Your CPD Rules & Requirements

SOLICITORS

All practitioners who hold a current practising certificate must, during each CPD year (01 April to 31 March), complete 10 units of continuing professional development (CPD) by completing a course which satisfies the following requirements:

(a) The course must be relevant to a practitioner’s immediate or long term needs in relation to the practitioner’s professional development and to the practice of law

(b) The course must include at least one (1) CPD unit in each of the core areas:

1. 1. Legal ethics and professional responsibility
   2. Practice management and business skills
   3. Professional skills
   4. Substantive law and procedural law
      

A practitioner’s engagement in a course of continuing professional development which satisfies the requirements, will entitle the practitioner to one (1) CPD unit for each hour of participation in the course.

ACT practitioners may claim 1 CPD unit per hour for recorded online video or audio material, and this is unlimited.

Attending a live web seminar, live online, entitles a practitioner to claim the same number of units as attending the seminar in person.

BARRISTERS

The Primary Requirement

1. Each CPD year, a holder of an Australian Capital Territory Barrister’s Practising Certificate must obtain at least 10 CPD Points, with at least one point in each of the following strands:

(a) Ethics and Regulation of the Profession;

(b) Management;

(c) Substantive Law, Practice and Procedure and Evidence;

(d) Advocacy, Mediation, and other Barristers’ Skills.

2. For this Program, a CPD year commences on 1 April and ends on the following 31 March.
3. One CPD point is earned by a barrister for each hour of a CPD activity engaged in by the barrister.

CPD activities

4. To qualify as a CPD activity an activity must:

(a) be of significant intellectual or practical content; and

(b) be relevant to the practice of law as a barrister; and

(c) fall under one of the types of activities set out in paragraph 5.

5. A CPD activity will fall under one of the following types of activities:

(a) Individual Professional Development Activities

(b) Teaching or publishing activities

(c) Contribution to the profession

(d) Other activities approved by the Bar Council or the CPD Committee of the Bar Council

A CPD activity need not fit into one of the 4 strands identified in paragraph 1.

For full details of ACT Rules please visit the ACT Law Society.

SOLICITORS

The Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014 (NSW) commenced on 1 July 2015 and replaced the current Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) regulatory regime.

Each CPD year, a practitioner must, unless exempted in whole or in part, complete at least 10 CPD units. 

The CPD rules state that solicitors who are required to undertake CPD, must complete as part of their CPD obligations at least one (1) CPD unit in each of the core area below every year: 

1. Ethics and Professional Responsibility
2. Practice Management and Business Skills
3. Professional Skills
4. Substantive law
   

NSW practitioners, may claim 1 CPD unit per hour of private study, including seminar audio and video recordings, to a maximum of 5 units in any CPD year

Attending a live online web seminar entitles a practitioner to claim the same number of points as attending the seminar in person.

BARRISTERS

Annual Requirements

Unless exempted in whole or in part by the designated local regulatory authority under rule 13, or unless a pro rata calculation applies under this rule, a barrister must in each CPD year engage in CPD activities sufficient to earn at least ten CPD points.

Categories of CPD

(a)  A barrister must, unless otherwise exempted, in each CPD year engage in CPD activities in each of the categories set out below—

1. Ethics and Professional Responsibility,
2. Practice Management and Business Skills,
3. Substantive Law, Practice and Procedure, and Evidence,
4. Barristers’ Skills.

(b)  These categories are subject to any requirement of the designated local regulatory authority or legislation. 

For full details on the New South Wales requirements please visit the Law Society of New South Wales.

SOLICITORS

Each CPD year, a practitioner must, unless exempted in whole or in part, complete at least 10 CPD units

Each CPD year, a practitioner must complete as part of his or her CPD obligations at least 1 CPD unit in each of the following core areas:

1. Practical Legal Ethics
2. Practice Management and Business Skills
3. Professional Skills
   

QLD practitioners, may claim 1 unit per hour of listening to on-demand audio/ taped resources such as our seminar video and audio recordings, entitles a practitioner to claim the same number of points as attending the seminar in person.

Attending a live online web seminar entitles a practitioner to claim the same number of points as attending the seminar in person.

