As law firms get their heads around the new obligations for designated services under the expanded AML/CTF regime, firm owners can't overlook the subsequent duties under the Privacy Act they also now have to comply with. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back Law & Cyber founder Simone Herbert-Lowe to discuss the workload coming for cyber lawyers in the new financial year, privacy obligations for designated service providers, what these obligations mean in practice for law firms, guidance from the courts and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on such matters, reasonableness of a law firm's efforts to comply, practical steps that firms must take, and broader advice for law firm owners to navigate the shifting sands. Clarification from Simone Herbert-Lowe: On reflection, in this episode I said that family lawyers and wills & estates lawyers who occasionally transfer property, via a family law settlement or probate, are generally providing a designated service. That's not quite right. Most such transfers are exempt under the AML/CTF Act's court order exemption. The real risk areas are transfers under binding financial agreements, estate transfers made without a grant of probate, and creating or restructuring trusts as part of a settlement or estate plan, none of which the court order exemption covers.

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