Competence is Not a Constant

‘Spotlight’ is an occasional column that highlights the work, goals, policies and achievements of a particular standing committee of the Law Society. This issue, we look at the Continuing Professional Development Committee.

Increasing competitiveness. Accelerating regionalism. Heightening client savviness.

A Renewed Focus

This year, the Continuing Professional Development (‘CPD’) function of the Law Society implemented a more proactive, demand-driven and needs-based strategy. Underlying this is the belief that in a changing world, constant learning helps level the playing field. In line with the theme of Council’s 2003 Workplan to ‘anticipate, champion and help’, CPD’s training and development strategy focused on the twin pillars of:

• excellence — maintaining competence in the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to meet the current demands of the marketplace; and
• growth —

1. facilitating the acquisition of new knowledge, skills and attitudes that equip our members for the challenges of a changing marketplace; and
2. providing opportunities to develop the standing of the legal profession within the broader Singapore community.

Aligned with this strategy, certain key training goals have been identified:

• assist legal professionals in maintaining their competence in core practice areas;
• assist legal professionals in identifying and developing competencies in new or growth practice areas;
• develop legal professionals into more effective managers, leaders and business-people;
• offer legal professionals a platform to network outside of the profession in the course of their professional development; and
• generate healthy profits that can be utilised to support the non-income generating activities of the Law Society.

Since June 2003, CPD has implemented a more focused training framework to conduct programmes in four areas, each with its own training objectives:

2003 in Review

Putting the above into practice has proved a challenging task. On a practical level, some refinements made to the training portfolio include:

• renaming the Continuing Legal Education portfolio as ‘Continuing Professional Development’ to reflect the more holistic approach to professional training and development;
• adopting a planning guideline which identifies and weights the distribution of training programmes across the four focal areas to ensure a balanced approach in meeting the continuing development needs of the profession;
• programme development and planning on a rolling 12-month basis, with CPD working on and from an annual planning calendar that is constantly refined and updated in the course of the planning year. This enables CPD to be proactive yet responsive;
• actively exploring tie-ups and collaborations with other professional bodies and training service providers, including joint conferences and procuring preferential registration rates for Law Society members; and
• wherever possible, cross-marketing CPD programmes outside our membership.

In contrast to the 38 events organised from 2001–2002, CPD organised 38 training programmes in 2003. More than 1,200 participants (includes repeat attendees) have attended our programmes since July 2003. The high participation rates can be attributed to a broader menu of training programmes as well as a proactive outreach strategy to publicise the Law Society’s training programmes to other professionals and sectors wherever relevant. As a result, the past months have seen an increase in participation of inhouse counsel, legal support staff, paralegals and other professionals in CPD programmes.

Some highlights of last year include:

• A ‘Small Firm Practice Management Series’ in June–July 2003 that covered topics such as ‘Marketing your Practice Through Good Client Care’, ‘Ethics for Legal Support Staff’, ‘Improve your Bottom-line. Maximise your Profits’. Small law practices were granted hefty discounts and were required to pay only $20 to attend all four seminars in the series.
• A ‘Management Essentials for Lawyers: Finance’ Workshop in August 2003 that was two-times over-subscribed. Future workshops in this series will focus on strategic planning and management, client relationship management, human resource management and technology management.
• Our first personal development workshop ‘Why Lawyers Should Eat Bananas’ which addressed issues such as work-life balance, time and client management for lawyers.
• In terms of addressing new or growth areas of practice, ‘The Impending Competition Law in Singapore’ evening seminar organised with the Ministry of Trade and Industry was attended by 100 participants and our seminar on ‘The Origins and Implications of the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Bill’ saw more than 50 attendees.
• Several programmes jointly organised with other professional bodies/organisations, including:

1. ‘Private Equity in Asia’ co- organised with UBS;
2. ‘Company Law Reform’ co- organised with LexisNexis;
3. Impact of Recent Companies Act Amendments on Directors’ co-organised with The Singapore Institute of Directors; and
4. ‘Financial Services Planning: Legal Issues and Opportunities’ co-organised with the Society of Finance Services Professionals.

• A full-day workshop in August on ‘Fraught with Fraud ... Not’ that tackled issues of forensic document examination, computer and accounting forensics and the role of lawyers in fraud investigations.
• Our staple ‘Nuts & Bolts’ series in core practice areas such as ‘Civil Procedure’, ‘Criminal Procedure’ and ‘Probate and Administration’.

To complement its own training programmes, CPD has started exploring collaborations with professional conference organisers and course providers, such as a collaboration with ConventionPro International that offered members discounted rates to business seminars on Asia. Members can look forward to more such initiatives that broaden their learning horizon.

Continuing to Improve

Members’ feedback plays a pivotal role in shaping the development of future programmes. CPD actively collects, collates and analyses feedback for each and every one of its programmes to evaluate participant reaction. While it is encouraging to note that the feedback from participants has generally been very positive, we continue to strive to do better. Our analysis of over 400 feedback forms has revealed areas for improvement including event organisation, speaker/chairperson selection and training effectiveness. CPD has also received suggestions as to the type of training programmes that participants would like to see. CPD will continue to seek and deliberate on feedback received and, wherever relevant, will incorporate some of the suggestions in the future training programmes. One area in which CPD will be taking action in response to feedback received is our pricing — eg we will reduce the standard fee for members for evening seminars held at the Law Society from $60 to $50 and ever conscious of the economic climate, will continue to ensure that all CPD programmes are excellent value-for-money.

Towards a Learning Profession

In 2004, members can look forward to many more diverse, high quality on-site CPD programmes on a regular basis. In addition, exciting new modules will be launched on our e-learning portal http://cle.crimsonlogic.com in areas such as civil procedure, intellectual property law, construction law, company law, practice management and drafting. Our portal offers a convenient and affordable means to keep abreast of latest developments, acquire new knowledge and upgrade skills — anytime, anywhere. Members pay only $50 for an online module and non-members pay $75. CPD will also explore various incentive programmes to encourage members to actively participate in continuing learning and development activities such as the ‘CPD Best Participation Awards’. An upgraded CPD webpage will also be unveiled which aims to be a virtual one-stop for the profession in continuing learning and development. Accessible from the Law Society’s homepage, ‘Your CPD’ will feature local and foreign updates, articles and news on continuing professional development, a CPD e-Calendar, as well as various feedback mechanisms through which members can share their ideas on how we can enhance the CPD activities of the Law Society.

CPD will strive to refine a holistic and proactive training and development plan that contributes positively to the legal profession at large. In this day and age where change is constant and competence is not, we believe in the greater value of ‘learning people’ over the ‘learned’. The critical factor towards a culture of learning and development within the profession is you — the individual practitioner and we challenge you to take your destiny into your own hands by making your own learning a priority.

In turn, we welcome you to challenge us with your ideas and suggestions as to how CPD can continue to contribute towards a learning profession.

Continuing Professional Development Team
The Law Society of Singapore

Upcoming Seminars Organised by the CPD Department: