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: 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.

Periods of not practising, or ceasing to practice, during 2024

You may have your minimum CPD requirement of 25 hours modified downwards in proportion to the number of weeks (out of 52) actually worked in 2024 if you do not practice or cease to practice as a solicitor in the course of 2024 for a period of:

  • not less than one week within the 2024 CPD cycle for reasons of being on maternity/paternity (maximum maternity leave: 42 weeks) or parental or carers or adoptive leave, and
  • not less than eight weeks (not necessarily continuous, and even if wholly or partly remunerated) during the practice year due to medically certified illness or unemployment/‘sabbatical’/a ’time out’/a ‘career break’/a ‘temporary retirement’ or the like, or other substantive reasons.

Employed part-time

Also, if you work on a part-time basis during all or part of 2024, meaning that you are ‘remunerated only for practising less than five days a week, Monday to Friday’, you may also have your 25-hour CPD requirement reduced in proportion to the number of days worked.

Where a solicitor works less than 104 hours per year (i.e. on average 2 hours per week) s/he is only obliged to undergo the minimum 3 hours of Client Care & Professional Standards CPD requirements and no more.

Part-year practice cases

If a solicitor either:

  1. holds a practising certificate for part only of the 2024 CPD cycle, or
  2. is in the full-time service of the State for part only of the 2024 cycle AND does/did not hold a practising certificate and practice otherwise than as a solicitor in the full-time service of the State for the remaining part of 2024

s/he may have his or her CPD requirement proportionately reduced to the number of weeks (out of 52) actually engaged in practice.

Consultants

The minimum CPD requirement for ‘consultant’ solicitors’ is modified downwards in proportion to the number of days in each week (Monday to Friday) throughout the 52 weeks of the CPD cycle that s/he actually engages in practice.

NB: The obligation to undertake the minimum 3 hours of Client Care & Professional Standards CPD always applies. So, should a solicitor’s modified CPD requirement be less than 8 hours, the first 3 hours must comprise of the minimum 3 hours of Client Care & Professional Standards CPD, with the balance hours in the category of Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing*…..AND where the solicitor is a sole practitioner or a compliance partner and/or an anti-money laundering compliance partner, s/he shall be required to undertake as all or part of his/her modified CPD obligations during each cycle, a minimum of 8 hours CPD, comprising of at least 5 hours of Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing* and at least 3 hours of Client Care & Professional Standards CPD of which at least 1 hour shall be accounting and anti-money laundering compliance.

In other words:

(a) a solicitor (including a senior practitioner – see above) who is a sole practitioner or a compliance partner and/or an anti-money laundering compliance partner, shall be required to undertake as all or part of his/ her modified CPD obligations during 2024, at least a minimum of 8 hours CPD, comprising of at least 5 hours of Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing* and at least 3 hours of Client Care & Professional Standards CPD of which at least 1 hour shall be accounting and anti-money laundering compliance

OR

(b) a solicitor (including a senior practitioner – see above) who is not a sole practitioner or a compliance partner and/or an anti-money laundering compliance partner, shall be required to undertake as all or part of his/ her modified CPD obligations during 2024, at least 3 hours Client Care & Professional Standards CPD AND, where his/her modified CPD obligations are between 3 hours and 8 hours, the balance of such modified hours must be in the category of Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing*.

Therefore, the minimum 5 hours Professional Development & Solicitor Wellbeing CPD and, if any, General CPD can be proportionately modified downwards in qualifying cases, whereas the obligation to fulfill the above minimum Client Care & Professional Standards hours/content remains regardless.

Newly qualified solicitors

A newly admitted solicitor has a 12 month exemption following his/her admission to the Roll of Solicitors, commencing on the first day of the month immediately following the date of his/her admission to the Roll. His/her requirement to undertake CPD during the CPD cycle in which such period of twelve months expires is then modified downwards in proportion to the number of weeks (out of 52) remaining in that CPD cycle.

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