• Login   

• For Solicitors
• For the Community
• About the Law Society
• Ressource center

• 
• 
• 

Nuts and bolts of your mandatory continuing legal education obligation

Each year, all solicitors who hold current practising certificates in NSW are required to complete mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE), also known as continuing professional development (CPD), unless they qualify for an exemption. This is condition 1 on a practising certificate.

To renew your NSW practising certificate, you must complete a minimum of 10 units of MCLE (CPD) annually. The 10 units need to be completed between 1 April and 31 March the following year.

If you commence or recommence practice between:

• 1 July and 31 December, 5 MCLE (CPD) units are required;
• 1 January and 31 March, 0 MCLE (CPD) units are required.

Units accrued between 1 January and 31 March in any year may be carried forward into the following MCLE (CPD) year, but can only be counted for one year.

Compulsory requirements

A proportion of your total MCLE (CPD) units each year must cover compulsory fields detailed in the Solicitors Rules. Once every three years, one unit must be completed in the fields outlined in clause 176 of the Legal Profession Regulation.

Solicitors Rules

Every year your total MCLE (CPD) must include at least one unit in each of the following fields (Rule 42.1.6):

• ethics and professional responsibility;
• practice management and business skills;
• professional skills.

Legal Profession Regulation fields

Every three years, your total MCLE (CPD) must include at least one unit which predominantly covers the following fields:

• equal employment opportunity principles;
• discrimination and harassment laws;
• occupational health and safety law;
• employment law.

Units completed in these Legal Profession Regulation fields may be claimed towards the compulsory fields of ethics and professional responsibility or practice management and business skills for a year. There is no exemption available for the compulsory requirements.

What counts as MCLE (CPD)

The Law Society does not accredit courses. MCLE (CPD) is based on self-assessment. To count as MCLE (CPD), the activity must:

• be of significant intellectual or practical content;
• deal with matters directly related to the practice of law;
• be conducted by persons who are qualified by practical or academic experience in the subject covered; and
• be relevant to your immediate or long-term needs as a solicitor.

Obtaining MCLE (CPD) units

You can obtain your MCLE (CPD) units by completing a range of educational activities (see box). Each activity is worth one unit per hour. Some activities have a cap on the units you can claim.

You may claim units for lecturing or teaching law, studying for a postgraduate tertiary law course or completing Specialist Accreditation, but the compulsory requirements must still be satisfied if they are not covered in the course.

Compliance

You are required to keep a record of your activities and declare your compliance on your practising certificate renewal form, which is sent to current practitioners in April each year - you will receive it by the end of April. The Law Society verifies compliance by a random audit of solicitors each year. You only need to produce your record of activities if you have been selected as part of the random audit.

To help you keep track of your MCLE (CPD) activities, the Law Society supplies a MCLE Record of Activities form, which can be downloaded from the Law Society website at www.lawsociety.com.au/forms.

Extensions of time

If you have not completed enough units by 31 March you may apply for an extension of time to complete the outstanding units. A form may be downloaded from www.lawsociety.com.au/forms.

Exemptions

It is possible to be exempted from part or all of your MCLE (CPD) requirements if you meet certain eligibility criteria.

The Law Society Council will consider an annual or partial exemption if you:

• are absent from practice due to parenting leave, unemployment or illness;
• have reduced work hours due to part-time or casual employment;
• are required to hold a practising certificate but are not engaged in legal practice;
• experienced personal circumstances that made it difficult for you to meet your MCLE (CPD) requirements for the year; or
• have practised for more than 40 years and do not practise as a principal.

There are no exemptions from the compulsory fields. If you have been partially exempted from completing some MLCE (CPD) units, the balance of units you are required to complete must cover the compulsory fields.

Applications for exemptions must be made in writing to the Law Society, detailing your circumstances. Exemption request forms are available at www.lawsociety.com.au/forms.

More information

More information is available about the MCLE (CPD) Scheme at www.lawsociety.com.au/mcle.

For questions contact the MCLE Officer, Law Society Registry, 170 Phillip Street, Sydney NSW 2000, DX 362 Sydney, phone (02) 9926 0243, email mcle@lawsociety.com.au.