BARRISTERS

Annual Requirement for Barristers to obtain CPD Points

The Administration Rules provide that, in each CPD year, you must:

(a) obtain at least 10 CPD points, earning not more than six CPD points in any one day, and not more than 5 throughout the CPD year from online activity. 

(b) obtain at least one CPD point (noting that one CPD point is equal to one, one hour CPD session) in each of the following mandatory categories:

1. 1. Ethics and Professional Responsibility
   2. Practice Management and Business Skills
   3. Substantive Law, Practice and Procedure, Evidence
   4. Barristers’ Skills.

The Association’s Competency Framework provides guidance on the specific allowable content for each CPD category.

For full details on the Queensland CPD rules please visit the Queensland Law Society.

It is a requirement that an individual legal practitioner must complete 10 CPD units of CPD activity in each year beginning on 1 April to the following 31 March.

A CPD activity

(a) Must be of significant intellectual or practical content primarily related to the practice of law; and

(b) Be relevant to the immediate or long-term professional development needs of the legal practitioner undertaking it; and

(c) The 10 CPD units must include at least 1 unit each of the following Required CPD activity relating to:

1. 1. Practical legal ethics
   2. Practice management or business skills
   3. Professional skills
   4. Bullying, discrimination and harassment
      
      

One hour of attendance at a seminar workshop lecture, conference, educational program or course or discussion group will attract 1 CPD unit.

One hour of viewing or listening to, or preparing material for seminar audio and video recorded material will attract 1 CPD unit. In calculating the minimum of 10 CPD units of CPD activity in respect of a CPD year, the total units must not include more than 5 CPD units of this type of CPD activity.

CPD units completed in January, February or March of a CPD year, may be assigned to either that CPD year or to the next CPD year.

An individual legal practitioner must maintain and retain for 3 years a written record of CPD activities undertaken, material indicating the nature of each CPD activity undertaken and a record that the practitioner undertook each activity.

Attending a live web seminar entitles a practitioner to claim the same number of points as attending the seminar in person.

For full details on the South Australian CPD rules please visit The Law Society of South Australia.

SOLICITORS

As of 1 July 2015 the Legal Profession Uniform Law legislation will commence. This will regulate the legal profession across the two jurisdictions, governing matters such as practising certificate types and conditions, maintaining and auditing of trust accounts, continuing professional development requirements, complaints handling processes, billing arrangements and professional discipline issues. Read more

Each CPD year, a practitioner must, unless exempted in whole or in part, complete at least 10 CPD units.

The CPD rules state that solicitors who are required to undertake CPD, must complete as part of their CPD obligations at least one (1) CPD unit in each of the core area below every year:

1. Ethics and Professional Responsibility
2. Professional Skills
3. Substantive law
4. Practice Management and Business Skills

VIC practitioners, may claim 1 CPD unit per hour of private study, including seminar audio and video recordings, to a maximum of 5 units in any CPD year

Attending a live online web seminar entitles a practitioner to claim the same number of points as attending the seminar in person.

BARRISTERS

The CPD year commences on 1 April of each calendar year and concludes on 31 March of the following year. As a barrister, you must complete a minimum of 10 CPD points in a CPD year. Go to the CPD section here.

Barristers must also complete at least 1 CPD point in each CPD year in each the following categories: 

1. Substantive Law, Practice & Procedure;  
2. Barrister Skills;  
3. Ethics & Professional Responsibility; and  
4. Practice Management & Business Skills.

The remaining 6 CPD points may be allocated in any of the above categories or as unclassified CPD points.

For full details on the Victorian CPD rules please visit the Law Institute of Victoria.

SOLICITORS

The CPD rules state that solicitors who are required to undertake CPD, must complete as part of their CPD obligations at least one (1) CPD unit in each of the core area below every year:

1. 1. Practice Management
   2. Professional Skills
   3. Ethics or Professional Responsibility
   4. Substantive Law

Each CPD year, a practitioner must, unless exempted in whole or in part, complete at least 10 CPD units.

WA practitioners may claim 1 CPD point for each complete 60 minutes of electronic activity, including seminar audio and video recordings, up to a maximum of 5 points per CPD year.

