1. Introduction
1.1 Who should read this practice note?
All solicitors in legal practice or employment in England or Wales.
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1.2 What is the issue?
All solicitors and registered European lawyers (RELs) in legal practice or employment in England and Wales must comply with the Solicitors Regulation Authority's continuing professional development scheme (CPD scheme).
This practice note gives advice on getting the most from the CPD scheme, by choosing activities most suited to you as a practitioner and to your practice as a business.
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2. What is CPD?
CPD is a course, lecture, seminar or other programme or method of study, whether requiring attendance or not. To qualify as CPD, it must be relevant to the needs and professional standards of solicitors and comply with guidance issued from time to time by the Law Society.
All solicitors and RELs in their first CPD year and in each subsequent year must complete 16 hours of CPD per year. The year runs from 1 November to 31 October.
Read more about compliance with the CPD scheme on the SRA website, including:
- compulsory participation in the Law Society Management Course Stage 1
- differing levels of requirements for newly qualified solicitors, part time solicitors and RELs
- suspensions and waivers that may be applicable
- completion of training records
Visit the SRA's website
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3. Planning for your CPD
You should link your individual training needs to the objectives of your practice to get the most from your CPD activities. You should:
- identify and analyse your training needs
- discuss these needs with your firm
Resources on the SRA website:
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4. Getting the most out of the CPD scheme
You must meet the requirements of the CPD scheme, but the scheme offers flexibility on how you do this. You can take advantage of the wide range of activities the scheme offers, staying up to date with changes in the law and the profession that are relevant to your practice. Participation in the CPD scheme enhances the credibility of you and your practice, and allows your practice to remain commercially competitive.
The basics:
- At least 25 per cent of your CPD requirement must be met by participating in accredited courses which require attendance for one hour or more
- The remaining 75 per cent of your CPD may be met by participating in a wide range of other activities, some of which you may already be involved in.
An accredited course is one that:
- is offered by providers authorised by the SRA
- requires attendance for one hour or more
It can include:
- a distance learning course involving assessment by dissertation and written examination
- a face to face coaching or mentoring session, accredited under an authorisation agreement, of one hour or more.
Read more about the basics:
For the 75 per cent of your CPD requirement that does not need to be on accredited courses, your options include:
- participation in non-accredited courses
- working towards professional qualifications
- coaching and/or mentoring sessions of under an hour
- work shadowing
- listening to or watching audio/visual material produced by an authorised provider
- distance learning
- writing on law or practice
- research
- production of a dissertation counting towards an SRA recognised qualification
- development of specialist areas of law
- preparing and delivering training courses forming part of the process of qualification or post-admission training
- work towards a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ)
- work towards the Training and Development Lead Body Units D32, D33 and D34 relating to assessing and verifying the achievement of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs).
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4.1 Participation in accredited courses
You may claim CPD hours for preparing, delivering and/or attending complete courses of more than 30 minutes. Accredited CPD courses are offered by providers authorised by the SRA. Accredited courses can be run externally or in-house, where a firm is authorised by the SRA.
List of accredited CPD providers
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4.2 Participation in non-accredited courses
You may claim CPD hours for preparing, delivering and/or attending courses that are of particular relevance and benefit to your area of work. Courses must be more than 30 minutes in length.
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4.3 Working towards professional qualifications
You may claim CPD hours for this only if you take examinations. However, you may claim both study and examination time.
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4.4 Coaching and/or mentoring
You may claim CPD hours for participating in coaching and/or mentoring sessions if the sessions:
- are structured
- involve professional development
- are more than 30 minutes long
- have written aims and objectives
- are documented showing an outcome
- are accredited under an authorisation agreement
Sessions may be face to face or delivered from a distance. Face to face sessions of over an hour that meet the above requirements will qualify as an accredited course.
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4.5 Work shadowing
You may claim CPD hours for participation in work shadowing schemes. Work shadowing is where you shadow or follow someone in their work role for a period of time, for the purpose of enhancing your performance and that of the person you shadow.
To qualify, work shadowing must:
- be structured
- have clear aims and objectives
- require feedback or reflection on the shadowing activity.
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4.6 Participation in distance-learning courses
You may claim CPD hours for participation in distance-learning where there is provision for answering enquiries or for discussion.
A list of providers of accredited distance-learning courses
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4.7 Writing on law or practice
You may claim CPD hours for writing on law or practice for publication. Examples include:
- law books and journals
- publications for clients
- clients' own publications
- newspapers and magazines, whether legal publications or not
- the internet
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4.8 Research
You may claim CPD hours for research that relates to legal topics or has relevance to your practice/organisation. Research must result in some form of written document, precedent, memorandum, questionnaire or survey etc.
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4.9 Development of specialist areas of law
You may claim CPD hours for participating in the development of specialist areas of law and practice by attending meetings of specialist committees and/or working parties of relevant professional or other competent bodies charged with such work. Time spent at meetings may be claimed.
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4.10 Work towards the achievement of a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ)
NVQs may be achieved in any business-related area and at any level. You may claim CPD hours for time spent building a portfolio of evidence and/or attending lectures, workshops etc.
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4.11 Work towards the Training and Development Lead Body Units D32, D33 and D34 relating to assessing and verifying the achievement of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs)
You may claim CPD hours for time spent building a portfolio of evidence and/or attending lectures, workshops etc.
