With a service provider like Legalwise Seminars, there are many law CPD courses on offer, making it fairly difficult to know which courses to choose.
Let’s take a look at a few considerations to make before selecting your CPD courses, ensuring you spend your valuable time on learning experiences that truly foster professional development and bridge your skill gap.
Personal and Professional Goals
The first thing that you, as a solicitor, should do when considering your CPD course choices is determine your personal and professional development goals. This includes identifying which areas you want to specialise in or grow your knowledge in, as well as which skills you aim to improve and which legal trends you want to explore.
If you’re a family law specialist, for example, you might want to enhance your mediation skills. If you’re a corporate law practitioner, you might find yourself wanting to deepen your understanding of cybersecurity regulations.
Whatever the case, knowing what direction your career is headed is the most crucial factor in determining which CPD courses are best.
Assessing Current Skills Gaps
Once you know what direction you're headed in as a solicitor, it's important to determine what skills you still need to reach those goals. Assessing your current skill set and identifying which gaps or areas you need to improve in is a great step towards determining which CPD courses are best for you.
This form of self-assessment can be done either through feedback from peers and supervisors or simply by reflecting on past cases or projects and noting where improvement is warranted.
Understanding your own weaknesses is a key part of developing your professional skills and will greatly help you determine which CPD courses should be prioritised to help you become a more well-rounded professional.
Meeting Regulatory Requirements
For most territories throughout Australia, at least four of the 10 required CPD points need to be earned in certain compulsory subject areas. These are usually in the areas of ethics and professional responsibility, practice management and business skills, substantive law, and professional skills.
It is important to ensure that points in these mandatory areas of study are covered. Ensure that you pick courses that cover aspects of these mandatory topics that are most valuable for your growth and development.
Seek Recommendations and Peer Input
Seek course recommendations from your colleagues, mentors, superiors, or other industry experts. Look out for reviews from colleagues in the industry who have taken CPD courses that interest you, and gain their insights into whether that kind of course is worthwhile.
Review the content format and determine whether the overall effectiveness of the format is likely to work for you.
Also, consider whether the CPD course itself might include added benefits, such as networking opportunities, so that you can make the most of your time.
Legalwise Seminars boasts an array of interactive, insightful law CPD courses for a wide range of legal disciplines. Contact us to discuss our course options and establish the best courses for you.
