Senior Practitioners

A Solicitor holding a practising certificate who was admitted to the Roll for at least forty years as of the 31/12/22 is only obliged to undertake a minimum of three (3) hours (not 20) of CPD in 2023 (and may now complete these 3 hours CPD by eLearning during 2023).

For a solicitor who is not a sole practitioner or a compliance partner and/or an anti-money laundering compliance partner, these three hours can be of any category, i.e. General, Management or Regulatory.

A senior practitioner who is a sole practitioner or a compliance partner and/or an anti-money laundering compliance partner, is required to undertake as his/her three hours minimum CPD requirement during 2023, at least three hours of Regulatory Matters, of which at least two hours shall be accounting and anti-money laundering compliance.

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 may claim a minimum of 5 hours eLearning per CPD cycle; accordingly, if a solicitor has a modified CPD requirement of 8 hours CPD, he/she may claim a maximum of 5 hours for time spent in relevant eLearning (as 5 hours is the minimum eLearning allowance).‘

Therefore, a senior practitioner may complete their entire modified yearly CPD requirement (3 hours CPD) by eLearning during 2023.

Also, a senior practitioner may claim a maximum of 1.5 hours CPD (being 50% of the modified CPD requirement for a senior practitioner) for time spent writing relevant material during 2023.