Eleven Ways to Complete your Recommended Professional Development

by Kenneth Armstrong and David Dundee

From the home office in New Westminster comes our modest TOP ELEVEN LIST (David Letterman, eat your heart out). The Law Society requires all lawyers to report their professional development, both guided and self-directed, on their annual practice declarations. Here are some tips:

• Read this magazine: The reading requirement is not limited to textbooks. Other legal publications count, including this one, the Advocate, the National, Canadian Lawyer, Lawyers Weekly, and others.
• Read the classics: Review the Annual Review of Practice, CLE Practice Manuals, or the leading textbook in your field. Alternatively, peruse a leading law review, like Canadian Bar Review.
• Attend Sections: The Law Society has announced that CBABC Section meetings will count towards your professional development hours. Remember, you need to be a member of the CBA to attend a Section meeting. Sections operate across the province, including Prince Rupert, Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna, the Kootenays, Victoria, and Nanaimo. Alternatively, relevant sessions at your local or county bar association meeting are comparable.
• Present to a Section: Section chairs are always eager to find a speaker and topics to present to their meetings. With over 69 Sections, there’s bound to be one in your practice area.
• Present a seminar: Presenting at a CLE counts for self-directed study to prepare your paper, and also guided study for the balance of the CLE, should you stay.
• Surf the web: The CBA website (www.cba.org) has a host of articles on practice and lifestyle management issues, Section Papers, and a direct link to PracticeLink, which is the CBA nationwide practice management resource. Some information is only available to members. Other useful websites include the CLE Society webpage and the B.C. Courthouse Library website.
• Let the web surf to you: E-mail circulars such as the CBA weekly update, Lang Michener’s Supreme Court of Canada L@wletter, and CLE case law digest e-mails arrive regularly at your desk.
• CLE sessions: The first option that will come to most minds is attending CLE sessions sponsored by the CLE Society of B.C. (whose founding members include the CBABC and the Law Society). We all get the flyers in our mail. Save the materials, and re-read them at a later date to refresh your memory – and get some self-directed study time!
• Attend seminars by alternate seminar providers: Other providers include the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia, the Pacific Law Institute, and the Canadian Institute.
• Attend a conference: The CBA nationally sponsors professional development conferences in many areas, such as the Family Law Conference – and they’re also a great networking opportunity!
• Attend the Canadian Legal Conference: The granddaddy of CBA conferences is the Annual Canadian Legal Conference, which this year is being held in Vancouver, B.C. from August 14-16, 2005. Each conference features several different CLE streams suitable for any practice area; this year’s conference offers six different streams.

These are just a few suggestions; there are many other options. Most importantly, do your homework.

Kenneth Armstrong and David Dundee are members of the BarTalk Editorial Board.

This article was published in the August 2005 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.