CPD for solicitors: ten units a year under the Uniform Rules

Uniform Rules, made under the Uniform Law

The Law Council of Australia developed the Rules under section 427 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law, and the Legal Services Council made them under Part 9.2 of that Law (r 4.1). They came into operation on 1 July 2015 (r 2.1) and set “the minimum requirements” for solicitors’ CPD (r 3.1).

NSW Legislation publishes them in force, current from 18 November 2016. In Western Australia, section 14(2) of the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2022 provides that the Uniform Rules “apply as subsidiary legislation of the State”; that Act, apart from Part 1, came into operation on 1 July 2022. The Uniform Law itself was enacted as Schedule 1 to Victoria’s Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014, as the WA Act records.

This guide holds no source for solicitors’ CPD in Queensland or the other states and territories, so it states no rule for them.

Four fields, at least one unit in each

Rule 6.1 names the four fields, each needing at least one unit a year:

• 6.1.1Ethics and professional responsibility
• 6.1.2Practice management and business skills
• 6.1.3Professional skills
• 6.1.4Substantive law

Under a part exemption or pro rata calculation, “the compulsory fields must be completed as part of the remaining CPD units” (r 6.2).

Rule 7.1 adds three tests: significant intellectual or practical content, mainly about the solicitor’s practice of law; presenters qualified by practical or academic experience; and an extension of knowledge and skills relevant to the solicitor’s practice needs or professional development.

The five kinds of activity, and the online ones

Rule 8.1 lists what a CPD activity may consist of, in five paragraphs:

1. a seminar, workshop, lecture, conference, discussion group, “multimedia or web-based program”, private study of audio/visual material or any other educational activity (8.1.1);
2. researching, preparing or editing an article in a legal publication, a legal article in a non-legal publication, or published Law Reports or other legal services (8.1.2);
3. preparing or presenting material for a CPD activity or for other education of solicitors, other professionals or other people, including those in practical or supervised legal training (8.1.3);
4. membership of a committee, taskforce or practice section of a professional association, the designated local regulatory authority, the Law Council of Australia or other committees, if the solicitor regularly attends and the work is of substantial significance to the practice of law and reasonably likely to assist their professional development (8.1.4);
5. postgraduate studies relevant to the solicitor’s practice needs (8.1.5).

“Private study does not constitute CPD activity for the purpose of these Rules unless it involves the private study of audio/visual material specifically designed for the purpose of updating a solicitor’s knowledge and/or skills relevant to his/her practice needs.”

Rule 8.2

A solicitor who successfully completes a specialist accreditation assessment process is deemed to have completed 10 CPD units in the year of completion (r 9.3).

Starting part way through the CPD year

A solicitor who commences or recommences practice on or after the start of a CPD year completes a pro rata number of units for the rest of it (r 10.1, by the month the Rules call the “Renewal month”):

1. April10 units
2. May9 units
3. June8 units
4. July7 units
5. August6 units
6. September5 units
7. October4 units
8. November3 units
9. December2 units
10. January1 unit
11. February0 units
12. March0 units

At the other end of the year, “a maximum of 3 CPD units accrued in the period 1 January to 31 March in any CPD year may be carried forward into the following CPD year”, but a unit can only be counted in one CPD year (r 11.1).

Records, certification and verification

• Through the yearA record of CPD activities and supporting evidence, kept for each CPD year (r 12.1).
• At practising certificate renewalThe solicitor certifies to the designated local regulatory authority whether they complied with the Rules in the CPD year last ended (r 13.1).
• If askedThe authority may require verification within 21 days, with records, evidence, reasons and particulars of any exemption (r 14.1), for the current CPD year or any of the three before it (r 14.2).
• If the Rules were not metIf a solicitor certifies that they did not comply, does not certify or verify when required, or verifies and the authority is not satisfied (r 15.1), the authority may require, by written notice, a plan within 21 days to rectify the non-compliance within 90 days of the plan being submitted (r 15.2), for the current CPD year or any of the three before it (r 15.4); the solicitor must comply with the notice and the plan (r 15.3).
• Three years after the year endsThe record and evidence must be kept for at least three years after the end of the CPD year they relate to (r 12.2).

When the authority may exempt a solicitor

On written application, the designated local regulatory authority may exempt a solicitor in whole or in part (rr 16.1, 16.2). Without limiting its discretion, rule 16.3 lists seven grounds:

• illness or disability;
• the location of the solicitor’s legal practice;
• absence from legal practice, for example for parenting leave or unemployment;
• reduced hours because of part-time or casual employment;
• being required to hold a practising certificate while not engaged in legal practice;
• more than 40 years in practice, without practising as a principal;
• hardship or other special circumstances.

Exemptions on the absence, reduced-hours and not-practising grounds will generally be granted on a pro rata basis (r 16.4), and a solicitor must comply with any conditions imposed on an exemption (r 16.6).

Longer periods apply to tax and BAS agents (3 years) and NSW teachers (a maintenance cycle). All five rules are on the home page.