Legal Services Flashcards
What are the 6 regulators for the legal profession?
- Legal services board
- SRA
- Bar Standards Board
- Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
- Council for Licensed Conveyancers
- Costs Lawyers Standards Board
What 4 places can a client complain to?
- Law Firm
- Legal Ombudsman
- SRA
- Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal
What 6 remedies can the Legal Ombudsman offer?
- Apologise
- Pay compensation
- Correct or put right an error or omission
- Take specific action in the interests of the complainant
- Pay the costs of the complainant
- Limit the firm’s fees
Where should a client complain to for a complaint concerning misconduct, dishonesty or breaches of SRA rules?
The SRA
What complaint actions/remedies can the SRA offer?
- Issue firm a warning
- Impose disciplinary sanction e.g., fine
- Reprimand the solicitor for misconduct
- Order solicitor to repay or refund client costs
- Impose restrictions on lawyers ability to practice
- Disciplinary proceedings before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal
- Revoke firm recognition
- Close down a firm
When is the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal appropriate?
For serious breaches of SRA rules
What 6 remedies/powers does the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal have?
- Strike solicitor off the roll
- Suspend a solicitor from practice for fixed or indefinite period
- Reprimand a solicitor
- Impose a fine
- Award costs against a party to the proceedings
- Make a restriction order, imposing a restriction on the area the solicitor can practice
What is the Law Society there to do?
Fight in your corner, support you in your career and practice
Does the SRA require law firms to have professional indemnity insurance?
Yes
Can professional indemnity insurance exclude liability extending to clients below the standard set out by the SRA?
No
What should a solicitor do if they become aware of a claim against them, regarding insurance?
Notify the insurers
Can businesses providing non-reserved services elect to be authorised by the SRA?
Yes
What three broad categories of business can be authorised by the SRA?
- Sole practice
- Legal services body
- Licensable body
If a sole practice solicitor is practicing through a company, is it the solicitor or the company who is SRA authorised?
The solicitor
What is a legal services body?
A firm where all the managers/interest holders are lawyers e.g., LLP
What are authorised legal services bodies called?
Recognised body
Is it still a sole practice if the solicitor employs other qualified solicitors?
Yes, as long as they are not also co-owners
What is an authorised sole practice called?
A recognised sole practice
What is a licensable body?
Where the managers/interest holders are both lawyers and non-lawyers
What is an authorised licensable body called?
- Licensed body
- Alternative business structure (ABS)
Can UK solicitors provide legal services to the public on behalf of organisations that are not authorised by the SRA or another approved regulator under LSA 2007?
Yes, for example in law centres, legal advice centres, in-house practice and multi-national law firms
What are advantages to the traditional partnership firm structure?
- Flexible partnership agreements
- Maintains partnership culture and tradition
- Control and decision making
- Profit sharing
- Privacy
What are disadvantages to the partnership structure?
- Raising finance is restricted to traditional methods
- Shared-decision making (conflict)
- Partners running the firm (if they’re bad at management)
- Unlimited liability
- Tax burden falls on the individual partners
- Foreign expansion – this structure is not recognised in every jurisdiction
What are advantages of the LLP?
- Limited liability (partners liability is limited to their capital share)
- Tax – they are ‘tax neutral’
- Increased funding opportunities – can issue floating charges
What are disadvantages of the LLP?
- Less tax efficient than a company
- Increased filing responsibilities
- External investment
What are the advantages of being in a company?
- Limited liability
- Clear decision making structure
- Easier to raise money
- Tax advantages
- Foreign expansion
What are disadvantages of a company?
- Administration and filings
- Tax issues (when transitioning from a partnership)
- Transparency
Are registered foreign lawyers practicing at a multi-national company in England/Wales obligated to conform to SRA rules/codes?
Yes
Are UK lawyers/firms practicing overseas still held to UK regulatory rules?
Yes, but there are also additional ‘overseas’ rules too
Can law centres/legal advice centres be SRA authorised?
Yes, can but not must
What is the rule regarding insurance for pro-bono work in legal advice centres?
Must be covered by an indemnity reasonably equivalent to that required under the SRA indemnity insurance rules
How do in-house lawyers maintain compliance with SRA rules?
Own judgement
What are the protected characteristics under the Equality Act?
Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage/civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion or belief
Sex
Sexual orientation
What are the 4 types of discrimination and unlawful conduct identified by the Equality Act?
Direct discrimination
Indirect discrimination
Harassment
Victimisation
Define direct discrimination.
Because of protected characteristic, A treats B less favourably
What type of discrimination is it, if you don’t invite a pregnant woman to a salsa evening because you assume she wouldn’t want to go because she is pregnant?
