As we kick-start 2022, law firm owners, leaders and compliance officers must be aware of a growing number of considerations relating to anti-money laundering (AML).
It is the responsibility of every person that works for a law firm to make sure that the business is not used for money laundering, and that relevant reports are made of any suspicious activity.
Our quarterly AML updates webinar and blog series aims to keep law firms updated in a consistent, informative and accessible way so that they can include relevant developments in their AML training programmes and keep their processes and procedures on track.
- Topic:
- Legal
The consensus of opinion for the Legal sector suggests that although law firms are unlikely to get involved with trading cryptocurrencies for everyday business in 2022, they are quite likely to receive instructions from clients who want to use the for legal service transactions.
In a recent Cryptocurrency Webinar for law firms, Access Legal Regulatory Director, Brian Rogers explains what cryptocurrencies are, how and why they are used, the part Blockchain plays in the cryptocurrency transaction, the money laundering risks, and actions law firms can take to mitigate risk. Keep reading to find out more.
- Topic:
- Legal
Many people leaders are all too familiar with the additional HR challenges that can arise at Christmas time, from constant enquiries about payday to dips in productivity, last-minute annual leave requests and potential Christmas party fallout.
But that’s all in the Christmas past for many, who likely manage (and therefore pre-empt) any festive related HR issues in their HR software. So that’s Christmas present handled too.
But how do HR managers prepare for a Christmas future yet to come, and avoid being haunted by failed HR strategies that came before? Can you judge how successful your HR strategy has been this year for example, and make decisions on where to focus next year?
- Topic:
- Human Resources
If there could be such a thing as a positive outcome from Covid-19, it’s that workplace safety, health and wellbeing has been elevated to a tier one consideration for many organisations and its individuals. Which is really where it always should have been.
The key to creating a physically and mentally healthier workplace culture however, is to not treat responses to occupational health and safety risk with quick fixes, to try and plaster over specific challenges.
Health and safety training is often the biggest tick-box for compliance, but how do you embed training into the rest of your health and safety risk management processes to effectively manage health and safety risk and evidence compliance when it matters?
Just ‘ticking boxes’ is a very dangerous approach to take when dealing with compliance, especially if it is connected to a key accreditation like the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS)!
CQS is used by panel managers and lenders as part of their selection processes to determine which conveyancers they allow to act on their behalf, so holding this accreditation is business critical and should not be seen as a mere ‘tick box’ exercise!
- Topic:
- Legal
Policies and precedents are key to ensuring a firm can meet its regulatory obligations and strategic objectives; without them there will be a lack of direction and a risk of non-compliance.
Do you struggle with drafting policies and precedents, or are unsure what to put in them or how to get started? Are you short on time and concerned how you will keep everything up to date?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Our market research tells us that those working in small to medium sized law firms find it especially difficult to balance their day-to-day roles with their governance responsibilities
- Topic:
- Legal
We carried out a survey recently looking at the issues that keep compliance officers awake at night and continuing competency came out as number three, below money laundering compliance and thematic reviews carried out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
In light of the concerns around the future of continuing competency we ran a webinar that looked at the current competency regime, consumer perceptions of lawyers’ competency, and proposed changes to the competency regime.
- Topic:
- Legal
One of the things I really love about my job is the opportunity to be creative and see a project I’ve spearheaded, had a close affinity with and worked on from start to finish come into fruition.
Having identified that there is a real focus on mental health and wellbeing in the legal profession (and arguably society as a whole) at present, it became apparent that there was scope to build on this momentum and create a policy on this area to assist firms in how to better support their employees through challenging times and provide guidance on how to promote positive mental health, wellbeing and resilience.
- Topic:
- Legal
For some firms, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) has taken a back seat as a consequence of the Covid-19 lockdowns, but now that things are getting back to some semblance of normality it is important that all firms ensure their EDI policies and procedures are fit for purpose and operate effectively on a day-to-day basis, especially in relation to sexual harassment.
- Topic:
- Legal
Traditionally communication and reporting on a construction project has been a challenge. With the number of people involved, from construction workers to upper-level project management, working both on-site and off-site you can see why.
- Topic:
- Construction
