Jane Ching looks at making the most of, & going beyond, CPD
Lawyers generally do not have a postgraduate tradition of study after qualification; this is perhaps not unnatural for a profession that has largely prescribed and administered its own qualification and continuing professional development (CPD) arrangements. It was not until 1979, for example, that a law degree was, for solicitors, regarded as anything more than an exemption from the profession’s own qualification structure.
However, other professions, and significantly those other professions which we may find ourselves working alongside—as the ramifications of the Legal Services Act 2007 and the shape of the “alternative business structure” emerge— have developed extensive post-qualification structures. Some expect newly qualifieds to move through a sequence of objectively determined stages (associate, member, fellow, chartered); in others a masters’ or doctorate-level qualification is assumed as part of one’s progression.
Increasingly as the Legal Services Act 2007 takes hold, lawyers might find themselves working with members of other professions for whom acquisition of, say, an MBA, is the norm for progression at a particular stage. It is conceivable that legal colleagues in