Attending a live online web seminar entitles a practitioner to claim the same number of points as attending the seminar in person.

The maximum number of points that a practitioner may earn for attending a conference, course or other event comprising one or more interactive CPD activities is 10 points.

Interactive and publishing point requirements – The minimum number of points a practitioner is required to earn each year for interactive activities is 10 points and for publishing activities is 5 points.

BARRISTERS

Annual Requirements

Unless exempted in whole or in part by the designated local regulatory authority under rule 13, or unless a pro rata calculation applies under this rule, a barrister must in each CPD year engage in CPD activities sufficient to earn at least ten CPD points.

Categories of CPD

(a)  A barrister must, unless otherwise exempted, in each CPD year engage in CPD activities in each of the categories set out below—

1. Ethics and Professional Responsibility,
2. Practice Management and Business Skills,
3. Substantive Law, Practice and Procedure, and Evidence,
4. Barristers’ Skills.

(b)  These categories are subject to any requirement of the designated local regulatory authority or legislation. 

For full details of the Western Australian CPD requirements please visit the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia.

As of 1 October 2012, practitioners are required to complete a minimum of 10 CPD points in a CPD year. The CPD year begins on 1 April and ends on 31 March the following year. 

Under the Law Society of the NT legal CPD scheme, a legal CPD activity must:

(a) be of significant intellectual or practical content

(b) deal primarily with matters related to the practice of law

(c) be relevant to the practitioner’s immediate or long term professional development needs

(d) The 10 points must include at least 1 point in the core competency areas;

1. 1. Professional ethics and responsibilities (including, for example, conflicts of interest and lawyers duties to court); and
   2. Practice management and business skills (including, for example, risk management and business planning); and
   3. Professional skills in legal practice (including, for example, plain English drafting and communication and interpersonal skills).
   4. Bullying, discrimination and harassment in the workplace (including, for example, analysis of recent FWC cases dealing with sexual harassment disputes)

NT practitioners can earn legal CPD points for participating in legal CPD activities relevant to the practitioners’ current and future needs to engage in legal practice.

For attending a seminar or multimedia or website based program (including our live online web seminars), 0.5 CPD point accrues for each 30 minutes of attendance.

For private study involving the use of audio or video material (including our audio and video seminar recordings), 0.5 CPD point accrues for each 30 minutes of study. However, no more than 5 CPD points may be claimed for private study in a CPD year.

A legal practitioner, who accrues CPD points for participating in a CPD activity within 3 months before the start of a CPD year, or within 3 months after the end of that CPD year, may claim the points for that CPD year. However, the legal practitioner may claim CPD points accrued for the activity for only 1 CPD year.

For Full details of the Northern Territory CPD requirements please visit the Law Society of Northern Territory.

As at 1 May 2021, there are five mandatory CPD categories. This new CPD requirement means when calculating the minimum 10 CPD points of CPD activity in respect of a CPD year, a legal practitioner’s total units must now include at least one (1) point from each of the following five categories:

1. 1. Practical legal ethics (E);
   2. Practice management or business skills (PM);
   3. Professional skills (PS);
   4. Substantive law (SL); and
   5. Equality and wellbeing (EW).

Under the Law Society of Tasmania’s Continuing Professional Development Scheme (Practice Guideline No. 4), a legal CPD activity is defined in clause 2.4 and includes:

(a) attendance at, or preparing or presenting material for, a seminar, workshop, lecture, conference, educational program or course or discussion group; or 

(b) completing a non-award course at a tertiary institution relevant to law or legal practice (up to a maximum of 5 units); or 

(c) viewing or listening to, or preparing material for, a multi-media or web-based program or recorded material, including our seminar audio and video recordings (up to a maximum of 5 units); or 

(d) publishing, or substantively editing or refereeing, an article in a legal or non-legal publication (up to a maximum of 3 units); or 

(e) regular attendance at meetings, and participation as a member, of a committee or other body undertaking work of substantial significance to the practice of the law and which is reasonably likely to assist the attendee’s professional development.

(f) 6 CPD points of CPD activity completed on any one day

For Full details of the Tasmanian CPD requirements please visit the Law Society of Tasmania.