By James McKeigue
Copyright caymancompass
Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale, has asked all lawyers and legal firms on the islands to register with the newly formed Legal Services Supervisory Authority.
Setting up the authority is the latest step in the gradual implementation of the 2020 Legal Services Act.
In a 12 Sept. letter sent to lawyers in her capacity as chairperson of the Cayman Islands Legal Service Council, a body that was also created by the act, Ramsay-Hale explained the role of the new body.
The “(Legal Services Supervisory Authority) is the designated AML supervisory authority for firms of attorneys-at-law, as well as sole practitioners engaging in or assisting other persons in the planning or execution of relevant financial business in or from within the Cayman Islands”, she said.
Until the creation of that authority, those supervisory responsibilities had been given to the Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association which delegated it to the Cayman Attorneys Regulatory Authority.
However, some legal professionals in the islands felt that a body headed by the chief justice would be more commercially neutral, than an organisation tied to a self-regulating legal association.
The council, which oversees the Legal Services Supervisory Authority, is also politically balanced with a mix of practising and non-practising Caymanian attorneys-at-law picked by both the government and opposition.
For its part, the Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association has hailed the establishment of the Legal Services Supervisory Authority as an important development in Cayman’s regulatory landscape.
“(The Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association) warmly welcomes the official statement of the (Legal Services Supervisory Authority), an important milestone in safeguarding the Cayman Islands’ legal services sector against money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation and related financial crimes,” said the association’s president, Richard Barton.
The establishment of the authority comes amid the islands’ 2025-2026 National Risk Assessment, a two-year review aimed at strengthening the jurisdiction’s defences against money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.
“This transition reinforces the Cayman Islands’ ongoing commitment to meeting both domestic and international regulatory standards, including those set by the Financial Action Task Force and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force,” said Barton.
Barton also believes the move sends a positive signal to the international financial community. The Legal Services Supervisory Authority’s “mandate to maintain a register of practitioners, adopt risk-based monitoring and provide guidance and directives will further strengthen the jurisdiction’s reputation as a leading global legal centre”.
