Know the Guidelines
Practice Guideline no. 4 sets out the operation of the Law Society of Tasmania’s continuing professional development scheme for legal practitioners. All practitioners should become familiar with their CPD compliance obligations by downloading, reading, and keeping this Guideline on hand.

Legal practitioners have an obligation to themselves and the community to participate in continuing professional development to maintain and extend their knowledge, expertise and competence in areas relevant to their legal practice.

Pro-rata and part-time practitioners

• Pro-rata concessions on the grounds of part-time work and locum work alone are not permitted.
• Only practitioners who have held their practising certificate for less than a full CPD year (which runs 1 May to 30 April) can apply a pro-rata concession. See rule 3.9 of Practice Guideline no. 4. In this instance, practitioners are not required to make a formal application to the Society unless they are unsure of their calculations.

Minimum requirements and CPD year
In Tasmania, a legal practitioner must, as a pre-requisite to their practising certificate renewal complete a minimum of 10 CPD points across the 5 mandatory CPD categories in each CPD year.

The CPD year in Tasmania runs each year from 1 May to 30 April.

Terminology and guidance in brief

• The terms CPD points and CPD activity are defined in Practice Guideline no. 4. In general, 1 hour of CPD activity provides 1 CPD point.
• Rule 3.3 of Practice Guideline no.4 states the CPD points caps across the applicable CPD activities.
• Activities such as being a member of, and attending, a Society committee, authoring a publication, and preparing for and presenting a CPD seminar can also acquire CPD points as directed by Practice Guideline no.4.

Mandatory 5 CPD categories
As at 1 May 2021, there are 5 mandatory CPD categories. This CPD requirement means when calculating the minimum 10 CPD points of CPD activity in respect of a CPD year, a legal practitioner’s total CPD acquisition must include at least one (1) point from each of the following 5 CPD categories:

1. Equality and wellbeing (EW);
2. Practical legal ethics (E);
3. Practice management or business skills (PM);
4. Professional skills (PS); and
5. Substantive law (SL).

Determining the correct CPD category – self-determination and points allocation splitting

• CPD activities will often fall into more than one of the above categories. It is considered a matter for the practitioner’s own good judgment and discretion about how they choose to allocate their points, provided the allocation is reasonable. CPD guides are provided for all CPD activities.
• For examples of mandatory categories /core competency topics areas see Schedule 1 in Practice Guideline no. 4.
• Allocation of CPD categories may mean a practitioner attending a one-hour seminar decides that the seminar was 50% professional skills and 50% substantive law. They could therefore record 0.5 CPD points for professional skills and 0.5 CPD points for substantive law.

Recording CPD activities for CPD compliance reporting
Practitioners are encouraged to keep a running record of their CPD activity using a legible template. Rule 3.8 of Practice Guideline no. 4 lists the required information to be reported.

Allocate every CPD point and category
To avoid doubt, practitioners should allocate the CPD points and categories they have chosen for every CPD activity – this includes a multi-CPD point event. For example, if a conference offers 6 one-hour sessions across substantive law (SL) , professional skills (PS), ethics (E) and practice management (PM), a practitioner could allocate their points as: 2 SL; 2 PS; 1 E; and 1 PM; or any combination thereof.