Anti-Money Laundering Compliance and the Legal Profession

3 Methodology

DOI: 10.4324/9780429019906-3

3.1 Introduction and research aims

This book has its genesis in three key areas. First, the book stems from a zeitgeist involving the unparalleled scrutiny of the legal profession with regard to money laundering, a scrutiny which in recent years has seen the discourse surrounding the profession shift from that of ‘gatekeeper’ to more contentious and divisive terms such as ‘professional enabler’.¹ As detailed in the preceding chapters of the book, the global response, emanating from FATF, has been to impose an array of AML obligations upon the profession. In the UK, these range from the requirement to report suspicions of money laundering under POCA 2002, to the CDD and record-keeping obligations ...