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Membership Consultation

Proposed Amendment to CPD Scheme –
Bullying, Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession

The Call for Submissions in respect of the Membership Consultation Paper issued on 8 February 2022 closed on 11 March 2022 with 29 Submissions received. A copy of the Membership Consultation Paper can be viewed here.

The Society would like to thank everyone who made a submission in response to the proposals set out in the Consultation Paper.

The Submissions and this issue generally have now been considered by the Council of the Society. 

Whilst the Submissions received were varied and wide ranging in their nature and scope, there was general overwhelming membership support for Option 1 being the introduction of an additional core competency for ‘bullying, discrimination and harassment’ as part of the CPD Scheme.

Accordingly, after careful consideration, the Council of the Society resolved unanimously to amend the CPD Scheme to include this additional core competency.

As explained in the Consultation Paper, the introduction of this new core competency will not impact the number of CPD points to be accrued in each CPD year which will remain at 10 points. Its introduction will however require legal practitioners to accrue one CPD point each year in this new core competency.

This change to the CPD Scheme will require an amendment to the CPD Scheme as established in the Legal Profession Regulations 2007. However, given timing issues, and that the current CPD year has already commenced, the amended CPD Scheme will not commence until 1 April 2023 meaning that there will be no requirement to complete a CPD point in the additional core competency throughout the current CPD year.

The Society views this change to the CPD Scheme as an important step towards reducing and eventually eliminating bullying, discrimination and harassment (including sexual harassment) within the legal profession. 

It is evident from the majority of the Submissions received that it has the support of the profession.

Office details

Office: 3/6 Lindsay St. Darwin NT 0800
Post: GPO Box 2388 Darwin NT 0801
ABN: 62 208 314 893

Contact

Please note that the Society does not offer legal advice.

A list of lawyers can be found here.

Telephone: (08) 8981 5104
Email: lawsoc@lawsocietynt.asn.au

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