Aderant & First AML link compliance into law firms' workflow

Aderant has launched an integration between its Expert and Expert Sierra platforms and First AML for law firms that use both systems.

The integration lets firms run anti-money laundering checks within Aderant's practice management workflow instead of moving between separate compliance and case management systems. It is available to mutual clients of the two companies and is delivered with support from Aderant's Professional Services team.

Law firms face growing pressure to demonstrate consistent, auditable anti-money laundering processes, particularly when handling more complex and cross-border client relationships. In many firms, those checks sit outside the main workflow used for financial management and matter administration, creating extra handoffs and duplicate data entry.

The new link is intended to remove that separation by connecting the client and matter workflow in Expert and Expert Sierra directly to First AML's due diligence tools. Staff can select a client or matter in Aderant, pull the relevant parties into the workflow, stage the case and submit the check to First AML without leaving the main system.

Workflow change

The process includes a review screen where designated users can confirm which contacts, client parties and matter parties are included before submission. The workflow also recognises people who have already been verified through First AML.

Verification results are then written back to an anti-money laundering approval history table in Expert or Expert Sierra. Those records can be viewed through Entity Manager for reporting and audit purposes.

Firms can use the integration as a standalone compliance check or include it in an existing file-opening process. That means the anti-money laundering check can be triggered automatically when a matter requires it.

The launch expands a partnership announced earlier this year between the two software providers. It also reflects wider demand among professional services firms for tools that place compliance checks inside the systems staff already use, rather than treating them as a separate administrative task.

For law firms, anti-money laundering controls have become a growing operational issue as regulators demand clearer evidence that client due diligence has been carried out consistently. Firms operating across several jurisdictions can face additional complexity because ownership structures, corporate entities and source-of-funds reviews can be harder to document uniformly.

Practise management systems sit at the centre of many law firms' daily operations, covering billing, matter intake, financial management and case administration. By integrating compliance screening into those systems, suppliers aim to reduce the risk that checks are missed, delayed or recorded inconsistently.

Aderant, which provides business management and practice-of-law software to law firms, said its services team works with each firm to implement the link around existing processes. This suggests the integration is intended to fit a range of operating models rather than requiring firms to rebuild their intake procedures from scratch.

First AML focuses on anti-money laundering and client due diligence software and says it serves organisations with complex or international onboarding needs. The company is based in Auckland and also has offices in Australia and the UK.

Aderant operates as a business unit of Roper Technologies and is headquartered in Atlanta, with offices across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Its Expert and Expert Sierra products are widely used by law firms for practice and financial management.

Aderant described the move as an effort to bring compliance closer to routine operational work for firms already using both suppliers' software.

"For clients running Expert or Expert Sierra alongside First AML, AML checks now happen inside the same workflow staff already use, instead of as a separate process," said Josiah Chaves, Chief Client Officer, Aderant. "Our Professional Services team works directly with each firm to bring the integration live and configure it around their existing process, so mutual clients start saving time and reducing risk right away. That's the kind of in-context automation our clients expect from Aderant."

First AML said the integration is intended to avoid making fee earners and support staff leave their main systems to complete compliance work.

"AML compliance shouldn't require firms to leave the systems they already rely on," said Milan Cooper, Chief Executive Officer, First AML. "With this integration live, Expert and Expert Sierra users can run a First AML check the same way they handle everything else in their day, without extra logins or manual re-entry. That's the standard we think firms should expect from compliance technology, and we're glad to reach it together with Aderant."