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What is the new CPD requirement?
Assuming you already do CLE or other professional learning, the new requirements are not onerous:
- a. Prepare a written CPD plan annually,
- b. declare to the Law Society of Alberta (LSA) that you have a plan,
- c. retain the written plan for five years, and
- d. produce it to the LSA on request.
To prepare a CPD plan, you can use the online tools developed by the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA), at www.CPDalberta.ca. Using those tools will probably take 30 to 60 minutes. (The process can be done in hard copy, too, but it takes longer and loses some of the interactivity of the online tools.) The online tools are available but not mandatory. The requirement is to prepare and maintain a written CPD plan; the form of the plan is not specified. The first declaration will be required by March 2009. 
"I have often thought that, with respect to MCLE (Mandatory Continuing Legal Education), there ought to be a "better mousetrap". Once the original MCLE program got started in the states, every other state just duplicated it with modest variations. No state stepped back and tried to construct something that was better. What you are doing matches what we are doing for our own staff re: professional development plans. You go a step further and provide a bank of resources to use in carrying out the PDPs."
- Lynn P. Chard, Director, Institute of Continuing Legal Education, Ann Arbor, Michigan | |
What's New in CPD Program is Requirement of Intentionality
By Peter Michalyshyn, QC, President-Elect, Chair, Continuing Professional Development Committee
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 Central to the plan is the idea that every practising lawyer will have to develop a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) plan, and report to us that they've done so. They'll then have to keep the plan for five years, and produce it on request. Most lawyers already engage in continuous learning and development.
What's new in Alberta's CPD Program is the requirement of "intentionality": lawyers must regularly take time to consider and plan their professional development, and must be seen to be engaging in such activities. We know that generally when lawyers turn their minds to something they are more likely than not to come up with a good answer – and definitely more likely than if they've not turned their |
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minds to it at all. We are confident that lawyers who engage in the process of planning their own professional development will be inclined to follow through and engage in the learning they have identified as desirable – and that learning will be relevant and meaningful.
Mandatory CLE attendance is typically measured by hours in seats, or course credits; our CPD Program will measure lawyer participation by tracking use of the online tools and compliance with the reporting requirement. As regulators, what we really want to know about is whether the lawyer has learned something, and is competent. Unfortunately, neither hours of learning nor the creation of a plan can measure learning or competence. However, we think that a self-directed, lawyer-centred learning process is more likely to result in effective and relevant self-improvement.  |
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Frequently Asked Questions - Tools |
1. What if I'm looking for some learning opportunity that isn't in the resource bank?
The resource bank will not be a complete list of every learning opportunity available. It is still up to a lawyer to find suitable learning venues; the resource bank just makes it easier to find courses.
The resource bank is a work in progress and will be continually updated by LESA, which will procure information from other continuing legal education providers.
You will be given the opportunity to request an e-mail advising when a new program becomes available in your area of interest that was not available when the self-assessment plan was completed.
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2. Can anyone other than I look at my self assessment? Will there be an electronic record of it?
The assessment and planning process are entirely confidential. Your plan will be password-protected and is secure from all other eyes. The only data that will be collected by the site is:
- The declaration that you have completed your plan (which will be forwarded to the Law Society on your behalf).
- Any requests you've made to be advised of learning opportunities as they arise, and
- Aggregate, anonymous data as to how many lawyers have gone through the online process, and the level of interest in the different learning opportunities.
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