Recital 12

(12) Independent legal professionals should be subject to this Regulation when participating in financial or corporate transactions, including when providing tax advice, because there is risk of the services provided by those legal professionals being misused for the purpose of laundering the proceeds of criminal activity or for the purpose of terrorist financing. There should, however, be exemptions from any obligation to report information obtained before, during or after judicial proceedings, or in the course of ascertaining the legal position of a client, as such information is covered by legal privilege. Therefore, legal advice should remain subject to the obligation of professional secrecy, except where the legal professional is taking part in money laundering or terrorist financing, the legal advice is provided for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, or where the legal professional knows that the client is seeking legal advice for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing. Such knowledge and purpose can be inferred from objective factual circumstances. As legal advice might already be sought at the stage of perpetrating the proceeds-generating criminal activity, it is important that cases excluded from legal privilege extend to situations where legal advice is provided in the context of the predicate offences. Legal advice sought in relation to ongoing judicial proceedings should not be deemed to constitute legal advice for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.