Career support and professional development

New careers initiatives

We delivered a number of new careers initiatives during 2009/10.

Events included:

• Retraining: an introduction to wills, probate and trusts, to help solicitors move into private client work as an alternative to commercial law careers
• Application/selection workshop: for students, trainees and newly qualified solicitors
• Career crossroads: planning your next chapter - for solicitors facing a challenge mid-career
• Professional development: essential soft skills training
• Careers in law: for school students
• a new returners course;
• a webinar (live online seminar) on training contracts.

A new careers portal was launched, providing information and guidance for those wishing to become solicitors and those in the profession.

We conducted a survey of local law societies and legal practice course providers on the quality of the academic stage of training and published a practice note on supervision.

We ran a media campaign to warn students about the difficulties involved in pursuing a career in law.

Promoting careers in the judiciary

In 2010 three solicitor judges were authorised to sit as Deputy High Court Judges - Michael Caplan from Kingsley Napley, former Law Society president Phillip Sycamore, and former Law Society Council member Alexandra Marks, and we hope this will encourage more solicitors to consider careers in the judiciary. We have continued to lobby for a judicial appointments process which ensures that solicitors have proper access to judicial appointments. We responded to the Neuberger report on judicial diversity and made further recommendations on how the application process could be improved to increase diversity.

We provide insights and information about the opportunities available, and details about work shadowing, vacancies and the Judicial Appointments Commission's (JAC) selection exercise programme. With the JAC we produced a video of a role play exercise to familiarise solicitors with this key part of the assessment process. We produced a second film in which two experienced judges gave their opinions on the candidate's performance. The films were viewed over 3,000 times during the week they went live. We also commissioned courses for solicitors applying for judicial appointments; organised a series of Meet the judges events across the country; and worked with the Junior Lawyers Division to encourage recently qualified solicitors to think about a judicial post as a long-term option.

CPD support

We hold seminars, workshops and conferences across England and Wales on legal developments and best practice. This year's events have covered how to exploit opportunities offered by the Legal Services Act, client care and complaints handling, strategies for combining legal and financial advice, legal aid issues, AML, preparing for PII renewals, judicial appointments, youth court practice, file auditing, human trafficking, European arrest warrant and business continuity planning.

We also run a two-day retraining programme with The College of Law covering the basics of private client law and practice, designed to extend knowledge in this resilient practice area.

New CPD Centre launched

This free online portal was launched in 2010. It offers:

• a directory of hundreds of training courses from the Law Society and other leading course suppliers
• a free online CPD planning and recording tool
• access to paid-for Law Society online courses.