A former legal adviser to the president of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), Maguire will bring international experience at both operational and policy levels to the firm’s AML practice.

This is expected to be a growth area as the proposed AML legislation promises to have implications for clients across the firm.

Maguire has in-depth knowledge of the FATF 40 recommendations, which form the basis of the proposed AML laws. She was a member of working groups on the review of FATF 40 Recommendations and advised on the FATF special recommendations on terrorist financing. She also advised on Hong Kong’s AML policy formulation, with a focus on international cooperation on money laundering and the recovery of assets.

Anna Lenahan, who heads the AML team with Peter Jones, said the firm felt it was important to have a team that could look at the pro-posed AML legislation and advise clients on how it would work internationally, while applying the lessons that were “still being learnt overseas” to Australia.

“Taking [Maguire] on board enables us to put some international context to the legislation when it comes through,” Lenahan said.

“We felt she would give us that in-depth knowledge and international experience. She is a really, really good addition to our already strong team.”

Her experience updating the Australian comparative analysis section of Butterworth’s Anti-Money Laundering Law and Practice also gave her an edge.

“One of the things we are going to be doing as soon as the draft is released is comparing it across the board to see how it works and compares to what is out there already,” Lenahan said.

Maguire has also conducted criminal and civil AML litigation in Hong Kong and practised as a senior litigator in Australia, specialising in market misconduct, breaches of corporate governance, fraud, ASIC matters, regulatory matters and Commonwealth prosecutions.

She said the firm had targeted Maguire because of the breadth of her experience. “We believe that AML is going to have quite a big impact for a lot of our clients firm-wide and we have set up our team to reflect that with broad expertise,” Lenahan said.

“We want a team with enough experience and enough expertise across the board to be able to advise not just a particular group of clients but all of them.”