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Responding to trends vital this CPD season
There’s only 11 days until the deadline. Learn what trends have made traction over the past 12 months that are worth upskilling on.
Reporter
As part of the CPD focus fortnight, Lawyers Weekly has profiled three CPD providers as a way to find out what’s on offer this year and how lawyers can best meet their requirements before the 31 March deadline.
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Conversations with each of the providers have proven that there has been a variety of trends, opportunities and challenges affecting the legal profession over the past 12 months, giving all the more reason for lawyers to upskill themselves on these core areas.
Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, Law Society of NSW president Richard Harvey said the last 12 months have seen increased interest in activity-based masterclasses and workshops.
“As a result, we have developed a number of practical and engaging masterclasses for our program, such as ‘Whistleblower protection laws in practice’, ‘Advocating at NCAT’ and ‘Migration law practice and procedure’, which provide lawyers with the opportunity to workshop ideas and build specific skills and knowledge,” he said.
Noting that lawyers are busy people and cannot always attend courses in person, particularly given the current climate, Mr Harvey said there are many videocasts to help legal professionals navigate headwinds.
“This was a key driver in recording our most popular courses and promptly making them available as on-demand videocasts, including both our Property Law One Day Intensive and our Elder Law, Wills & Estates One Day Intensive,” he explained.
When it comes to LawCPD, director Sarah Mateljan said the group is constantly releasing new courses and updating its content to address trends and challenges facing lawyers, including cyber threats, royal commissions and the advancement of technology – to name a few.
“We have received fantastic feedback on our new website from lawyers – particularly how easy it is to navigate and how user-friendly the new site is. Each year we also continue to receive excellent feedback on our online courses. Lawyers consistently comment on how informative, engaging and well presented our courses are, as well as how convenient they find it being able to learn online when it suits them,” Ms Mateljan said.
“I would encourage all lawyers to try LawCPD’s online courses because they offer a convenient way to meet the core CPD requirements while learning from leading legal experts, no matter where you live and work in Australia.”
Meanwhile, CPD for Me founder Paula Gilmour shared a big challenge lawyers are faced with this year is the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
As such, she said: “Our online CPD offering is the perfect answer to complete all your 10 units.”
On what CPD for Me is doing to help lawyers, Ms Gilmour said: “We currently service over 3,000 subscribers, worldwide. Each year our subscriber base grows. Our range of client differs vastly and ranges from international law firms to lawyers who enjoy the flexibility of our extensive online library and participating in webinars.”
“Our subscribers know that each and every year we offer a wide enough range of speakers and topics that satisfy their CPD requirements and provide them with valuable takeaways in each session,” Ms Gilmour concluded.
“We are unable to change human nature and most people procrastinate, even lawyers. Regardless of why lawyers leave CPD to the last minute, CPD for Me has daily webinars, wide variety of experts and on-demand content which all have [three to five] takeaways per session.
“People buy people and I am very thankful that over 80 per cent of our clients return each year to complete CPD units with us.”
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