk assessments, what you need to know about Client Due Diligence (CDD), Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), and Simple Due Diligence (SDD), and how the use of technologies such as Omnitrack can be helpful in carrying out risk assessments, CDD, ongoing monitoring, and ‘just in time’ training.

Click here for a free download of the guide.

How are you managing your GDPR compliance requirements?

GDPR added a significant compliance burden on DPOs and data processors. Data breaches must be reported to the authorities within 72 hours, each new data processing activity needs to be documented and Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) must be carried out for processing that is likely to result in a high risk to individuals. Penalties for breaching GDPR can reach into the tens of millions of Euros.

“In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.”