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Background
The growth of the Continuing Professional Development program has spanned more than a decade:
- 2008: Law Society introduces Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements for lawyers in Alberta established in the Rules of the Law Society of Alberta.
- 2012: Charis Management Consulting Inc. conducts an evaluation of the CPD Program. The CPD Evaluation shows that most lawyers support the CPD program – lawyers indicated that the CPD program does contribute to their professional development and facilitates continuous learning and improved competency.
- 2015: Law Society develops the online Lawyer Portal to allow lawyers to pay their fees online, update contact information and complete other requirements.
- 2016: CPD program focus shifts from a substantive law approach to a competencies approach in an effort to ensure the ongoing competence and professionalism of lawyers in Alberta
- 2016: All lawyers are required to develop and declare their CPD plan through the Lawyer Portal using a standard template. This way, lawyers are required to access one website for all of their membership requirements, resulting in ease of use and familiarity with one system. Having a standard template, used by all lawyers in Alberta, ensures that all lawyers are using a consistent process in the development of their CPD plans. The 2012 evaluation process found that use of the CPD plan template improved the quality of members’ plans.
- Note: The Lawyer Portal will be able to store multiple years’ worth of plans. However, the Lawyer Portal is not an archive and lawyers will still be responsible, under the Rules, to maintain a copy of their plan for their records and the five year retention requirement. The Lawyer Portal does contain the ability to print plans to accommodate this requirement.
- 2017: Bencher-approved changes to the CPD program are implemented. The first change shifts the annual deadline for CPD declarations from March 15th to September 30th. The second change improves program accountability through the implementation of an administrative suspension for failure to declare a plan.
- 2020: Suspension of the mandatory Continuing Professional Development (CPD) filing requirement for the profession for the years 2020 and 2021. Suspending the CPD program allows the Law Society to refocus its thinking and dedicate resources toward the next phase of lawyer competency.