Legal firms are under intense global regulatory pressure, as governments worldwide start to treat them more like financial services firms. For compliance managers, that means they should focus on integrated data and financial systems, global identity verification capabilities, and employee/partner training and oversight to protect their firms from crime and regulatory penalties.

Ruth Prickett graduated from Cambridge University with a BA hons in History and has specialized in business and finance journalism for the past 20 years. She was editor of Financial Management, the magazine...