Assessing the opinions of lawyers of Canadian money laundering legislation

Money laundering is a serious crime, which can involve professionals such as lawyers. Governments have recommended that legislation be adopted by numerous countries to prevent lawyers from either knowingly or unwittingly become part of the money laundering process. Canadian criminal defense lawyers have balked at this legislation and have refrained from accepting such legislation that requires reporting their clients' financial transactions as it violates solicitor client privilege. This study measured the opinions of Alberta lawyers towards money laundering, the proposed legislation, and the abilities of Canadian law firms to address suspicious financial transactions. The findings demonstrated that all groups of lawyers view money laundering as a serious societal concern. In terms of legislation, criminal defense lawyers opposed legislation directed at them that requires reporting the financial transactions between them and their clients. Whereas government and other lawyers supported the new legislation directed at lawyers. The results indicated a consensus that law firms are capable of managing financial transactions and do not require compliance regimes as the banks have. Law firms deemed just as competent as banks to address suspicious financial transactions was the consensus of the sample groups of lawyers as demonstrated by the research.