Protect Your Law Firm: Expert AML Training for Solicitors & Staff

Money laundering is a financial crime where criminals attempt to conceal or “clean” illegally obtained money via a series of financial transactions, obscuring the original source of funds.

UK anti-money laundering regulations combine several different rules, legal requirements, and processes, intending to identify and prevent this illegal activity from happening.

This varies based on the industry and organisation, but in all cases, it is imperative that all Relevant Employees receive training that is appropriate to their role and the risk profile of the organisation or department.

To paraphrase the Legal Sector Affinity Group guidance a Relevant Employee is one that either uses, decides or has an impact upon AML controls in an organisation. In a typical contemporary ‘high street’ legal practice, that is going to include;

• MLROs
• MLCOs
• Fee earners
• COLPs
• COFAs
• Paralegals
• Trainee solicitors
• Legal secretarial staff
• Accounts staff
• Reception staff
• Compliance role staff
• New employees as part of your onboarding process

In practice, almost all of a firm’s staff will be Relevant Employees to some extent.

If in doubt, contact us to discuss your team structure and we can provide you with personalised guidance.

Tailored training is better for law firms – it’s more relevant, practical, and easier to evidence for regulators.

Generic, pre-recorded courses leave gaps and don’t reflect your firm’s risks or processes, whereas specific, tailored training improves recall and provides stronger evidence for regulatory bodies such as the CLC.

We’re proud to specialise in delivering training live, in real time. That means that we can shape the delivery to suit the unique needs of your organisation. 

We can conduct the training for your team:

• in-person at your office or other venue near you
• live online (generally via MS Teams)
• or a mixture of both

As with all of our services, this will be tailored to what works best for your team.

Our trainers utilise a range of techniques to aid learning including:

• Scenarios (potentially linked to your operation)
• Real-life case studies
• Workshops

CPD was replaced by the Continuing Competence scheme in November 2016 – our training is built for Continuing Competence, not a tick-box CPD test. Instead of a one-off test, Continuing Competence expects meaningful, demonstrable learning. We achieve this through interactive workshops and realistic case exercises that encourage applied learning, not rote memorisation.

Sessions run from 45 minutes to 6 hours. Common options are a 45-90 minute micro-refresher, a 3-hour session  (the most popular), or a full-day (6 hrs). We tailor the length to your team’s knowledge, roles, and goals (e.g. one intensive day or short modules over weeks). Tell us attendee numbers and topics, and we’ll recommend a plan – book a free training consultation for a bespoke timetable.

Annual refresher training is a minimum, to support avoiding falling foul of the latest requirements, controls and risks.

We’ll review your firm’s risk profile and discuss whether you need whole-team refresher training or a targeted update for specific staff to get a worthwhile ROI and close any compliance gaps.

There is no minimum or maximum cohort size. The key to success for the training comes from the content and delivery being interactive and relevant for your team. 

• 8 to 20 delegates are ideal for an intimate, highly interactive boardroom session. If your venue supports cabaret seating or theatre-style seating, 40 to 50 delegates can work well for teamwork activities and workshop elements.
• While hundreds can join online, 12 to 30 delegates is the sweet spot so participants can ask questions and engage comfortably.
• We run multiple identical sessions for very large cohorts (for example, four sessions of 30 delegates) to keep learning effective and consistent across your firm.
• You can also record the session on camera or a laptop, to show to new starters and other staff in the future.

Not a problem! There are several options:

• We can run the sessions on multiple dates.
• The sessions can be recorded to share or review later (which is especially useful during staff inductions).
• And, we can run ‘sweep-up sessions’ a few days/weeks later.

In short, everything – just let us know what you would like from your training, and we’ll provide a detailed, transparent proposal with no hidden costs. Here’s a rough breakdown:

• The preparation and tailoring of the content
• The scheduling of the session(s)
• The provision of the PDF copies delegate materials
• Supply of attendance certificates
• Any travel costs of the trainer (for in-person training)
• And, of course, the delivery of the session itself

We verify understanding by observing applied learning – practical exercises, discussion, and follow-up – not by a one-off multiple-choice quiz.

People can answer questions two minutes after being told something, but that doesn’t mean they’ll retain or apply it months later. Regulators are questioning that approach, and our R21 Independent AML Audits repeatedly show that quiz-only training simply ticks a box and gives a false sense of security.

Instead, the success of PDA’s training stems from our tailored and interactive approach. Firms inform us that their staff recall key aspects for much longer, not least because the training sparks discussion that runs for long after we have left the building!