Direct discrimination
Under the Equality Act, if a woman gets special treatment in connection with pregnancy or childbirth, can that amount to discrimination against the man?
No
Define Indirect Discrimination.
This is when the intention is not to discriminate, but a certain practice has the effect of disadvantaging people with a certain protected characteristic
What type of discrimination is it, if an employer requires all employees to work full-time, from the office, without exception, and without proper/reasonable justification?
Indirect discrimination, especially against women with child caring responsibilities
What are the 3 types of harassment in the Equality Act?
- General definition
- Sexual conduct
- Less favourable treatment because of a person’s rejection of or submission to harassment of a sexual nature or harassment related to sex or gender assignment
What is the general definition of harassment?
A engaging in unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic which has the purpose or effect of either
(a) violating b’s dignity
(b) creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for B
What factors must be taken into account when deciding whether conduct has the effect of harassment?
- B’s perception
- The other circumstances of the case
- Whether it is reasonable for that conduct to have that effect
Who does ‘victimisation’ protect under the Equality Act?
Individuals who do protected acts such as:
- Bringing discrimination claims
- Complaining about harassment
- Becoming involved in another person’s claim
What type of discrimination is it, if two male shop assistants loudly comment on the size of a female shopper’s breasts?
General harassment
What are the protected acts under the victimisation harassment category?
- Bringing proceedings under the Equality Act
- Giving evidence or information in connection with proceedings
- Doing any other thing for the purposes of or in connection with the Equality Act
- Alleging (expressly or otherwise) that a person has contravened the Equality Act
What type of discrimination is it, if, after a gay man sues a pub owner on the basis that she makes persistent derogatory comments about him to other customers about his sexuality and after that suit, the owner bans him from the pub?
Victimisation
Can a service provider discriminate against a person requiring the service by not providing them with that service?
No
Can a service provider discriminate against a person as to the terms in which they provide the service?
No
Can a service provider discriminate against a person by terminating the provision of service?
No
Can a service provider discriminate against a person by subjecting them to broadly, any detriment?
No
Does a duty to provide reasonable adjustments apply to service providers?
Yes
What does it mean that the duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory?
Must think in advance about what a disabled person might reasonably need
Who is under a duty to make reasonable adjustments?
Anyone providing goods, facilities or services to the public or a section of the public or carrying out public functions or running an association
What factors are often considered when assessing whether the adjustment is reasonable?
- Size/nature of the organisation
- Nature of the goods/facilities/services
- Resources that are available
When does a disabled person have to show to bring a claim?
That there were barriers that should have been identified, and reasonable adjustments could have been made, and they received a poor/inferior service because those adjustments were not made
What can be ordered against a service-provider who failed to make reasonable adjustments?
- Pay compensation
- To make the reasonable adjustments
What are the 3 requirements that apply in terms of when making reasonable adjustments?
- Changing the way things are done
- Changing physical features of the premises
- Providing auxiliary aids/services
For what 3 reasons are legal practitioners more exposed to money laundering?
- Firms can legitimise transactions
- Have access to financial markets
- Advise on property and business deals
Can it be money laundering if you receive or benefit from small proceeds of crime?
Yes
Are the money-laundering firms limited to just law firms?
No
Who is responsible for ensuring that the firm takes all steps necessary to comply with MLR?
COLP, COFA and managers
What is an MLRO?
Money Laundering Reporting Officer
Must all law firms have an MLRO?
Yes
Must all firms come up with their own policies and procedures to compel ML reporting or comply with PoCA?
Yes
What do law firms have to do regarding money laundering risk assessments?
- Do one
- Keep a written record of everything they are doing/have done
What are the 4 ways a solicitor can be at risk of money laundering?
- Criminal source of funds is disguised
- Form of funds will be converted (e.g., paper to bank account)
- Trail by which the conversion occurs will be disguised
- Launderer will retain control of the funds, directly or indirectly
Why should solicitors be careful as to who they give the client account details to?
Launderers can deposit money without them knowing, posing a money laundering risk if they withdraw/pay it back
Why would complex trust structures be a ML red flag?
They are sometimes used to hide the source of funds
When is a client depositing cash in the client account suspicious for ML?
If they do it solely for onward transmission to a third party
How can deposits into a client account disguise an audit trail?
By depositing a mixture of clean and dirty funds
What are 5 ML warning signs?
- Instructions outside the firm’s area of expertise
- Unusual retainers
- Use of client accounts
- Setting up a trust
- Property purchase
What could a dispute that settles too easily be?
A sham litigation for the purposes of money laundering
What could it be if a client ends a transaction for no reason, after depositing money into the client account?
