While a handful of lawyers believe Continuing Legal Education is a waste of time, an increasingly competitive CLE market has seen an increase in more tailored programs, providing added value for lawyers. Briana Everett reports

At the beginning of each year, scores of lawyers undoubtedly grumble at the prospect of meeting their professional development requirements before the 31 March deadline.

But thanks to growing competition between providers of Continuing Legal Education (CLE)/Continuing Professional Development (CPD), professional development programs are now more tailored to a larger number of lawyers and offer a greater focus on business and practice management skills - an area of rising value and importance to lawyers.

And with CLE now offered extensively within law firms and from organisations such as The College of Law (COL), there is a significant amount of choice for lawyers endeavouring to meet their CLE obligations.

"The CLE market is a really competitive market at the moment," says Brisbane Family Law Centre director Clarissa Rayward, who is also an executive committee member of the Family Law Practitioners Association of Queensland [FLPAQ].

"What I've noticed over the past few years is a lot more private providers of CLE ... It's a very competitive market and there are a lot of programs being offered. As a practitioner [and owner of] a small firm you do have to be a bit picky and choosy in terms of what you attend, just because of the cost."

Despite considerations of cost, Rayward, along with most of her colleagues, believes CLE is a beneficial exercise and one that now offers greater value for practice owners given the increased focus on practice management and business development skills.

"What you're seeing is a shift towards ensuring that the compulsory ethics and practice management points are provided for practitioners," she says. "FLPAQ [recently] had a business-type stream running, which was one of the first times that has occurred. For someone like me, that was very useful because in family law there is certainly a real move towards boutique and smaller firms. That sort of business stuff is not something you always get at legal conferences and I found that really useful."

Like Rayward, Allen & Overy senior associate Kylie de Oliveira says CLE is critical, but only when the presenters are well-qualified and the content is adequately tailored.

"It has to be relevant and presenters have to have a good bond with business terminology. They have to understand what it's like to be in a law firm. Law firms are in the business world but it's a bit different to being a business," she says. "Presenters have to be credible and really resonate with people."

Addressing emerging trends in the market and providing more tailored programs is something the COL has been focusing on as lawyers demand more value for money.

"Practitioners are much more focused now on getting what they want. It's not just value for money - they really want to walk away with something. Lawyers want learning outcomes," says COL's director of continuing professional development, Una Doyle.

"Let's be honest, some lawyers just want to tick the boxes, but most lawyers think that if they're going to invest in training, they'd like to get something out of it."

Aside from ensuring the CLE topic is relevant and timely for lawyers, the increase in programs that are properly tailored to each level of lawyer is also increasing the value of CLE.

"You're really seeing specific topics of CLEs that work very well for advanced lawyers as well as other programs that are deliberately structured for new practitioners. One thing that FLPAQ has really focused on this year is training for younger lawyers. That's something that we felt was lacking," says Rayward.

"Part of the training that FLPAQ has been trying to offer is, to some degree, to help with the influx of younger lawyers and to act almost as a mentoring program for younger lawyers. We've got specific training for them on issues that they're dealing with but also to help them in the early parts of their career."

Thanks to a greater pool of resources, larger law firms like Allen & Overy are well equipped to specifically tailor CLE to each level of lawyer, providing specialised training from the junior summer clerk level right through to the senior lawyer level - which is, according to de Oliveira, sometimes neglected.

"If [there aren't programs for the more advanced lawyers] the senior lawyers get forgotten because they end up being the presenters of CLE," she says. "It's obviously critical to ensure that senior lawyers keep their skills up and develop all the other skills that are necessary for senior lawyers and for those who want partnership, to move on to that level."

An international focus

As a result, in part, of a more competitive market, CLE programs are increasingly offering lawyers the chance to hear from industry leaders from both Australia and overseas, as well as providing better networking opportunities.

If a lawyer is lucky enough to work for a global firm, their CLE could land them a quick overseas trip. CLE training with an international focus is something which global firms in Australia, such as A&O, can easily offer lawyers, allowing them the opportunity to gain exposure to international issues and to develop an international perspective on their practice area.

"Part of the beauty of having an international network is we very frequently have visiting partners from Asia and London, so we often take advantage of that on an ad hoc basis," says de Oliveira, who coordinates the firm's graduate-level CLE program.

Junior A&O lawyers have the opportunity to spend a week or two in London at the firm's corporate or banking and finance "university".

"It's an intensive program for colleagues all around the world and it's a great networking opportunity as well," says de Oliveira.

Similarly, the COL has focused on providing a more international focus for its professional development programs.

As an executive member of the Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA) - an international body focused on improving CLE worldwide - Doyle provides a valuable source to the COL, enabling the organisation to attract international speakers to its Australian CLE events.

"We very much keep an eye on what overseas jurisdictions are doing," says Doyle. "[Being a member of ACLEA] gives us an incredible insight into where we're going in the world. It gives us access to a whole range of presenters and experts that we wouldn't normally have."

Room for improvement

While most lawyers seem to agree that CLE/CPD is important and necessary - no matter how much of a hassle it might for time-poor lawyers - there is undoubtedly room for improvement.

For Kelly & Co senior associate Michael Kay, CLE presenters need to remember why lawyers are at the event in the first place.

According to Kay, some lawyer-presenters focus too much on the black letter law, failing to provide the much-needed advice and insight that attendees are looking for.

"Even though it's lawyers in the audience, I think more of a practical approach would be good. As lawyers, we're trained to read the black letter law. I think what a lot of people are looking for is the presenter's insights and the more practical side of things," he says. "The reason we pay to go to these seminars and take the time out to do it is to get the insights from that particular presenter."

As a senior associate based in Adelaide, Kay is only in his first year of CLE after South Australia finally joined the other states and territories in introducing mandatory CLE for its lawyers.

But despite only being in his first year of CLE, Kay is already asking for more, suggesting that the threshold be raised and that lawyers be required to complete more than 10 hours currently required. Referring to accountants as an example, who are required to complete a comparatively large 40 hours a year, Kay says 10 hours is not enough.

"Ten hours over a whole year isn't that much, considering the law is a moving beast. We're at the coalface of regulations changing," he says, admitting that his colleagues might disagree with his suggestion that they take even more time out of their busy schedules. "I'm sure a lot of practitioners would take it upon themselves to attend more courses than they're absolutely required, but I think the threshold should be raised."

While the idea to raise the requirements above 10 hours might not take-off straight away, providers of CLE are constantly requesting feedback in a bid to improve CLE and add value for lawyers.

"We make a point of always talking to people, asking about how [the program] is going and how it works out [for them," says Doyle. "We get a lot more feedback now. We get a lot of emails and we call for expressions of interest in different areas, [from which] we have developed suites of programs in response to what are the perceived areas of need."