Lawyers, Winter is Coming...

CPD is Coming. How Safe is Your Kingdom?

by Dr Marietjie Botes & Renet van Wyk

DR MARIETJIE BOTES

Attorney with a nose for sniffing out all things weird and wonderful in the world where law and science collide.

Marietjie, has been litigating on behalf of injured people since 2001. She is fascinated by the scientific advances in Biotechnology and after unhealthy amounts of coffee and chocolate she completed her LLD, specialising in Biotechnology Law. On the side Marietjie also designs comics for biobanks, helping them explain the science behind gene editing and stem cell research. In her free time, she strings up all the pearls of wisdom she collected from travelling the globe, enjoying wine from different countries and devouring books that smells like knowledge and forgotten worlds, in poems.

RENET VAN WYK

BLC, LLB, LLM (Law of Contracts) (UP)

Renet van Wyk (49) was admitted as attorney, conveyancer and notary in 1996. She gained her experience in the private and banking sector for 10 years before starting her own legal practice in 2006. She has been in private practice for the past 13 years. She holds a master’s degree in contract law. She specializes in court work, commercial and contractual disputes, divorce and family law. She believes in the personal client relationship model, enjoys hiking and reads extensively. She is mother to a seven year – old who keeps her young at heart.

Since October 2018 the rumour of Continuing Professional Development requirements, better known as CPD points, for legal practitioners, like Winter in Game of Thrones, has been creeping closer and closer. Although compliance is not being enforced yet, you don’t want to wait for White Walkers to appear at your gate before taking steps to gather your points and fend off penalties and de-registration.

Simply put, your kingdom must be protected, and training must be done. Our suggestion is to attend to the enforcement of your walls sooner, rather than later, especially if you’re reigning over a smaller kingdom where resources may be scare and time is worth every ounce in gold, which poses a great obstacle to attend face-to-face CPD training.

How Safe is Your Kingdom?

However, there is no need to fear yet. LAWcpd is your perfectly positioned partner and is your ally in ensuring that you will be CPD compliant when Winter arrives. Once the Legal Practice Act is being enforced, our oracle says that there will be a frantic scramble for CPD training, that armies of lawyers will only be moved into action when they realise that these requirements are obligatory and that their livelihoods depend on it.

Merely reigning over a successful kingdom is tough enough, so to also fend off compliance enemies can be exhausting and plain irritating. We appreciate that your kingdom only runs smoothly when you are in it to ensure that every cog in the wheel is turning at the right speed and direction to ensure enough income and provisions. Leaving your territory to attend a training CPD audience is clearly not ideal. As our wise oracle says: “The further you venture from your legal practice, the closer you wander towards harm and damages” Often traditional CPD training methods require of you to leave your practice for an entire day or more, depending on whether you also need to travel, just to comply with legislation and protect the very practice you just left behind.

Well, look no further, and stay put in the comfort of your own castle. LAWcpd offers a wide range of relevant, CPD accredited and on-line webinars presented by carefully vetted experts in their fields of law, which you can binge watch or pick at one at a time, depending on your appetite, at the cost of 4 bottles of good wine a month.

Google is the New Cersei and Joffrey Wants Your Gold

These days many people with access to the internet consider themselves legally wise, because if Cersei said so it must be true. Instead of seeing through the legalese and half- truths by seeking out actual expert advice, people are downloading and drafting their own contracts and are later on astonished when their carefully bought blueprints did not deliver the advertised results, leading to battlefields full of wasted dreams and dead bodies.

Furthermore, Alternative Legal Service Providers is now flying in on the backs of dragons like Daenerys Targaryen, aiming straight for your kingdom. Wills, contract drafting and even conveyancing services, which were previously the exclusive domain of traditional law firms are now being consumed by the dragon breath of ALSP.

Now is the time to gather your forces, tune into LAWcpd’s webinars and fight back with superior knowledge that will leave even Tyrion Lannister speechless.

Remember: you alone can only fight off so many White Walkers but collaborating with LAWcpd we may just survive the Winter together.

Reputation is Now Everything

A small man once uttered these big words: “Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armour, and it can never be used to hurt you.” – Tyrion Lannister.

Disgruntled or uninformed clients are constantly taking to social media to publicly voice their grievances and sadly, most are completely ignorant of the legal implications this may have, not only for themselves, but also for the reputation of legal practitioners in general.

It is time to take back what is yours: pride in your profession, your legal knowledge, the legal services you deliver – your reputation. Join forces with LAWcpd and suit up with the right armour to ready yourself for a future of honour empowered by knowledge.