Money laundering within the legal profession has faced significant legal press exposure in recent months. Legal Practice Support’s Proclaim Development team has therefore created a process to ensure a strong anti-money laundering process can be implemented for all case types within the Proclaim software itself.
SRA Targets Hundreds of Firms
The SRA has recently pulled up a large number of firms for having inadequate anti-money laundering checks in place, with more than 40 Solicitors struck-off or suspended in the last five years for failing to have adequate protections in place.
Vetting Process
LPS have developed an anti-money laundering process, that can mandatorily form part of any case type to ensure all new clients are vetted for money laundering risks. Firms are required by legislation to have risk assessments in place, and so it is of the utmost importance that you have fully compliant processes in place.
Following the guidance set out by the SRA, the process created by LPS mandatorily requires any new client to have been fully risk assessed, for warning signs of money laundering to be checked, and for all ID documentation to have been provided from the outset. Any high risks, or warnings signs identified are then flagged to a Manager or the COLP. From here, instructions can either be approved, rejected, or further information requested.
Reporting
To ensure that full money laundering checks are completed by all staff, a single report can be provided to offer a summary of Management Information. This will flag all cases that have not had checks completed, or those with which there are outstanding Manager approvals. This ensures no case is left unaudited, and that there is no way of cases ‘slipping through the net’. This ensures a fully compliant anti-money laundering process is in place for all cases.
Find Out More ……
If you would like to discuss how to incorporate rigorous anti-money laundering processes into your Proclaim system, or to discuss general Proclaim development, please do not hesitate to contact enquiries@legalpracticesupport.co.uk for further information.
James Denby is Head of Proclaim Development at Legal Practice Support and possesses in excess of eight years’ experience, both in-house and as an external consultant, in developing legal case management systems. James is also uniquely in the position of having worked as a Senior Manager within a law firm, and as having conducted his own caseload as an experienced Paralegal. As a seasoned Proclaim Developer, James understands the requirements of any IT system/workflow/task from the view of the user, as well as from an IT perspective.