CPD activities are crucial for lawyers in fulfilling their Code of Conduct obligations respecting competent legal service delivery. Learning does not stop once law school ends. Like other professions, lawyers must stay up to date with technology, current issues and consumer needs. Completing professional development benefits you as a lawyer, your law firm or organization and your clients.

Alberta lawyers are not required to complete a minimum number of CPD hours. The Law Society does not accredit CPD activities.

The CPD program requirements are broad and scalable so lawyers can create a plan that takes into consideration any specific workplace professional development goals or programs.

The competencies in the CPD Tool are aspirational and are presented along with a scale that indicates increasing levels of proficiency that lawyers can use to self-assess and create personal goals. Lawyers work in many different roles and may practice in many different types of settings throughout their careers. It is not the expectation of the Law Society that all lawyers will be highly proficient in all areas included in the Profile.

The Law Society cannot see the proficiency self-assessments that lawyers select for themselves. The scale is a tool to provide more guidance to lawyers who want to engage in honest self-reflection about the areas they can and want to develop or enhance.

Please see the CPD Resources page for information on several supports available to lawyers to create, implement and benefit from their CPD plans.

The full plan covers all areas completed by the lawyer while the simplified plan only covers areas that are visible to the Law Society. If a lawyer is asked to produce a copy of their plan under Rule 67.2, they are only required to provide the simplified version of their plan.

The Education department can access a lawyer’s chosen competencies, priorities, selected learning activities (simplified plan) and any progress made in completing the learning activities through the CPD Tool to assist in the Review process. Other Law Society departments do not have access to any plan information. Other departments that want to review a lawyer’s CPD plan (such as Practice Management) will request that the lawyer produce a copy of the simplified plan.

The CPD Tool prompts lawyers to assess their own proficiency for each selected competency and record learning activity notes to help lawyers reflect on their learning needs and develop a meaningful and effective CPD plan. All lawyers are required to complete professional development activities to maintain their competence. But there are other ways that professional development can enhance a lawyer’s career. Lawyers can use all of the features of the new CPD Tool to maximize the personal and professional benefits if they are interested. This additional information that is displayed in the full plan is not accessible to the Law Society as it can be personal and sensitive in nature.

Current CPD plans can be emailed or downloaded from the CPD Tool dashboard by selecting View/Edit Plan in the drop-down menu for the current CPD year on the left-hand side.  

Pursuant to revised Rule 67.2 of The Rules of the Law Society of Alberta, lawyers are required to maintain a record of their CPD plan for three years. The CPD Tool will retain CPD plans for three years.

CPD plans can be changed until Feb. 27 of the year following the original submission deadline, being the end of the CPD year. Lawyers should change their plan throughout the CPD year if their role or other circumstances change.

CPD plans can be edited from the CPD Tool dashboard by selecting View/Edit Plan in the drop-down menu for the current CPD year on the left side. Lawyers can add, remove or change their competencies or learning activities at any point during the year, provided the plan continues to meet the minimum requirements. The Tool will only save changes to a plan once the lawyer has submitted the new plan, and the new plan will replace the previous plan in the system. Lawyers who want to retain their previous plan need to save or print a copy before the new plan is submitted. The Tool will still recognize that the original plan was submitted before the deadline. 

To remove a competency from a current plan and save the competency and associated information for a future plan, lawyers can select View/Edit Plan and click on the competency to de-select it; then select Save for Later option in the pop-up confirmation window. 

The Track Your Progress section of the CPD Tool includes two features to help stay on track with fulfilling your CPD plan. You can opt-in to receive quarterly reminders and you can also set reminders for specific learning activities. See the CPD Tool User Guide for more information. 

The track progress section of the CPD Tool is an optional but recommended feature to help track completion of and progress on learning activities and record notes about each activity. Marking learning activities as In progress or Complete helps lawyers track the progression of their CPD plan throughout the year, including whether they believe their proficiency level has increased as a result of the activities completed, and whether their learning activities were effective. This can also help lawyers determine the learning styles that work best for them. The CPD Tool will automatically save any progress status changes or notes you enter.

If you have questions about the CPD Tool, email Customer Service or visit our website.

If you would like support in creating your CPD plan, you can contact the Education department for assistance.

The Law Society is committed to removing barriers to accessing our resources, programs and services. As part of that commitment, all Law Society websites and resources strive to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). WCAG 2.1 are the internationally recognized standards to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. The Law Society conducts regular audits of all web content for WCAG compliance and works to address any issues in a timely manner.

If you have trouble accessing our websites or resources, please contact us for additional support.