Compliance club nets a century

Clifford Chance has become the 100th member of the Online Compliance Consortium (OCC), the group of law firms which produces online compliance training for the legal profession.

The group was founded in 2004 with 14 of the UK’s leading law firms and has grown rapidly to encompass law firms from around the world. By pooling its members’ resources, the OCC says it can cost effectively develop quality legal compliance training courses and training management software for its members.

Chris Andrews, director of risk management at Clifford Chance, says: “Regulatory compliance and risk management is of vital importance, and law firms and their staff need to be completely on top of issues such as anti-money laundering. Our membership of the OCC will be important not only for us, but will help develop something of value to the legal sector as a whole.”

Another recent OCC recruit is global firm Latham & Watkins. Philip Clifford, the firm’s money laundering reporting officer in London, says the tailored online courses the OCC offers provide several advantages over more traditional, lecture based, training methods.

Simon Young, solicitor and legal management/ training consultant at Lawyers Compliance Ltd, says the co-operative idea is an excellent way of getting services and products tailored to the needs of the size and style of participating firms.