AML and financial crime in the legal sector in 2026

AML is no longer just AML.

The SRA is still fining firms for missing documents. But it is increasingly asking why a decision was made, and whether the file shows it. Source of funds checks are audited file by file. Risk assessments are tested against what happened, not what the policy promised.

In 2025, the SRA issued fines totalling over £565,000 across 35 firms for AML failings, most of it administrative. They spanned sizes and practice areas but shared one problem: a gap between stated policy and filed evidence.

We've worked with Jonathon Bray of JBL Compliance to set out what has changed, what it means in practice and what firms should do now.

Inside this whitepaper:

• Where firms are actually vulnerable
• Why the most common audit finding is not ignorance of the rules, but wanting to get on with the work
• Where the framework now reaches past the Money Laundering Regulations
• What the Dentons decision changes: fine risk or tribunal risk
• What FCA supervision would demand, and why to raise standards now
• Where to start: a gap analysis, not a checklist

Download the whitepaper and see where your firm's controls are most likely to be tested.