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5. Case studies of CPD compliance in practice
The following case studies demonstrate how you may meet your CPD requirements by participating in a mixture of accredited and non-accredited activities, and by choosing activities that are relevant to both you and your firm.
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5.1 A 1 year PQE solicitor
'The Insolvency team get most of their CPD points twice a year through an organisation called Insolvency Network UK . This is run by Insolvency Lawyers from different regional firms and they present to each other on different topics. One of my colleagues earned CPD points giving a presentation on directors disqualification at the last meeting.
'I also attended an accredited CPD course called Corporate Insolvency For Beginners; watched some internal video training sessions; and attended a SESCA Enterprises course. SESCA is the professional training subsidiary of the South Eastern Society of Chartered Accountants and provides legal lectures.'
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5.2 A senior associate
A senior associate met his CPD obligations by:
- Preparing for an hour long session as part of a day-long seminar for in-house lawyers at his group's client organisations on his area of technical expertise. To help with his group's business development he sat in on all of the sessions at the seminar. (Preparation time - 6 accredited CPD hours; delivery - 1 accredited CPD hour; course attendance - 6 accredited CPD hours)
- In advance of the seminar, completing the firm's e-learning course on Presentation Skills (0.75 unaccredited CPD Hours) and then attended an in-house course on advanced presentation skills to help him practice his talk (3 accredited CPD hours).
- Attending a day long public course on his area of technical expertise (6 accredited CPD hours)
- Preparing for and presenting a 30 minute talk as part of his group's induction programme for their new trainees (Preparation time - 1.5 accredited CPD hours; presentation time - 0.5 accredited CPD hours)
- Writing a practice note on a new legal development for his group's know how bank (6 unaccredited CPD hours)
Preparing and presenting a seminar on the restructuring process during the credit crisis (6 accredited CPD hours).
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5.3 A partner
'In addition to having training responsibility, I am the partner in my firm who mentors compliance with SRA rules. As well as attending a course myself on the Solicitors' Code of Conduct, I gave a talk on the subject to our own staff. At the time I had delivered the talk to the staff, I felt that I had had a real opportunity to come to grips with it. So I got two benefits: a detailed understanding of the code of conduct as well as CPD credit for my talk.
'I have also given lectures, either to selected clients or to groups of clients, on particular subjects in which I am interested. Over the years, that has generated a reasonable amount of CPD hours in preparation and presentation time.'
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5.4 A junior solicitor
A junior solicitor met her CPD obligations by:
- Attending some of her group's monthly lunchtime technical sessions, each one hour, at which partners led discussions of the law and practice relevant to current deals, or of recent developments in their field of practice (7 accredited CPD hours over the year).
- Researching and co-writing with a partner a technical article on a new legal development (10 unaccredited CPD hours).
Completing a half day in-house course on effective business communication (3 accredited CPD hours).
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6. More information
6.1 Professional conduct
The Training Regulations 1990
Solicitors' Code of Conduct 2007, Rule 5.01(1)(l): Supervision and management responsibilities
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6.2 Status of this practice note
Practice notes are issued by the Law Society for the use and benefit of its members. They represent the Law Society's view of good practice in a particular area. They are not intended to be the only standard of good practice that solicitors can follow. You are not required to follow them, but doing so will make it easier to account to oversight bodies for your actions.
Practice notes are not legal advice, nor do they necessarily provide a defence to complaints of misconduct or of inadequate professional service. While care has been taken to ensure that they are accurate, up to date and useful, the Law Society will not accept any legal liability in relation to them.
For queries or comments on this practice note contact the Law Society's Practice Advice Service
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6.3 Terminology in this practice note
Must - a specific requirement in the Solicitors' Code of Conduct or legislation. You must comply, unless there are specific exemptions or defences provided for in the code of conduct or relevant legislation.
Should - good practice for most situations in the Law Society's view. If you do not follow this, you should be able to justify to oversight bodies why the alternative approach you have taken is appropriate, either for your practice, or in the particular retainer.
May - a non-exhaustive list of options for meeting your obligations. Which option you choose is determined by the risk profile of the individual practice, client or retainer. You must be able to justify why this was an appropriate option to oversight bodies.
CPD - Continuing Professional Development
REL - Registered European Lawyer
SRA - Solicitors Regulation Authority
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6.4 Other products
The Law Society provides support to solicitors on a wide range of areas of legal practice. The service is staffed by solicitors and can be contacted on 0870 606 2522 from 09.00 to 17.00 on weekdays.
Visit the Practice Advice Service website.
6.4.2 SRA
The SRA regulates solicitors in England and Wales. It makes and enforces the Solicitors' Code of Conduct.
6.4.3 Law Society CPD Centre
The CPD Centre is completely free to use and enables you to search hundreds of courses from leading providers. Once you've successfully completed a course, you can record your CPD hours within the CPD Centre.
It also allows you to access a variety of Law Society Online CPD courses, including courses on the Solicitors' Code of Conduct 2007, risk management and money laundering regulations.
Visit the CPD Centre web site.
6.4.4 Law Society training and events
CPD and non-CPD events and training seminars.
6.4.5 Law Society publications
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