The New Zealand Law Society is reminding New Zealand's lawyers that their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) declarations are due not later than 5 working days after Friday, 31 March 2017.

The CPD Rules apply to all lawyers, and the CPD year runs from 1 April to 31 March. The Rules require each lawyer to submit an annual declaration of compliance with the Rules to the Law Society. This is required for each year, or part year, that a practising certificate is held.

CPD declarations are completed online and all lawyers must make a declaration even if they are not providing regulated services.

The Law Society has provided a range of information on the CPD Rules.

How to make the CPD declaration

This includes details of how a lawyer should make the declaration. Lawyers are required to login to the Law Society Registry with their lawyer ID (included on the practising certificate and also at the bottom of each issue of the weekly LawPoints e-newsletter).

Once logged in, the "CPD" option can be selected, and completion of the process involves selecting the box corresponding to the appropriate CPD year, and clicking to "tick" it. It is necessary to click on "Save" to complete the declaration.

A refresher on CPD requirements

To satisfy the CPD requirements lawyers need to have maintained their CPDPR (CPD Plan and Record) and completed the required hours of CPD activities— a minimum of 10.

The CPDPR must include the following:

• Learning needs,

• An action plan,

• An activities record,

• Personal reflections. These will include details of outcomes (what will be done differently as a result of what has been learned, and what has been gained from the learning), and future learning needs, and

• Documentation verifying attendance.

What CPD activities are available?

CPD activities can be varied. They may come from:

• Participating in courses, seminars, webinars, training, one-to-one coaching, and study groups.

• Lecturing and/or teaching which may include reasonable preparation time.

• Writing law-related books or articles.

• Preparing and presenting certain submissions.

What topics can be studied?

Relevant CPD activities may relate to any topic that a lawyer feels may assist them to carry out their work as a lawyer. This includes:

• Knowledge of the law, other relevant topics, other relevant disciplines, law and procedures in other countries.

• Legal skills,

• Personal and practice management skills,

• Ethics, professionalism and client care.

What are the requirements for activities?

Activities undertaken by a lawyer must:

• Be verifiable.

• Provide for interaction/feedback.

• Be planned and structured with a stated purpose and outcomes.

• Be related to individual identified learning needs.

• Not be part of a lawyer's day-to-day work.

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