About
JHK Legal is a national Australian commercial law firm with offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast. The firm advises individuals and businesses across banking and finance, commercial and corporate law, litigation and dispute resolution, debt recovery, insolvency, property and industrial relations.
The situation
JHK started researching AML in April 2025, well ahead of the July 1 2026 deadline. Sam Bartley, National Practice Manager, led the platform selection and took responsibility for overseeing the firm's AML program.
From the outset, JHK knew AML could not sit with one person or one central team. Across four offices, the people closest to the clients and matters would be playing an active role.
Sam worked closely with Kate Caines, Brisbane Office Manager, who took a hands-on role in the day-to-day operation and system configuration, alongside office managers in each location. Together, they began shaping a hybrid model that kept AML close to the people opening matters while giving Sam firm-wide oversight.
Like most other soon-to-be-regulated firms, JHK was designing their AML model without having run an AML program before.
The firm already understood the client-facing realities of identity verification. Through existing VOI and PEXA requirements, the team was familiar with chasing documents and managing clients who did not necessarily want to cooperate.
What they did not have was an internal benchmark for how AML should work across the business.
That was important because JHK’s matters are so varied; at one end of the scale the team can open 15 matters in a day. At the other are new corporate clients whose ownership structures are complex and highly involved.
Both had to sit within the same AML program, across different offices and be managed by people whose primary role was running the business rather than running compliance.
JHK needed more than a system for completing checks. It needed a platform broad and flexible enough to support the way the firm wanted to operate.
“We knew deep down that we were looking for a platform that held everything in the one place instead of a bit here or a bit there. We wanted everything under the one roof.”
The solution
Sam met with several providers and took “pages and pages of notes” on what each system could and could not do. Price was considered, but JHK deliberately avoided making it the basis of the decision.
“I don’t think that you can dictate by price. It depends what each individual firm is looking for and how they want to run their AML program.”
The detailed comparison exposed differences that were less obvious during demonstrations.
First AML increasingly stood out as the platform that brought the pieces together. By the end of the comparison, Sam was referring to First AML as the “Rolls-Royce” of the options they had seen.
Track record also mattered. JHK was entering AML for the first time and wanted confidence that the technology itself was tried and tested. First AML’s experience in New Zealand and the UK gave them a lot of comfort.
Building the process around the firm
Once implementation began, the focus turned to making JHK’s operating model work in practice.
The firm configured First AML around its offices and its division of responsibilities. Office managers could handle the regular work taking place in each location, while Kate managed the underlying compliance configuration and Sam retained oversight.
For Kate, the simplicity of the day-to-day platform and the configuration flexibility was a winner.
“It’s quite simple to use, but the amount of conditional rules and automation that’s possible is actually quite complex. You can set up very unique situations for different offices.”
That meant JHK could set up processes to suit the way different parts of the firm worked, rather than putting every office and every matter through exactly the same process.
Learning by doing
Kate was able to run test cases, adjust the configuration and work out different ways the system could be set up to suit the firm's needs.
But some of the most useful lessons came once real clients started moving through the process. JHK began loading live clients in the final weeks before 1 July.
“We learned so much in those three weeks where we started loading clients. It was, ‘Oh, that’s what’s actually going to happen.’”
Working with real clients also gave the team a clearer understanding of the workflows and how long different parts of the process would take.
It gave JHK a much clearer picture of what AML would look like in practice and where processes or training needed to be adjusted.
Support beyond the software
Implementation also raised questions that were not always about the technology itself.
JHK's First AML implementation specialist became a resource for practical AML questions as well as platform configuration.
For Sam, that made a meaningful difference while the firm was getting to grips with a new regulatory regime and a new way of working.
“The First AML team made a huge difference for us in terms of approachability, responsiveness and knowledge. They were able to impart actual AML knowledge along with the platform knowledge and that was huge for us.”
The results
By late June, JHK was moving real clients through the process and had successfully onboarded some of its largest clients ahead of the 1 July deadline.
The firm's high volume of repeat matters has actually helped with adoption. Office managers regularly open multiple matters for existing clients, so they quickly became familiar with the core process.
More complex company structure work is taking longer to become second nature. Those cases come up less often and require deeper AML knowledge, so the team expects confidence to build with experience.
“For the most part, we open a lot of matters for the same client, so with that being quite repetitive, they’ve picked that up really well. As they do more, I’m sure they’ll be pro at it in no time.”
Kate’s experience working in the system every day gave her another perspective.
“It’s so obvious how much effort has gone into understanding how the actual cases will be run, not how they intend them to be run. Having the flexibility of setting up our own processes as well is top notch.”
From implementation to improvement
Perhaps the clearest sign that AML is becoming operational at JHK is that the conversation has already moved beyond simply getting the system live.
Kate and the team are identifying where processes could work better, feeding those observations back and adjusting their own approach as they gain experience.
They are also seeing the platform continue to change around them.
“Just seeing the updates come out reassures me that First AML is still working to make the platform even better.”
About First AML
First AML comes from the perspective of both a technology provider, but also as compliance professionals. Prior to releasing, First AML’s all-in-one AML workflow platform, we processed over 2,000,000 AML cases ourselves. Understanding the acute problem that faces firms these days as they try to scale their own AML, is in our DNA.
That's why First AML now powers thousands of compliance experts around the globe to reduce the time and cost burden of complex and international entity KYC. First AML stands out as a leading solution for organisations with complex or international onboarding needs. It provides streamlined collaboration and ensures uniformity in all AML practices.
Keen to find out more? Book a demo today!