The objective of governments to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws is best served by protecting the principle of client confidentiality and the lawyer-client relationship - not by eroding it, a group of leading organisations representing the international legal profession said this month.


In a joint statement, the group - which included the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association - also told the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body which develops policies to combat money laundering, that the international legal profession is opposed to the imposition on lawyers of reporting obligations.



Law societies and bar associations in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and Switzerland also signed the statement, which was delivered to the task force at a consultation meeting in Amsterdam.



The task force had called the meeting to discuss the practical difficulties faced by lawyers, accountants and others as a result of the impact of its so-called FATF 40 Recommendations.



The task force has since asked the group to select three of eight identified areas for detailed examination at its plenary in February 2007. The eight areas include customer due diligence, reporting obligations and - most controversially - legal professional privilege and professional secrecy.



CCBE secretary-general Jonathan Goldsmith said it would suggest to the other international legal organisations that 'we introduce the topic of legal professional privilege and consult with the task force, but in such a way as to be clear that the principles are not up for discussion'.



Philip Hoult