1. No client-lawyer relationship and no contract or agreement between you and Accord Associates Solicitors Limited (the “firm”, “we”, “us”) is created by your use of this website. The only way to become a client of Accord Associates Solicitors Limited is through a mutual agreement in writing made between this firm and you after we have completed our new client take on procedures. Our take on procedures cover the checks which are required by law and regulation and include conflict, sanction and financial crime checks.
2. If you are interested in becoming a client of this firm, please contact us so that we can determine whether your matter is one with which we can assist you. Please do not provide us with confidential, sensitive or legally privileged information before we have carried out and completed our conflict checks, unless we ask you to do so. This is because if you provide information to us on an unsolicited basis and it is or might be relevant to the matter of a current client of the firm we may be required by law and regulation to disclose it to the current client.
3. Advice and services are provided to our clients on the basis of the relevant engagement letter and our terms of business. By instructing the firm clients confirm their agreement to the firm’s engagement letter and terms of business. No responsibility is assumed and no liability is accepted for information that is supplied or for services that are rendered to someone who is not a client of the firm (including someone using this website) unless in writing we have expressly agreed otherwise.

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING OBLIGATIONS

4. The United Kingdom’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing legislation and related rules issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority require us to take steps to know our clients, their business and the reason for their instruction. They also require us to conduct due diligence on new clients before we enter into a business relationship with them and on-going monitoring of existing clients.
5. We are required to verify and document the identity and address of every client of the firm. This includes any beneficial owner or controller of a company or trust, and anyone purporting to act on behalf of a client. Sometimes we are able to verify and document the identity of a client through publicly available information including from publicly available electronic data sources. If this is not possible, we will ask the client to provide us with the necessary information and documents. Periodically, or if their circumstances change, we may ask a client to provide us with up to date evidence of identity or address or with other information. If we are unable to obtain satisfactory evidence of identity or address, we will not be able to act, or continue acting.
6. We are also required to identify the source of and to consider the provenance of all monies that will be paid to or controlled by the firm. We cannot accept funds unless the source has previously been disclosed to us and verified to our satisfaction. If payment is made to us in breach of this legal requirement, the funds may be frozen until their source and provenance has been established to our satisfaction. We will never knowingly facilitate money laundering or the financing of terrorism.
7. The legislation which governs money laundering and the financing of terrorism has placed all professional advisers, including lawyers, under a legal duty to disclose information to the National Crime Agency in certain circumstances. Where a lawyer knows or suspects that a transaction involves money laundering or the financing of terrorism, he or she may be required to report that knowledge or suspicion to the National Crime Agency. If this happens, we will not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reason for it, for legal reasons. We accept no responsibility or liability for any loss, damage, costs or expenses that you incur by reason of such disclosure.