UK SRA publishes sanctions compliance advice for lawyers

The UK Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’) has published guidance for the lawyers whom it regulates (‘all SRA-regulated firms, solicitors, registered European lawyers and registered foreign lawyers) to help them understand and comply with sanctions.

‘This guidance,’ it says, ‘explains our expectations and provides practical advice to firms on avoiding breaches of the UK’s sanctions regime, and to firms that wish to work within it, for example, those providing services under a licence from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI)…Working within the sanctions regime is complex and challenging, and firms should not seek to provide these services without first gaining the necessary expertise to do so correctly.’

Inter alia it notes that, ‘Generally speaking, you must not undertake paid work for a designated person unless you have been granted a licence to do so by the OFSI, or are doing so under the terms of a general licence. Unpaid work may be allowable where it does not circumvent the sanctions regime or provide financial advantage to the designated person.

‘Most firms primarily need to know about the sanctions regime to the point of being able to make sure they avoid unwittingly providing services or funds to a designated person or in any other way breaching the legislation, and fulfilling the associated reporting obligations. This duty is still a very challenging one, in part because the number of designated persons and the prohibitions they are subject to has expanded at a rapid pace and keeping up with the pace of change is demanding.

‘It is also challenging because sanctions are relevant for all areas of legal service; for many firms outside of scope of the anti-money laundering (AML) regime, undertaking rigorous checks on their clients is relatively new. Other challenges include the fact that a given entity or individual may be subject to multiple different sanctions simultaneously (for example financial sanctions and immigration sanctions), each of which may need to be considered in their own right.’

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/guidance/financial-sanctions-regime/