INTRODUCTION
  The Law Society of Singapore (“Society”) is committed to ensuring the continued competence of and high standards of work by its practitioner members through ongoing education post-qualification. Since the late 1970s, the Society has organised training and educational programs for its members first under the auspices of its Committee for Legal Workshops, then the Continuing Legal Education Committee. The latter was renamed the Continuing Professional Development Committee in 2003 to emphasise the need for an integrated approach to professional development, involving not only black letter law, but also the areas of business, management, practice management and personal development.

Throughout the decades, the Society has developed and organised programs to equip lawyers with up-to-date and relevant knowledge, skills and abilities beyond what was taught in law school. Programs organised must always remain aligned with the fast changing landscape of practice and needs of the profession. For example, in view of increasing competition and convergence of industries, the Society’s continuing professional development programs have increasingly incorporated inter-disciplinary training and networking opportunities for its members.

 
OUR VISION
  To be the provider of choice of Continuing Professional Development programmes for the Singapore legal community.

 
OUR MISSION

To maintain and improve the standards of learning of the legal profession in Singapore.

 
OUR STRATEGY
To ensure a consistent, relevant and value-for money menu of Continuing Professional Development programmes focused upon:
 
1. Excellence – to facilitate the maintenance of the legal profession’s competence in the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to meet the current demands of the marketplace; and
2. Growth – to:
  a. facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge, skills and attitudes that equip the profession for the challenges of a changing marketplace; and
  b. provide opportunities for developing the standing of the legal profession within the broader Singapore community.

WHAT IS CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?
  Continuing professional development (‘CPD’) refers to the systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of relevant knowledge, skills and abilities that enables a professional to successfully carry out his/her professional duties and responsibilities throughout his/her career.

Simply put, it is about lifelong learning which makes you consistently better able to do your job as a lawyer.
 
  Why is CPD important?
  As a self-regulating profession, the legal profession has to ensure that high standards of professional competence are attained and maintained in the interests of the profession and, ultimately, the public. The demands of practice are not static and, as such, the Society believes every member should take personal responsibility for his/her own ongoing learning and development as a professional.

The Society believes that the most practical and effective approach to continuing professional development is one that puts lawyers in control of their own learning by making them responsible for:
 
i. identifying their own learning needs;
ii. choosing the most appropriate activities to meet these needs based on their own time and resource constraints; and
iii. putting into practice what they have learnt.

Today, to be a competent and successful legal practitioner involves more than the continued study and acquisition of legal knowledge and skills. Lawyers need to develop different skill sets as their practice develops and matures. For instance, a newly qualified lawyer may require more training in the areas of case management, risk management, professional conduct and ethics; a lawyer about to start his own practice or managing a practice may require stronger grounding in strategic planning, client relationship management, marketing, business development and financial management; and a specialist practitioner may need to develop cross-disciplinary industry knowledge and skills.
OUR TRAINING FRAMEWORK
  In view of the diverse needs of members of the profession, the Society believes that it is vital to have in place a balanced and integrated training framework that is able to adapt to and address this diversity. Consequently, since 2003, the CPD Committee has adopted the following framework for its CPD planning and implementation:

All CPD programs organised by the Society are classified under one of the above 4 Program Categories.
RELEVANT PRACTICE AREAS FOR TRAINING
 

The Law Society further categorises all Professional Practice programs in one of the following Practice Areas:


 
OUR PROGRAMMES & ACTIVITIES
a. What activities are considered CPD activities?
 

As the needs of each legal professional vary with his/her specific practice and seniority at the Bar, the Society feels that effective CPD cannot be overly prescriptive. In line with our broad, flexible and needs-based approach, the Society considers an activity a CPD activity as long as it:

i. is relevant to the short, medium or long term development of a legal professional;
ii. has intellectual or practical content; and
iii. relates primarily to the practice of law or to the legal profession.

Broadly, CPD activities can be classified as structured (or formal) or unstructured (or informal).

Examples of structured (or formal) CPD activities include:
 
1. Attending seminars, lectures, workshops, courses and conferences
2. Preparation for, speaking at or chairing seminars, lectures, workshops, courses and conferences
3. Writing legal articles and books, and contributing to legal journals
4. Providing content or other contributions to the Society’s e-learning portal or the Singapore Law Gazette.

Examples of unstructured (or informal) activities include:
 
1. Private study, including:
  a. Reading legal articles and books
  b. Reading non-legal articles and books relevant to law practice management
  c. Watching videos/VCDs/CD-roms, listening to cassettes/CDs in areas relevant to the practice of law or law practice management
2. Conducting legal research.

b. How do I Get the Most Out of My CPD Activities?
As unplanned training activity is unlikely to bring maximum return on any training investment, the CPD Department issued “A Guide To Getting The Most Out Of Your Continuing Professional Development (‘CPD’) Activities” in May 2004. This simple Guide is designed to assist legal professionals and those responsible for the training and development of legal professionals in getting the most out of the time and money spent on CPD activities through a simple 4-step training cycle: planning, acting, practising and evaluating.

c. What does the Law Society offer?
1. Live/onsite continuing professional development programmes on professional practice, practice management, business & management as well as personal development. These are conducted adopting various teaching methodologies including seminars, workshops, case studies, small group activities;
2. Online continuing professional development programmes conducted via our e-learning portal found at http://cle.crimsonlogic.com;
3. Where available, sale of conference materials from our live/onsite programmes;
4. Provision of free resources on training & development; and
5. A Training Library with books and videos available for loan to Law Society members.

