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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the expanse of sanctions against them draws stark attention to a dilemma now facing legal professionals. While the export of services such as accountancy and PR advice to Russia are set to be banned by the UK, lawyers will still be allowed to work with Russian clients. However, questions are being raised regarding the ethics and potential reputational damage of this decision. So much so that many London-based lawyers have cut ties with Russian-linked individuals and organisations due to increasing reputational risk. On a wider scale, lawyers must now go beyond asking themselves whether they can engage with an individual or company to whether they should.
Other than PEPs and sanctions checkers, there are few ways of discerning potentially negative associations and histories of a client. Even these standard checks are limited in that they only identify “obviously” risky or already sanctioned individuals. Though there have been wide-scale international efforts to find and identify these people, there are several, large networks yet to be uncovered. There are also risks of sanctions increasing suddenly or changing at short notice, making initial approvals redundant.
AI-driven platforms effectively transform the research work that goes behind critical legal processes, new client and business intakes being among them. The efficiency and streamlining benefits of AI are integral to enhancing processes and keeping law firms ahead of increased competition.
Read on here to find out how AI enhances the client intake process and how law firms can implement this solution for themselves.