3 Things Solicitors Need To Keep In Mind When Pursuing CPD Points

When it comes to pursuing points for continued professional development for lawyers, otherwise known as CPD points, there are several key things to keep in mind to ensure that you get your points as planned and that they are valid.

As a solicitor, your time is extremely valuable. Therefore, do not waste your time on the wrong areas of focus or by participating in events that are not CPD accredited. Make sure that every hour spent learning counts towards your continued professional development.

1) Mandatory CPD Points

In every territory in Australia, there are a series of mandatory CPD points that need to be earned in specified areas of professional development. While these differ slightly, they are mostly the same. In most states, this amounts to four points. However, one or two territories only require three points.

In most territories, these points are attributed to ethics and professional responsibility, practice management, business skills, professional skills, and substantive law. It is important that you are familiar with the mandatory CPD requirements in your territory so that you can meet this requirement every year and remain certified as a lawyer.

2) Appropriate and Accredited Content

There are many legal seminars and webinars out there, but not all of them count towards CPD. To ensure that a learning opportunity counts towards your CPD, it must be relevant to your practice area and contribute to your professional development.

Generally speaking, seminars, workshops, webinars, conferences and other activities, such as participating in legal debates or reading and studying legal publications, can contribute to your CPD points ‒ if relevant to your area of expertise.

However, these activities do need to be accredited by the Law Society of your territory to ensure that they count towards your CPD tally at the end of the year. Before you attend any events, verify whether the activity is accredited and aligns with your specific area of expertise.

3) Record-Keeping and Reporting

There is no point in attending CPD events and not recording your attendance to ensure that you are awarded the CPD points that you’ve earned. As such, every activity should be carefully recorded and reported, including details such as the date, duration of the event, the topic covered, and who hosted it.

These accurate records are essential to keep, as they will be required upon submission to your local law society for the awarding of CPD points and their verification.

Here at Legalwise Seminars, we contribute to professional development for lawyers by ensuring that we provide relevant and valuable content that is accredited and certified by all law societies across the country. Moreover, we can help ensure that record-keeping and reporting are accurate and easy to track. Contact us today to sign up and get your CPD points sorted.