Continuing professional development

The case, par excellence of the box-ticking, form-filling culture than modern risk management has become.

Once upon a time, somewhere, someone in a self-regulating professional trade body conceived the worry that by the daily practice of one’s professional calling in a live environment, an attorney might grow stale, out of touch and dangerously unlearned in the ways of that calling.

A counter-intuitive idea, but there you have it: it is a good thing for people to challenge orthodoxy.

So began the programme of continuing professional development, whereby solicitors must maintain their freshness by periodically re-educating themselves on germane issues. It is not greatly onerous requirement: some 17 hours, spread over a year, is all you need. Law firms of any size could organize breakfast seminars, inviting their own staff and inhouse counsel from their clients: a great marketing opportunity, and a chance to renew acquaintances over a salmon bagel.