Senior Practitioners

A Solicitor holding a practising certificate who was admitted to the Roll for at least forty years as of the 31/12/23 is a “Senior Practitioner”, and his/her minimum CPD requirement for 2024 depends on their status:

• a Solicitor who IS a sole practitioner or a compliance partner and/or an anti-money laundering compliance partner: s/he is required to undertake 8 hours which must include a minimum of (a) 5 hours Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing* CPD, AND (b) a minimum of 3 hours Client Care & Professional Standards CPD of which at least 1 hour shall be accounting and anti-money laundering compliance;
• a Solicitor who is NOT a sole practitioner or a compliance partner and/or an anti-money laundering compliance partner:
  • WORKING FULL TIME must undertake 8 hours which must include a minimum of 3 hours Client Care & Professional Standards CPD, and the balance of those 8 hours (i.e. over and above the 3 or more hours you’ve done of Client Care & Professional Standards CPD) must be Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing* CPD;
  • WORKING PART-TIME (or otherwise entitled to a modified minimum CPD requirement less than 8 hours – see below) must undertake a minimum of 3 hours Client Care & Professional Standards CPD, AND the balance of your modified hours (i.e. over and above these 3 or more hours you’ve done of Client Care & Professional Standards CPD in order to reach your calculated modified minimum hours total) must be Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing* CPD.

A senior practitioner may claim a maximum of 4 hours CPD (being 50% of the modified CPD requirement for a senior practitioner) for time spent writing relevant material during 2024.

Permitted Exception to the ‘Minimum of 5 hours CPD in-person‘ Rule

There is a further permitted exception to the ‘minimum of 5 hours CPD in-person‘ rule, which is where the Regulations provide that ‘In all instances however, solicitors should note that where there is a modification of his/her CPD requirement, his/her eLearning allowance will not be modified to less than 5 hours eLearning. Accordingly, if a solicitor has a modified CPD requirement of 6 hours CPD, he/she may claim a maximum of 5 hours for time spent in relevant eLearning‘

Also, a senior practitioner may claim a maximum of 4 hours CPD (being 50% of the modified CPD requirement for a senior practitioner) for time spent writing relevant material during 2024.

(* An excess of hours in the Client Care & Professional Standards category may be claimed towards the Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing category)