Sometimes we hear members say “I just need to get my hours…” While there is a concrete requirement that is measured by hours, please don’t reduce professional development to “hours”.
The Mandatory Continuing Professional Development rules were put in place to provide a minimum requirement to assist you in making sure that you prioritize maintaining and enhancing your professional competence… reality is, we all work to “deadlines”. The real intention is for you to reflect on your competence and determine your professional development needs so you can then find meaningful resources to address your needs and goals. This is not about just “getting your hours”. Please don’t do that to yourself, that’s just wasting your time and energy!
Now, more than ever, you have a vast array of options to enhance your own professional development. Online resources abound and you can access them at virtually any time of day. This is excellent news as we know that the needs of individual lawyers vary a great deal and there is no one provider of CPD that can offer all things to all lawyers.
Here in Manitoba we are particularly fortunate to have a collaborative and collegial relationship amongst the various arms of the legal profession. Each arm contributes to and offers educational opportunities and we highly recommend that you take a look around to ensure you are taking advantage of the most relevant CPD for you and your practice.
Here are a few places for you to look for high quality CPD:
The Law Society of Manitoba also offers CPD Programs, both live and on demand.
As always, if you have any questions about CPD or the requirements you may contact us at: cpd@lawsociety.mb.ca or mcpd@lawsociety.mb.ca.