For more details of our resource materials, please check out our Resources.

For more details of our upcoming Advocacy and CPD events, please check out our CPD Calendar.

 

 

OUR COMMITTEES
The CPD Department provides support to 3 Committees of the Law Society:
 
1. The Advocacy Committee

The Terms of Reference of this Committee are as follows:
i. To develop an approach for advocacy training for members and future members of the Law Society;
ii. To organise formal advocacy training programmes for the Law Society and when requested for by other Law Societies/Bar Associations etc; and
iii. To promote higher standards of personal conduct, skill and competency in advocacy; and
iv. To keep the Council informed of all such training programmes.

This Committee is chaired by Mr N Sreenivasan (Straits Law Practice LLC) and its Council Representative and Vice-Chairperson is Mr. Andrew Ong (Rajah & Tann).

Members:

1. Mr Leslie Chew SC, Gurbani & Co (until 31 March 2007)
2. Mr Vinodh Coomaraswamy, SC, Shook Lin & Bok
3. Mr Daniel Koh, Rajah & Tann
4. Mr Liow Wang Wu Joseph, Straits Law Practice LLC
5. Mr Sushil Nair, Drew & Napier LLC
6. Ms Mimi Oh, Mimi Oh & Associates		 7. Mr Siraj Omar, Tan Kok Quan Partnership
8. Mr C R Rajah SC, Tan Rajah & Cheah
9. Mr Sant Singh SC, Sant Singh Partnership
10. Ms Tan Wei Yi, Drew & Napier LLC
11. Mr S Vergis Abraham, Drew & Napier LLC
2. The Continuing Professional Development Committee

The Terms of Reference of this Committee are as follows:
i. To advise the Council on all matters relating to the continuing professional development training of the members of the Law Society;
ii. To plan and organise continuing professional development programmes for members of the Law Society;
iii. To liaise and co-organise, where necessary, legal education and training programmes with other professional bodies and foreign Law Societies/Bar Associations;
iv. To co-ordinate, where necessary, continuing legal education and professional development programmes with other relevant committees of the Law Society;
v. To implement and monitor the Voluntary Minimum Continuing Professional Development (vMCPD) scheme; and
vi. To keep the Council informed of all such activities.

This Committee has been chaired by Mr Thio Shen Yi (TSMP Law Corporation) since 2001. The Council Representative is Mr Thio Shen Yi.

Members:

1. Mr Aw Wei Keng Kelvin, Jurong International
2. Mr Samuel Chacko, Legis Point LLC
3. Mr Leslie Chew SC, Gurbani & Co (until 31 March 2007)
4. Mr Huang Yen San Petrus, Drew & Napier LLC
5. Mr Koh Choon Guan Daniel, Rajah & Tann
6. Mr Ravendra Krishnasamy, YPMP Law Corporation

 		 7. Ms Lee Huay Yen Adeline, TSMP Law Corporation
8. Mr Lee Kwok Weng, Lee Kwok Weng & Co
9. Mr Lui On Chee Bernard, Stamford Law Corporation
10. Mr Steven Lo, Allen & Gledhill LLP
11. Mr Lo Kim Seng, Arfat Selvam Alliance LLC
12. Mr Gregory Vijayendran, WongPartnership
3. The MCPD Steering Committee

Set up in late 2004, the Terms of Reference of this ad hoc Committee are to propose for Council’s consideration:
1. A framework and guidelines for a Minimum Continuing Professional Development Scheme for the legal profession in Singapore (“MCPD”) appropriate for the local context of the practice of law after:
  a. Examining the developments for the profession in other jurisdictions;
  b. Examining the developments locally within other professions; and
2. A timeframe for the implementation of MCPD.

This ad hoc committee is chaired by Mr Harry Elias SC and co-chaired by Mr Thio Shen Yi (Chairman of the CPD Committee)

Members:
  Mr. Michael Hwang SC, M/s Michael Hwang
  Mr. N. Sreenivasan, Straits Law Practice LLC
  Mr. Gregory Vijayendran, M/s WongPartnership
  Mr. Andrew Lim, Allen & Gledhill LLP
  Mr. Suppiah Thangaveloo, M/s Thanga & Co

OUR SECRETARIAT
 
E-mail: cpd@lawsoc.org.sg Tel: 6530 0239 (WEF 24 Dec 2007) Fax: 6533 5700 (WEF 24 Dec 2007)


For more enquiries, please contact the Training & CPD Department at 6530 0239 (WEF 24 Dec 2007) or cpd@lawsoc.org.sg.