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regional wrap-up MANDATORY CLE COMES TO ONTARIO T he Law Society of Upper Canada in late February formally created a new educational requirement that will make lawyers and paralegals com- plete 12 hours of continuing profes- sional development each year starting in January 2011. While the program will force many lawyers to black out extra hours on their yearly calendar, a long list of activ- ities will qualify for the requirement. Participation in continuing profession- al development courses, registration in a college or university program, study groups, and educational parts of bar and law association meetings will be accepted. Up to six hours will also be award- ed for acting as an articling princi- pal, mentoring or being mentored, and supervising a paralegal field placement. As many as six hours will count for teaching as well as writing and editing books and articles. Three of the required hours must target ethics, professionalism, or prac- tice management. The law society will offer those components for free. Other providers wishing to supply continuing professional development in those areas must get approval from the LSUC. Practitioners will have to report their educational activities each year by Dec. 31 on a web-based portal, which will also help them keep track of their credits by delivering periodic status updates. Those who fail to meet the requirement following a calendar year will face administrative suspension until completing any remaining credit hours. The law society will monitor compliance by conducting 500 audits of lawyers and 25 audits of paralegals each year. Ontario Bar Association vice presi- dent Lee Akazaki says the organization is happy with the flexible approach the law society has taken. "One of the chief issues that we were concerned about was the exclusion for certain activities performed by lawyers on a voluntary basis for various legal organizations," says Akazaki. "When lawyers partici- pate in legal associations, such as the [Canadian Bar Association] or the OBA or a county law association, there's actu- ally a lot of learning going on." But not everyone is behind the plan. At the meeting of the LSUC's Convocation, Ottawa Bencher Bradley Wright said no studies show a correla- tion between a compulsory continuing professional development program and a reduction in negligence and increased competency, "which surely has to be the rationale for doing it." In the meantime, the new require- ment will modify an educational pro- gram set to take hold in January 2011 for new lawyers, which would have forced them to complete 24 hours of continuing professional development within their first 24 months of practice. They will now have to complete 12 hours in each of their first two calen- dar years on the job, including three The full CPD report is available on the law society's web site at lsuc.on.ca/news/b/reports hours of practice management, ethics, and professionalism. The CPD requirement for certified specialists, who already must complete 12 hours to maintain their status, will be rolled into the new system so they won't have to do additional credits. The law society expects the new requirement to cost about $1.4 mil- lion to develop and maintain. That works out to about $38 per lawyer or paralegal. Linda Langston, executive direc- tor and CEO of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, says the organi- zation supports the new requirement. "It matches all professional require- ments for ensuring you have updated information," she says. "Lawyers do a lot of reading themselves in a lot of different areas, and it isn't always documented that they've done that work. So to ensure for their clients that they've met the basic requirements and are keeping up with changes in the law, this is one way of documenting that, for that proof." For Hamilton, Ont., Bencher Gerald Swaye, the report on CPD is "one of the most important reports that we've ever put in place at the law society." Swaye, who has been a bencher since 1995, said he originally opposed the idea of mandatory continuing profes- sional development but is now behind it. "This is the easiest medicine to give to our profession in order to implement it," he told Convocation. — ROBERT TODD rtodd@clbmedia.ca It's back Canadian Lawyer's 2010 LEGAL FEES SURVEY Fill out our short survey for a chance to win a Motorola H790 Bluetooth Headset. Canadian Lawyer's most requested survey takes just mintues to complete, at www.canadianlawyermag.com/surveys, and will provide valuable information about what the nation's lawyers are charging for many common transactions and legal services. Survey closes April 16. 8 ApRil 2010 www. C ANADiAN law ye rmag.com