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CCCA_V3No1_MCPD-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_DriversSeat-FIN.qxd 1/21/09 3:01 PM Page 29 hours of CLE. Manitoba is launching a mandatory reporting (but Corporate counsel criteria Feature not CLE) program this year, while Nova Scotia, after considering Whether a given province is more rigid or more flexible in terms MCPD, has opted to focus instead on reforming the Rules of of required hours, it’s the nature and availability of content that’s Civil Procedure. most important to corporate counsel.“In-house counsel tend to Alberta has taken a different approach, believing that simply cover the waterfront, if you will,” Armour says. “We have fairly forcing lawyers to register for seminars isn’t a sufficient guarantee broad needs.We have to be generalists and touch on a lot of areas. of learning and improvement. Instead, it has implemented a We need to look, quite often, beyond our provincial borders.” “mandatory self-directed” CLE program, Law Society of Alberta She cites the example of lawyers who work on complex ener- President Perry Mack explains.“Each lawyer in the province has gy contracts, a subject for which some of the best courses might to develop their own plan, and we give them a number of tools be offered in the United States.“I think what is most important to develop their own CPD.” is that lawyers are able to pursue courses or study that are most Plans must be made and retained in the event they are asked applicable to what they do.That will add the most value to them for by the society, which would likely only occur if there was a in their professional development,” she says. disciplinary issue, or if they were flagged for practice review.“No Ouellette agrees that the key lies in providing content that meets law society looks into the offices of every one of their lawyers a lawyer’s specific needs. In the past, the CCCA has run courses on every year on everything that is within their responsibilities,” he employment and labour law, risk management, mergers and acqui- says.“We rely upon the professionalism of our members, and the sitions and securities law,along with a host of webinars on effective history shows that reliance has been earned.” negotiation skills.He would like law societies to recognize financial “Each lawyer in the province has to develop their own plan, and we give them a number of tools to develop their own CPD.” Perry Mack President, Law Society of Alberta Calgary MARNIE BURKHART, JAZHART STUDIOS PAUL AUSTRING PRINTEMPS 2009 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 29