Monday, November 14, 2022
Business Lawyers as "Financial Institutions"?
Earlier today, I received a communication from the American Bar Association's Governmental Affairs Office. It was a request for action (as would often come from a government affairs office) relating to the ENABLERS Act amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The contents admittedly somewhat stunned me. I include them in pertinent part below.
This . . . Senate amendment, like the similar amendment contained in the House-passed version of the NDAA, would regulate many business lawyers and law firms under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and could require them to report a substantial amount of attorney-client privileged and other protected client information to the government.
The ENABLERS Act amendment, sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), would change the BSA’s definition of “financial institution” to include lawyers and law firms that provide legal services to clients involving company formation, trust services, acquiring or disposing of interests in those entities, and many other specified financial activities. It would also require the Treasury Department to issue new regulations that could subject these lawyers and law firms to some or all of the BSA’s requirements for financial institutions. This could force you to submit Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on your clients’ financial transactions (without notifying the clients); identify and verify your clients’ accounts to the government; establish due diligence policies that could conflict with state supreme court rules; create costly and burdensome new anti-money laundering programs within your law firm; and undergo periodic or random audits to assess compliance.
I have not been following this at all. I wonder if any of you have been . . . . Of course, the ostensible purpose is to combat money laundering--certainly a worthy goal. But the incursion on the lawyer-client relationship, assuming the description above is accurate (and I am still wading into this, in all candor), does seem rather vast. Please leave comments if you have thoughts to offer. I am intrigued.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/business_law/2022/11/business-lawyers-as-financial-institutions.html
A lawyer's job is to
protect your rights by making sure that all the terms
of your agreement of purchase and sale are complied with and that you receive a clear title to the property.
Posted by: Arman malik | Dec 9, 2022 10:54:48 PM