subject: Continuous Personal Development - How Training Can Help You Achieve Your Objectives [print this page] Ask any long-standing personal injury lawyer whether the industry has changed since they qualified and the answer will be a resounding yes. It seems that there is no such thing anymore as a template that a lawyer can follow that makes them a lawyer and, secondly, there is much more to being a lawyer than simply learning about the Law. Continuous Personal Development (CPD) training is not only invaluable in ensuring that your knowledge-base is kept fresh and up to date, but it also helps to ensure that you remain flexible in a constantly changing industry.
A Flexible Template.
The Legal Practice Course (LPC) provides a 'template' within which all new lawyers are expected to fit. However, it doesn't take long for a lawyer to discover that many issues and situations encountered in the legal world simply do not fit those parameters. This isn't to say that the LPC's course has no value; on the contrary, it provides a valuable foundation from which lawyers can grow within the industry. However, as time goes by and laws change, there is an increasing need for professionals to find new tools with which to equip themselves.
Legal training needs to be considered as a tool for innovation and flexibility, as much as a refresher course for those in the personal injury business. In addition to learning new aspects of legal knowledge, those undertaking personal injury training should also be able to expect to develop a wider business awareness that will give them insight into the world inhabited by their clients.
In addition, trainees can develop a greater understanding of the commercial realities of their own firms. CPD personal injury training can incorporate a broad range of topics, including business development, team-working, project management, leadership and the management of risk and finances. Understanding how the industry works and how a company fits into that picture can help a lawyer to make better, more informed, legal decisions.
A Global Perspective.
The increasingly global nature of commercial law cannot be ignored. Cross-border transactions are already becoming more commonplace. Without legal training, many lawyers will flounder in a world of legal, ethical and practical issues that the LPC's foundations may not have equipped them for. The Internet and the continuing development of the EU are bringing cross-border legal issues ever closer to Britain's shores, and those that aren't prepared will simply be left behind.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has proposed the Legal Services Action plan as part of his proposal to launch the UK as 'the legal capital of the world'. His aim is to nurture a global system that "promotes UK law wherever and whenever possible." With the possibilities and opportunities only just making themselves apparent, many legal professionals are turning to personal injury training to give them a global perspective on a UK industry.
CPD was once seen as a way of keeping up to date with legal changes. Today, legal training of this sort has a much larger potential.
