The Professional Support Unit (PSU) is a function of the  Law Society of New South Wales’ Professional Standards Department.  PSU is staffed by a team of eight highly knowledgeable and experienced solicitors who together have decades of experience practising in the legal profession.

Services

PSU consists of ethics, regulatory compliance, costs, and AML/CTF solicitors that provide confidential, prompt and reasoned information, guidance and assistance to the legal profession to comply with their obligations imposed under legal profession and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) legislation.

Legal practitioners can telephone or email PSU (contact details below) to discuss their concerns or seek clarification and assistance and can arrange face-to-face meetings with PSU solicitors by appointment.  Contact points are staffed each business day from 9am to 5pm.

The PSU solicitors also deliver mandatory Continuing Professional Development (CPD) seminars on behalf of the Law Society.  Seminars are delivered online and face-to-face at the Law Society, regional law societies, and by arrangement at law practices, corporations, government departments and to ‘special interest’ groups.

In addition to CPD seminars, the PSU solicitors facilitate the Practice Management Course (PMC) delivered by the Law Society. 

Support is provided by the PSU solicitors around risk management, ethics, costs and compliance issues delivered through journal articles, online bulletins including Monday Briefs and online factsheets.

Confidentiality of inquiries handled by PSU 

In general, your inquiry to PSU will be kept confidential. 

This confidentiality is based on a policy developed by the Law Society of NSW to encourage solicitors in NSW to proactively seek guidance and assistance. The exceptions to confidentiality include where PSU is provided with your consent to disclose the information, or where we are compelled or obliged to disclose information, for example where we are: 

•    provided information regarding a trust account irregularity (see section 154 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law),  
•    permitted or compelled by law to disclose, for example, under section 49B of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), 
•    disclosing the information to avoid the probable commission of a serious criminal offence, or  
•    disclosing the information for preventing imminent serious physical harm to you or another person. 
 
Further questions on confidentiality or information on the assistance offered by ethics, regulatory compliance, costs, and AML/CTF can be accessed through the respective links below: