Tag Archives: cpd

CPD Consultation Response

The Bar Standards Board Consultation on reform to CPD for the Bar closes on Monday. I have posted about the proposals at some length before and I don’t propose to repeat all the contents of my last post. The original post can be read here.

I am going to take @adamwagner1’s approach and publish my consultation in blog form, and refer the BSB to that. This then is my consultation response. I will deal with each of the Consultation Questions in turn.

1 Do you think that the fundamental approach to CPD requirements should continue to be based on a system defined by the number of hours of CPD undertaken annually? Yes. Continue Reading…

Developments in Continuing Professional Development

There has been some considerable discussion online about proposals made by the BSB to alter the scheme for barristers’ CPD. It all started with a post by Alex Aldridge on The Guardian website: “Why barristers balk at the ‘box-ticking’ of continuing professional development“, followed up by Adam Wagner on the UK Human Rights Blog in a post entitled “Blogging (and maybe tweeting) should be part of Continuing Professional Development“, and subsequently the Law Gazette. Links to the relevant Bar Standards Board docs are contained in Adam’s post, so I will link only to the draft CPD Handbook which contains the offending passage at 2.6, by excluding from the scope of legitimate CPD “Unofficial networking activities such as running a personal website, blog, legal commentary or online diary.”

Others, Adam Wagner in particular have done a good job already of analysing the purpose of CPD and deconstructing the problems with the proposals so I don’t propose to duplicate that effort, but I do have some supplementary remarks, and they are these:

I take issue with the classification of blogging and legal commentary as “unofficial networking activities”. Whilst they undoubtedly have benefits as networking aids (and for some this is their sole purpose) this is not the only function that they have. It’s not all about PR. For many of us PR is an added bonus, but very much ancillary to our main purpose. My main purpose is to inform myself and to inform others – a fortiori professional development? Continue Reading…

Ancillary Relief Conference

St John’s Chambers will be hosting a conference on Ancillary Relief on 10 Feb. The conference will take place at the Thistle Hotel in Bristol and will include an update on Ancillary Relief (Christopher Sharp QC), as well as sessions on prenups after Radmacher (Jody Atkinson), Conduct (Andrew Commins), Disclosure after Imerman (Paul Lewis), and spousal maintenance (Alison Hawes of Irwin Mitchell). Together Nick Miller and David Lockett (Actuaries for Lawyers) will bring attendees up to speed on pensions.

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I confess that a member of St John’s I’m not 100% impartial, but nonetheless it promises to be a comprehensive update on the state of play for ancillary relief practitioners and is accredited for 6 hours CPD. Not bad for £100 + VAT.

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To find out more and to book visit the St John’s Chambers website and download a conference programme and booking form or contact Sarah Tune (sarah.tune@stjohnschambers.co.uk).