Jonathan Goldsmith
The anti-money laundering guidance issued in March 2018 by the Legal Sector Affinity Group (LSAG) – made up of the legal sector’s regulatory and representative bodies including the Law Society – ran to 156 pages. When the guidance was reissued earlier this year, it ran to 212 pages, a 35% increase.
Over the same period, the Solicitors Regulation Authority – which is also a member of the LSAG – replaced its former longer handbook with its shorter Standards and Regulations, on the grounds that written guidance for solicitors needs to be shorter and less prescriptive.
The French bar’s solution is likely to be encouraged internationally in the future... lawyers are not allowed to hold clients’ money, but must pay it in to the bar’s account