Legal Sector Affinity Group
The Legal Sector Affinity Group is the umbrella of UK legal sector AML supervisors — including the SRA, Bar Standards Board, CILEx Regulation, the Law Society of Scotland, the Law Society of Northern Ireland, and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers. LSAG publishes the consolidated AML guidance for the legal sector, which is the practical reference SRA inspectors use to benchmark firm practice.
when the SRA assesses a firm's AML controls, the LSAG guidance is what they measure against. Reading the latest LSAG guidance — updated as MLR 2017 and case law evolve — is mandatory for the MLCO and recommended for everyone in the AML chain.
How different roles use Legal Sector Affinity Group
A good definition should change the next action for the person reading it.
Partner or director
Check whether this term affects acceptance risk, fee scope, supervision exposure, or sign-off responsibility.
ContinueMLRO or compliance lead
Map the term to evidence, escalation, monitoring, training, and inspection readiness.
ContinueClient-facing team member
Use the plain-English explanation to ask better client questions and write clearer file notes.
ContinueOther terms that go with Legal Sector Affinity Group
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulator of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales. It is the supervisory authority under MLR 2017 for SRA-regulated firms — issuing AML guidance, conducting thematic and on-site reviews, and imposing fines, conditions, or strike-offs for failures. SRA fines for individual AML breaches can reach £25,000; firm-level fines can exceed £250m for traditional firms (lower caps apply to alternative business structures).
A supervisory authority is the body responsible for overseeing AML compliance within a particular sector. For accountants not belonging to a professional body, the supervisory authority is HMRC. Members of recognised professional bodies (ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA, and others) are supervised by those bodies instead. For law firms in England and Wales, the supervisory authority is the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), with parallel regulators in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Supervisory authorities set standards, conduct reviews, and can impose sanctions.
Before you treat Legal Sector Affinity Group as handled
- Confirm which regulation, policy, or internal procedure the term maps to.
- Document the decision or evidence trail in the client file, not only in email or chat.
- Escalate where the term indicates higher risk, sanctions exposure, PEP status, suspicion, or missing evidence.
- Keep the wording consistent across onboarding, review notes, training material, and inspection packs.
Put Legal Sector Affinity Group into practice with Certivus
Knowing the term is the first step. Certivus gives you the workflows — client intake, CDD, EDD, PEP and sanctions screening, audit-ready records — to apply it across every client.
Back to the full glossary