Keeping Up to Date

Anyone engaging a lawyer assumes the lawyer to have a certain level of knowledge. They will expect that any advice given by the lawyer is accurate and up to date. How sure are you that you are properly updated?

This is more acute if you have a specialised practice because not only will you be expected to be updated on the legal side, but you will also be expected to be clued in on industry changes, government policy and other developments which affect your area of practice.

If there has been some change in regulation or policy that has taken place and you have not been aware of the changes and, therefore, have not advised your client properly, you may well be leaving yourself open to a claim for negligence.

With the constant variations in legislation, regulation and industry, how do you keep abreast of all the changes?

Firstly, if your practice is large enough you may be well advised to engage a research assistant to solely do research and prepare summaries of the latest developments.

If you work in a smaller practice, you have to rely on literature from professional and industry organisations and on IT to keep you updated. Another useful way of keeping updated is to join interest groups and share and discuss issues and developments with other lawyers and people involved in the industry. One lawyer cannot do everything, so divide the work among the members of your team and have regular meetings to discuss and inform each other of recent developments.

Lawyers are expected to have a high level of expertise and it is important to maintain that level by being up to speed on all areas of the law you practice in. It is essential that you set up systems to ensure that you and all the lawyers in your team are kept abreast of legal and non-legal developments which affect your area of practice, as and when it happens.

WARNING!

Lawyer Jailed for Failure to Report Money Laundering

A lawyer in England was jailed in July for failing to report suspicion of money laundering, sending out a warning to all lawyers to be vigilant of clients’ dealings. This is the first time a solicitor has been jailed in England for this offence.

Jonathan Duff, formerly a senior partner at law firm Drummonds, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment after his clients were found to be laundering drug money. The charge followed the 1998 discovery of £5m worth of cocaine in suitcases belonging to a client of Mr Duff.

Despite pleading guilty following plea-bargaining with Customs and Excise, Mr Duff maintains he broke the law unwittingly. However, in passing sentence at Manchester Crown Court, Judge James Hammond said that Law Society guidance on reporting suspicions was clear and ‘a message must go out to all solicitors’.

Mr Duff’s lawyer said he doubted Mr Duff had ‘a future as a lawyer’. Under a new Act enacted in the United Kingdom, money laundering will apply to the proceeds of any crime and not just drug offences. The implications for the profession will be widespread. The Law Society of England and Wales said Mr Duff’s case had been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Lawyers in Singapore should also be more sensitive to the prospect of being unwittingly involved in money-laundering activities of their clients.