Rule 73 Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners

Rule 73 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners (RPC) 2023 is about Self-Regulatory Body. It is under Chapter 3 (Miscellaneous Provisions) of the Rules. It provides as follows:

(1) The NBA as a self-regulatory body for the legal profession shall create an ad hoc committee, to be described as the Nigerian Bar Association Anti Money Laundering Committee (NBAAMLC) whose duties shall be to advise
the NBA on the implementation and to monitor the compliance of firms or legal practitioners with respect to this Chapter.

(2) The NBAAMLC shall consists of individuals that have received adequate training or who might have enrolled in courses on anti-money laundering and terrorist financing, who are of reputable character and have a track record of a high repute and standing in the legal profession who have not been found guilty of money laundering or any offence connected therewith.

(3) The NBA shall ensure that members of the NBAAMLC are trained to assess the quality of ML and TF risks and to consider the adequacy, proportionality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the AML and CFT policies, procedures, and internal controls of legal practitioners.

(4) The NBAAMLC shall take the lead in identifying ML and TF risks, identify the peculiarities of the legal sector, assess its risks, controls and procedures and publish them from time to time.

(5) The NBAAMLC shall develop policies and the procedure of identifying legal practitioners or classes of legal practitioners who are at great risk of being used by criminals and criminal elements to launder monies or finance terrorism and communicate its findings to the NBA.

(6) The NBAAMLC shall consider the risk profile of legal practitioners when assessing their recommendations and letters of good standing.

(7) The NBAAMLLC shall create a supervisory framework, which can help in ascertaining that accurate and current basic and beneficial ownership information on legal persons and legal arrangements is maintained by legal practitioners and law firms.

(8) The legal framework created by the NBAAMLC will take cognizance of the following—
(a) a requirement that legal practitioners perform risk assessment at firm, client, and transactional level ;
(b) a requirement that legal practitioners perform appropriate risk based CDD;
(c) procedures determined to ensure prompt investigation of legal practitioners’ misuse of client or trust funds or alleged involvement in ML and TF schemes ;

(d) requirement that legal practitioners complete periodic continuing legal education in CDD and AML and CFT topics ;
(e) requirement that legal practitioners report suspicious transactions, comply with confidentiality requirements and internal controls requirements ; and
(f) a requirement that legal practitioners adequately document risk assessment, CDD and other AML related decisions and processes undertaken.