Jul 7, 2026
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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