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US law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett must pay £362,000 to England’s legal regulator after admitting failings in relation to the anti-money laundering controls in place in its London office.
The settlement agreement, which includes a £300,000 fine and £62,000 in costs, was approved by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on Wednesday.
The disciplinary action centres on allegations from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, published in August 2024, that Simpson Thacher had failed to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.
The SRA accused the elite law firm — which had global revenues of more than $2.3bn in 2023, according to The American Lawyer — of not having adequate “policies, controls or procedures” in place between June 2017 and January 2023.
The firm also failed to have compliant risk assessments for four files in relation to certain clients or matters for more than five years.
In agreeing the proposed SRA financial penalty, the chair of the SDT panel said the fact that Simpson Thacher was a “well-resourced” firm with a “global reputation” was taken into account.
The sanction must be a “meaningful deterrent” to the legal profession, Edward Nally said. While “the risk of harm caused by the breach was low . . . it did take place over a protracted amount of time.”
The allegations arose after Simpson Thacher was selected by the SRA’s anti-money laundering supervision team for a routine review of its compliance in 2021.
Simpson Thacher said it was “pleased that the tribunal has accepted the resolution” and that the London office “regrets certain historic shortcomings . . . and has made significant investments to enhance our robust compliance function”.
The SRA said: “Solicitors have an important role to play in keeping the profits of crime out of the profession and the wider UK economy . . . That means having effective policies, procedures and people in place to identify any issues that raise concern.”
The outcome follows another win for the SRA this week in which it successfully quashed a ruling from the tribunal in relation to allegations of anti-money laundering failures against legal giant Dentons.
In a High Court judgment handed down on Tuesday, Mrs Justice Beverley Lang allowed the SRA to appeal against a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal ruling from last year that dismissed the regulator’s claims and ordered that the case be remitted to a new SDT panel for reconsideration.
The SRA alleged that Dentons had not taken adequate steps to determine the source of a politically exposed person’s wealth between 2013 and 2017 when they were a client of the firm.
A spokesperson for Dentons said: “We are considering the divisional court’s decision before deciding next steps.”
