Profession-specific playbook Current
AML/CTF operating playbook for legal professionals
The trigger is the specific legal service you provide, not your practising certificate.
Not every legal service is a designated service under Tranche 2. This playbook sets out how the core AML/CTF obligations apply once a legal practice is captured. It is general information, not legal or compliance advice.
Action plan
1 Confirm which of your practice's services are AUSTRAC designated services This is a service-by-service question -- general legal advice work sits differently to transaction-handling work.
AUSTRAC's AML/CTF reforms extend obligations to legal practitioners who provide specific designated services, such as receiving, holding, controlling, or managing property when assisting a client to plan or execute a transaction, or acting as or arranging a director, trustee, or nominee role. Check each service your practice provides against AUSTRAC's own designated services guidance before assuming Tranche 2 does or doesn't apply.
- Review each service line your practice offers against AUSTRAC's designated services guidance
- Don't assume general legal advice work is automatically outside scope, or that transaction work is automatically inside it
- Re-check this whenever your practice takes on a new type of matter
Done when: Your practice's service lines have been checked individually against AUSTRAC's designated services guidance, not assumed
AUSTRAC: your AML/CTF obligations2 Appoint an AML/CTF compliance officer within 28 days of providing a designated service This clock starts from actually providing the service, not from enrolling with AUSTRAC.
Once your practice provides a designated service, AUSTRAC's guidance requires an AML/CTF compliance officer to be appointed within 28 days. Build this into your practice's Tranche 2 readiness plan as a hard deadline.
- Appoint an AML/CTF compliance officer within 28 days of first providing a designated service
- Confirm the appointee meets AUSTRAC's eligibility expectations for the role
- Document the appointment date to demonstrate the 28-day window was met
Done when: An AML/CTF compliance officer was appointed within 28 days of the practice first providing a designated service
See the AML/CTF compliance officer deep page3 Complete customer due diligence before starting the designated service CDD comes first -- not alongside the retainer, and not after work has started.
AUSTRAC's guidance requires initial customer due diligence to be completed before your practice starts providing a designated service to a client, with enhanced due diligence required where the client's risk is high or in other specified circumstances.
- Complete initial CDD before the designated service starts, not after
- Escalate to enhanced CDD where the client's risk is high or another specified circumstance applies
- Keep evidence of when CDD was completed relative to when the service began
Done when: CDD, escalated to enhanced CDD where required, was completed before the designated service began
See the customer due diligence deep pageDesignated services
Transaction handling
Receiving, holding, or managing property for a client transaction
Receiving, holding, controlling, or managing property while assisting a client to plan or execute a transaction is a service type worth checking specifically against AUSTRAC's designated services guidance.
Entity roles
Acting as, or arranging, a director, trustee, or nominee role
Acting as, or arranging for someone else to act as, a director, secretary, trustee, partner, or nominee shareholder for a non-natural person is a further service type worth checking individually.
Financing
Assisting with equity or debt financing transactions
Assisting a client with an equity or debt financing transaction is another service to review against AUSTRAC's own guidance rather than assuming it falls outside scope.