Continuing Legal Professional Development and Career Advancement

Continuing Professional Legal Development (CLPD) and career advancement go hand-in-hand with each other.

To ensure your career continues moving in a positive direction, and your skills are honed to perfection, it pays to consider more than just the mandatory courses in which all lawyers will partake.

In Dubai, each Legal Consultant registered on the roll in the category of practicing Legal Consultants is required to obtain 16 CLPD points on a yearly basis. At least 8 of these points must be obtained by completing the Mandatory CLPD Activities and the other 8 points from the Accredited CLPD Activities selected by Legal Consultants from among the Department’s accredited activities.

However, there are numerous other courses available which can increase your chances of employment, promote career progression, broaden your knowledge, and refine your talents, ensuring you get the most from your career.
CLPD is most effective when you have clear goals for your career path.

Developing a career plan that includes CLPD will help you define your objectives, map out a plan of action and ensure you stay on track.

 

Why Use Professional Development?

CLPD is essential to success as it ensures you are able to access skills that might otherwise be unavailable in your usual workplace, or develop those skills that might fade due to underuse.

This will ensure you are valuable to your employer, will keep your knowledge relevant and current, and give you the edge over competitors.

The variety of CLPD courses available in Dubai is huge, so selecting ones that compliment your current training, or one that adds new skills to your repertoire, is fairly straightforward. For instance, if you have completed courses in Financial Corporate Crime, you might wish to develop your skills further by taking Accounting or Corporate Entities.

Likewise, if you are looking to develop your career in a new field, you can investigate new areas within a training course first to assess its possibilities.

Define your Objectives

In order to advance your career you must first decide what it is that you wish to achieve, and how you plan to do this.

CLPD will help you to achieve your goals in small, manageable steps that in turn, will ensure you reach your overall objective.

Defining your objectives may include goals such as, getting a promotion, specialising in a subject, or even getting a pay rise.

Once your main target has been set, you can consider what your secondary goals may be. For instance, to develop existing skills, gain more experience in certain elements of your job, or advance management and operational skills.

These secondary goals are developed through your choice of CLPD courses and should be instrumental in helping you decide which courses to take.

 

Incorporating CLPD into your schedule

Once your primary and secondary goals have been established, it is vital you consider how your CLPD training will fit into your schedule.

Set aside time for the actual training course, be it online, or in person, and for extra studying where necessary. Plan your days/weeks to allow for any homework, revision sessions, advance preparation for seminars, and for times of quiet study.

Track your progress to ensure you are achieving your desired short-term goals, to avoid becoming overwhelmed, and make sure you treat yourself to a well-earned break every now and then.

Remember, CLPD should be a continuous process of professional development, not a one-time fix all. To advance your legal career in any given direction will take time, effort, consistency and patience.

Taking CLPD only when required by your employer is unlikely to give you any professional advantage over your competitors, and will give limited results for improving specific skill sets.

Instead, setting regular training intervals will allow you to steadily increase your talents, keep you abreast of new developments, and encourage a positive attitude to advancing your learning and education.

Selecting a provider that offers quality courses in different areas will give you a better chance of success and more value for money. Since 2015, Creative Word have been working in partnership with the Dubai Legal Affairs Department to provide legal training for lawyers in Dubai. This successful partnerships highlights the professionalism and dedication of Creative Word to our training courses, and gives you the assurance that we can deliver high quality, recognised and accredited training programmes.

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