The Law Society is working on a new approach to continuing professional development (CPD) for Alberta lawyers that is more self-directed and provides guidance around professional competencies that are relevant for legal practice in Alberta today. Two key pieces of work underway are the creation of a Professional Development Profile (Profile) and the development of a new CPD planning tool.

The Board approved an extension to suspend the annual CPD filing requirement for an additional year to May 2023 to allow more time to build a CPD approach that goes beyond setting a minimum standard for competence and offers an enhanced experience for lawyers.

Our goal in making these improvements is for lawyers to be more engaged with their CPD plans by providing them with more guidance and tools with the introduction of the Profile in 2022 and the new CPD planning tool coming in 2023.

What is a Professional Development Profile?

The Profile outlines competencies that Alberta lawyers can choose to develop or refine as part of their professional development and annual CPD plan. The draft competencies represent broad areas, such as practice management or lawyer-client relationships, and include performance indicators or examples of observable behaviours that can be developed with respect to the selected competency.

The Profile will serve as a foundation for the Law Society’s approach to professional development for Alberta lawyers going forward.

How the Profile will be used

The Law Society’s new approach to CPD for Alberta lawyers is to be more self-directed, while also providing guidance about competencies. The Profile is meant to provide guidance when lawyers are selecting areas for professional development that are meaningful to them and their practice at different stages of their career.

The Profile was drafted to have broad application to various practice settings. Some content will not be applicable to all lawyers depending on their career stage or practice setting. The Profile is not intended to be used as a checklist and lawyers will not be required to demonstrate competency in every area in the Profile each year. A minimum hours requirement will not be added.

To learn more, read our Frequently Asked Questions and stay tuned as more information and training will be provided on how to use the Profile as it is rolled out to the profession later this year.

If you have questions about the Law Society’s new approach to CPD, please contact our Education department.

Encouraging lifelong learning

Although the CPD filing requirement was lifted for an additional year until 2023, CPD activities remain crucial for lawyers in fulfilling their Code of Conduct obligations respecting competent legal service delivery. Lawyers are still encouraged to develop an annual CPD plan, whether on their own or by using the CPD planning tool through the Lawyer Portal, which continues to be available to track and declare professional development activities.

As a reminder, the Indigenous Cultural Competency education, The Path (Alberta), was launched to provide lawyers with ongoing professional development. For most lawyers, the Path (Alberta) training must be complete by October 2022, or otherwise within the 18-month timeframe for completion.

Learning doesn’t stop once law school ends. Like other professions, lawyers must stay up to speed with technology, issues and consumer needs. Taking the time to schedule professional development benefits you as a lawyer, your law firm or organization and your clients.