The Relevance of FATF\u27s Recommendations and Fourth Round of Mutual Evaluations to the Legal Profession

More than two hundred countriesin the world have agreed to abide by the anti-money laundering ( AML ) recommendations developed by the Financial Action Task Force ( FATF ), which is an intergovernmental organization. This Article focuses on the potential impact on the legal profession of FATF\u27s fourth round of mutual evaluations. During these mutual evaluations, which currently are underway, FATF-affiliated countries examine each other\u27s compliance with the FATF Recommendations and recommend follow-up action. This Article first presents the legal profession-related results from the completed Mutual Evaluation Reports. A number of these FATF Reports recommend changes that include requiring lawyers to report suspicious client transactions, greater enforcement of existing lawyer AML rules, and changing the entities that supervise lawyer AML efforts. The next Part of this Article examines the legal profession AML situation in the Authors\u27 home countries of the United States and Peru, noting the current or potential impact in these countries of the FATF Recommendations, the FATF Mutual Evaluation process, and lawyer-related money laundering scandals. The final Part of this Article suggests and alternative, education-focused, peer-review approach to the legal profession portions of the FATF Mutual Evaluations that arguably would decrease lawyer facilitation of criminal money laundering activities while better protecting traditional lawyer values that are globally recognized as important components of administration of justice and rule of law systems. Because the regulatory impact of FATF\u27s mutual evaluations may be much broader than anti-money laundering issues, everyone interested in the topic of lawyer regulation should be aware of the FATF Recommendations and the ongoing mutual evaluation process