Money laundering
When would a property purchase be suspicious for ML?
- Large payments from private funds
- Client is low income
- Payments from a number of different individuals or sources
What are the FATF’s list of high risk money laundering jurisdictions?
- Republic of Korea
- Iran
- Myanmar
Who do direct involvement offences apply to?
Everyone
What are the 3 direct involvement/principal offences?
- Concealing, disguising, converting or transferring criminal property or removing it from the UK
- Entering into or becoming concerned in an arrangement which you know or suspect facilitates the acquisition, retention, use of control of criminal property by or on behalf of another person
- Acquiring, using or possessing criminal property
What is an authorised disclosure in an ML context?
It is a defence to the direct involvement defences, where you say you told a constable, customs officer, or nominated officer and at least 1 of 3 other criteria also apply
What distinguishes which one of the 3 criteria for an authorised disclosure to apply?
1 is for disclosures made before
2 is for disclosures made during the transaction
3 is made for disclosures after the transaction
When seeking to rely on authorised disclosure, for a disclosure made during the transaction, what must you show?
- That they began to do the act because at the time they did not know or suspect that the origins of the property represented a person’s benefit from criminal conduct
- The act they did was not itself prohibited
- Disclosure was made from their own initiative as soon as practicable
When seeking to rely on authorised disclosure, for a disclosure made AFTER the transaction, what must you show?
- There must be a good reason for why the solicitor failed to disclose earlier
- The disclosure must be made on their own initiative as soon as practicable
Was an offence committed, if the solicitor was out of jurisdiction for the ML act and it wasn’t unlawful in the territory they were in?
No
What is the ML golden rule?
If you suspect something, report to your MLRO or nominated officer
What is a non-direct involvement offence?
You had an indirect involvement e.g., knowledge
Give examples of some types of things/businesses that are considered to be in the list of the regulated sector under PoCA 2002?
Insurance
Investment services
Accountancy
Insolvency
Tax advice
Financial and real property transactions
What are the 2 non-direct involvement offences?
- Failure to disclose
- Tipping off
Are all types of legal work a part of the regulated sector?
No
What 3 criteria must be met for failure to disclose to apply?
- Know/suspect/have reasonable grounds to suspect that somebody is laundering
- Receiving the information in the course of business in the regulated sector
- Can identify the person laundering, or the whereabouts of laundered property or that the information of which you have knowledge could assist in identifying the person
What three things must a disclosure contain (if you’re seeking to avoid liability for failure to disclose)?
- The identity of the person if you know it
- The whereabouts of the laundered property if you know it
- The information on which your information/knowledge is based
Once you make a disclosure, what do you have to wait for before you can act?
- NCA approval
- Seven working days and NCA hasn’t refused authority to proceed
- NCA refused consent during the notice period and the moratorium period (31 days) has passed
What is the tipping off offence?
Telling clients about any ML report that was made about them or is being contemplated etc
What are the possible punishments for the direct involvement offences?
- On summary conviction, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both
- On conviction of an indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years or a fine or both
What are the potential punishments for the non-direct involvement offences?
- On summary, prison not exceeding 6 months or fine not exceeding statutory maximum or both
- On indictment, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, a fine or both
What are the possible punishments for the direct involvement offences?
- On summary conviction, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both.
- On conviction of an indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years or a fine or both.
What are the potential punishments for the non-direct involvement offences?
- On summary, prison not exceeding 6 months or fine not exceeding statutory maximum or both.
- On indictment, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, a fine or both.
Who do the MLR 2017 apply to?
Credit institutions, financial institutions, auditors, insolvency practitioners, external accounts and tax advisors, independent legal professionals, trust or company service providers, estate agents, high value dealers, casinos.
Does the MLR 2017 apply to all types of legal work?
No.
What are the two most common examples of activities that frequently fall outside of money laundering statute?
- Employment cases
- Litigation cases
What is the financial threshold for one-off transactions, after which CDD must be carried out?
1000 euros.
What things must you do in standard CDD (customer due diligence)?
- Identify and verify the person or company.
- Identify the beneficial owner.
- Ongoing monitoring of the business relationship.
How do you identify a person for CDD?
Name and address.
What sorts of documentation can be used to verify a person’s identity?
Documents/data from reliable independent sources e.g., government ID.
What do you need to identify/verify for a company under standard disclosure?
Name, company number, address of registered office, principal place of business, law to which it is subject, constitutional documents, names of directors of its management body and senior management.
What is a beneficial owner for CDD purposes?
- Person who owns or controls the customer on whose behalf the work is being undertaken.