The Solicitors Regulation Authority has pledged to scrap the 16 hours of continuing professional development solicitors must complete every year.
The proposals should come into force in November 2016. From that date (or possibly before, if an opt-out comes into being) firms will be free to decide how much and what kind of CPD their fee earners need.
The SRA described the current CPD regime, designed to ensure solicitors maintain their competence, as a ‘tick-box’ exercise. In my experience they are right. Many busy solicitors leave it right until the 11th hour to amass sufficient qualifying points. This means they have found themselves signing up to random courses irrelevant to their area of practice.
I once heard of a litigation lawyer rushing down to Portsmouth at the last minute for an expensive course on maritime law, simply so he could tick the box (it wasn’t me by the way!). Needless to say maritime law was not something that came across his desk every day, nor was it likely to.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against training – far from it.
At Mills & Reeve we have a team of professional support lawyers who keep our fee earners abreast of developments in their specialist areas of law. In addition, we provide structured training for both trainees and solicitors with fewer than three years’ post qualification experience. Solicitors must demonstrate they have achieved the required knowledge and skills to be competent in their role before they progress within the firm. Naturally, we have always provided regular legal updates and briefings for our senior solicitors, associates and partners.
We see the abolition of the SRA mandated 16-hour requirement as an opportunity to provide much more focused competency frameworks and assessments for more experienced staff, which will give our clients certainty that we can provide the best lawyers for the job.
Clearly the SRA needs to flesh out its proposals, but it has plenty of time to do so before November 2016.
Good firms value training. We have a vested interest in ensuring we provide best advice to our clients. The freedom to ensure that our provision is targeted and relevant, and benefits both our clients and our lawyers is welcome.
* Steve Allen, head of the Birmingham office at Mills & Reeve
