Winner of the 2008 Legal Technology Award for Online Product of the Year, the OCC Anti-Money Laundering Courses for Fee Earners and Support Staff are highly engaging courses designed to teach what money laundering is all about and satisfy the mandatory requirement to provide ongoing training to all relevant staff. The Fee Earner version is accredited for CPD and risk management elective points. The growth of a regulated business environment and the tragic events of September 11 led to the European Union's imposition of mandatory anti-money laundering training for regulated work in the legal profession.

Faced with the possibility of criminal liability, an obligation to deploy and track anti-money laundering training across thousands of staff globally and no clear definition of the term "appropriate training", 14 firms worked together to write the online Anti-Money Laundering Course (AML Course) that has now become "the de-facto standard for AML training".

By pooling intellectual resources, the firms guaranteed that they could develop a solution that would be fit for use by any of the world's leading firms. At the same time they were able to share the development and support costs across all firms.

Originally established for larger firms, the AML courses have now been customised to include versions for international firms; national firms; local firms; and a version for individual lawyers.

The AML Fee Earner and Support Staff versions allow each firm to personalise the course branding and incorporate their individual firm policies and procedures. The version for Fee Earners consists of 7 modules.

Module 1: Course Introduction
Module 2: What is Money Laundering
Module 3: Verification Requirements
Module 4: Suspicions
Module 5: Suspicion and Reporting Suspicions (special requirements for the UK)
Module 6: Our Firm's Procedures
Module 7: Course Assessment

The course should take up to 2 hours to complete and has been accredited for 2 CPD/RME Elective points.

The OCC Anti Money Laundering courses are designed to help law firms ensure regulatory compliance with mandatory training requirements whilst helping staff understand and appreciate the value in applying anti-money laundering best practices and procedures. By completing the course staff will have learnt how to comply with all critical statutory requirements and will be able to play their part in the fight against money laundering.

The ability to achieve training compliance for thousands of fee earners across multiple offices in the UK and globally confirmed the effectiveness of e-learning for compliance training and tracking.

The EU regulation requires AML training to be provided to all "relevant staff" on an ongoing basis. The OCC AML Core Group determined that from a best practice and risk management perspective, "relevant staff" should be defined as all staff that have direct contact with clients or clients' assets.

E-learning within the workplace is most effective when the content speaks to the context of the individual's job. As a result, a support staff version of the AML course was developed.

The AML Core Group selected Legal Risk to restructure and edit the Fee Earner Course content and to replace the exercises in order to make the course ‘speak to support staff'.

This 40 minute course can be customised to include the firm's logo and branding as well as integrate a fully personalised module containing the firm's unique policies and procedures.

Familiarity with, and understanding of, the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing legislation has become an integral part of working in a law firm. Since the introduction of the anti-money laundering regime to the front line in March 2003, those working in law firms are required to retain a high level of awareness of the risks surrounding potential money laundering. They must carefully follow firm procedures and policies designed to ensure compliance with the stringent requirements of the relevant legislation.

The legislation requires that those in the sector receive regular training in how to recognise and deal with transactions and other activities which may be related to money laundering or terrorist financing. This course has been designed as a refresher for those who have already completed the Anti–Money Laundering Support Staff Course.

The aims of this course are to:

• act as a reminder on the most significant areas of the anti-money laundering requirements; and
• ensure you remain aware of the importance of compliance with the firm’s anti-money laundering systems and procedures.

This course consists of four modules:

1. Definitions and role of law firms within the Anti-Money Laundering regime;
2. The relevant legislation;
3. Anti-Money Laundering compliance systems and procedures; and
4. Practical exercises.