Recorded Webinar: 3 CPD Compulsory Topics for Lawyers – Ethics, Professional Skills, Practice Management & Business Skills

This webinar comprises 3 one-hour sessions covering each of the compulsory CPD subjects for lawyers for the CPD year ending 31 March 2026.

Session 1: Professional Skills

Negotiation in Practice: Skills to Get to Yes Without Giving Too Much

Every lawyer negotiates — whether it’s a commercial deal, a property settlement, a litigation outcome, or an internal resource discussion. But effective negotiation is more than back-and-forth offers. This session gives lawyers practical tools to approach negotiations with structure, confidence, and strategic intent — while staying on the right  side of professional and ethical standards. It covers:

• Creating a negotiation plan: how to define goals, limits and walk-away points
• Understanding negotiation styles — yours and theirs — and adjusting accordingly
• How to manage difficult personalities, power dynamics and strong emotions
• Communicating value without making concessions too early
• Tactics for overcoming deadlock without giving ground
• Post-negotiation follow-up: how to document outcomes and avoid misunderstandings

Session 2: Practice Management & Business Skills

Are We Covered? Managing Practice Risk and Professional Indemnity Exposure

It’s not always the big mistakes that lead to professional indemnity claims — often it’s the slow creep of risk through poor scoping, undocumented advice, or client misunderstandings. This session helps lawyers identify hidden exposures in their practice and adopt habits that keep them covered. It covers:

• The real causes of PI claims — what the data shows, and what to learn from it
• Scoping the work properly — and recognising scope creep before it causes damage
• When to update costs agreements, and why a clear retainer is your best defence
• The critical role of documentation: advice files, emails, and internal notes
• Risk-proofing your workflow: systems and habits that reduce exposure

Session 3: Ethics

When the Client Becomes the Risk: Managing Difficult Instructions, Ignored Advice, and Ending the Relationship

Clients don’t always make it easy to do the right thing — but lawyers must meet their ethical duties regardless. Whether a client is cutting corners, concealing facts, ignoring advice, or making the professional relationship untenable, your obligation to act with integrity remains constant. This session explores how to handle ethically fraught situations where the greatest risk isn’t the legal issue — it’s the client. It covers:

• Responding to misleading, unreasonable, or dishonest instructions
• Managing instructions that contradict your legal advice
• How to document your position to protect yourself from complaints or claims
• Knowing when and how to say no: declining or terminating a retainer ethically
• Dealing with client autonomy and poor decisions — without breaching duties
• Disengagement strategies that protect your interests and reputation
• Best-practice file notes, disclaimers and exit communications that withstand scrutiny