Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Training For Law Firms

Money laundering is a financial crime where criminals attempt to conceal or “clean” illegally obtained money via a series of financial transactions to such an extent that it is no longer identifiable as having originated from criminal activities.

UK anti-money laundering regulations combine a number of different rules, legal requirements and processes, with the aim of identifying and preventing this illegal activity from happening.

Our AML compliance training will help you and your team with all levels of understanding, from beginner insights such as explaining their key responsibilities and how to identify common red flags, to more advanced topics suitable for Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs), Money Laundering Compliance Officers (MLCOs) and Compliance Officers for Legal Practices (COLPs).

Every business covered by the UK anti-money laundering regulations (which typically includes solicitors, accountants, financial services, and estate agents to name just a few) must, as part of those obligations, provide sufficient training to certain employees within the organisation.

Failure to comply with the AML requirements can lead to financial penalties, sanctions, losing your licence to operate within the UK, suspension or cancellation of the business registration, or potentially even criminal proceedings. In 2023, HMRC issued £3.2 million in non-compliance fines.

And, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has recently, and publicly, imposed fines on legal practices that did not have adequate controls in place. In addition, due to the sheer extent of concern about ineffective AML training, it is commencing thematic reviews of training.

Additionally, insurers are now placing far more emphasis on AML controls in firms, with some asking some probing questions on PII renewal applications.

Therefore, it is imperative that you ensure those team members who are legally required to have AML training, receive it. In addition, it is important to highlight the importance of choosing the right training provider as the SRA has now made abundantly clear; training should not be viewed simply as a “tick box” exercise. To do so would be a false economy with potentially disastrous and costly consequences.

Thankfully, PDA Legal have supported over 500 legal organisations and our Operations Director has worked closely with The Law Society, with experience spanning almost two decades, so you can be assured you are in safe hands.

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
• Compliance officers for finance and administration (COFAs)
• Paralegals
• Trainee Solicitors
• 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.

This is a good question as both provide advantages and disadvantages.

At PDA Legal, we provide bespoke live training, tailored to the specific needs of your team and the risk profile of your firm

This has multiple advantages. ROI is maximised and user-frustration is minimised as the content learned is both relevant, value-adding, and engaging, and delegates have the opportunity to raise queries to explore the issues directly with the trainer... Historically, private, tailored training has been a little more expensive than pre-recorded training, however, this is changing - if you opt to utilise our retained “frequent live learning” service, the cost could be as little as £9.50 per delegate, per session (with a live trainer).

Pre-recorded, pre-bundled training courses are sometimes cheaper when you just require a one-off training session for one person, and these can be accessed instantly online. However, invariably they are not tailored to your firm, giving rise to now-familiar remarks from many staff that they find compliance training boring or unhelpful, which can ultimately lead to a lower ROI and detracts from the intended outcome of managing risk. It is for that reason we specialise in providing tailored compliance training.

From November 2016, the requirements for Solicitors in England and Wales to achieve (16 hours of) CPD points annually was superseded by the Continuing Competence scheme, so that CPD accreditation was no longer applicable.

PDA’s training actively supports Continuing Competence by going far further than a blunt CPD-esq tool of a simple test-and-score. Instead, our sessions include popular interactive workshop elements that explore and examine the knowledge and learning that has been discussed during the sessions, so that the delegates take away relevant information that they should remember long after the course is complete.

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

Our expert trainers can attend your premises to conduct the training in your working environment. Or, we can conduct the sessions online, live, with a real trainer, which can be convenient for firms who have a geographically diverse workforce.

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

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

This depends on what your team needs from the training. When scheduling training, we take into account the level of current knowledge of the team, their roles, the extent of the topics required and their preferred learning style. 

Sessions can run for as little as 45 minutes on one hand or up to 6 hours on the other. 

We are aware that what works for one firm or individual, may not work for another. Some people prefer to block out an entire day for training to cram in as much as they can. Others find this approach overwhelming, and learn better via a series of much shorter training sessions.

The best way for us to answer how long training takes is to have a discussion around which topics you need assistance with and the makeup of your team. We can then provide you with a training plan along with recommended corresponding timeframes. Contact us today for more information with no obligation.

AML legislation is regularly updated as Government policy attempts to keep up with changes and innovation in criminal activities. Even as we type this (Feb 2024), there is a new amendment to the legislation.

Therefore, just as initial training is important, both for existing and new team members, so too is regular refresher training; otherwise, you risk falling foul of changes in the legal requirements unnecessarily.

Unfortunately, the legislation is not prescriptive as to how often refresher training should occur. As a result, we recommend that you check-in with us each year, and we provide you with an honest view on whether or not you should undergo refresher training, either for the whole team, or whether only certain members of the team would benefit sufficiently to achieve a worthwhile ROI and address any knowledge gaps in terms of compliance.