Recorded Webinar: 3 CPD Compulsory Topics for Lawyers – a national webinar

This webinar comprises 3 one-hour sessions covering each of the compulsory CPD subjects for lawyers for the CPD year ending 31 March 2025.

Session 1: Practice Management & Business Skills

You are the weakest link … Goodbye: A Practice Risk Guide to Cyber Security

Everyday businesses of all shapes and sizes are targeted by hackers and cyber criminals. Not only does a breach in cyber security cause loss and reputational damage for your firm, it may also result in fines, penalties and, for those firms lacking robust policies, practices and procedures a professional negligence claim.  Most claims arise from fraud facilitated through the interception of emails between lawyers and their clients, including changing bank account details and client instructions. With more staff working remotely (and working across delineated hours from their phones), it is easy for an employee working from home to be the weakest link in the firm’s cyber-security chain, and fall for a phishing, scam or malware attack. This session shall take a practical guide to understanding and managing risk to cyber security for law firms and look at:

• The current risks that exist to an IT network through the use of examples of phishing, scams or malware attacks and what steps should be taken to reduce the risks and ensure compliance
• Recent examples of successful security breaches to identify the weakest link and workshop what steps could have been taken to prevent and identify scams and phishing attempts - identifying altered emails, when and how to verify
• The characteristic of a robust IT network and cyber-security risk management strategy and explore the difference in security and costs between robust systems and those unfit-for-purpose
• Practical steps law firms should take to identify and reduce risks of fraud facilitated through emails, including policies and processes to verify emailed instructions, identify altered emails (either from or to the lawyer) and the role of lawyers to train both staff, clients and related professionals

Session 2: Ethics

Learning from the Mistakes of Others: A Lesson In Ethics for Busy Practitioners

When work gets busy, it is all too easy to fall into the routine of everyday life. It is often not until we hear of the publicised mistakes of others that we get the big wake-up call and take the time to reflect on our practices to consider whether we have developed any bad, risky or unethical habits. To help lawyers avoid repeating mistakes made by others, this session shall:

• Examine the facts and identify the takeaway lessons for practitioners from recent cases in which a practitioner was found guilty of professional misconduct or unsatisfactory professional conduct
• Share tips for identifying and managing conflicts of interest, including practical steps to minimise risk when dealing with a client of diverse parts (companies, joint client etc)
• Guide practitioners what to do when a conflict of interest is identified or divergence of interests within a client entity to limit the risk of disciplinary proceedings
• Explore cases including LSC v Cass [2023] QCAT 320 (the ethical issues which can arise when taking instructions from joint clients) and Council of the Law Society of NSW v Ip [2023] NSWCATOD 157 (dealing with mistakes in a legal document and as to execution and witnessing of document)

Session 3: Professional Skills

For Better or for Worse: Harnessing AI in your Skillset

More than a year since the launch of ChatGPT into mainstream use, it seems that AI is now everywhere. When it was first launched, the potential uses of AI seemed endless and the only limit was our own imaginations. However, as AI is being increasingly used to perform legal tasks and in court matters, the risks arising from its use to prepare court documents and manage aspects of legal processes are becoming evident. The new Victorian Supreme Court Guidelines are the first big step towards the regulation and management of its use in legal practice with more regulation anticipated to come. To help lawyers consider the risks and benefits to using AI, this session explore:

• Key AI concepts and tools currently available, including machine (and deep) learning
• Do you get what you pay for? Unpacking the key programs available to lawyers
• How generative AI works, how it can be used to prepare key legal documents and what steps lawyers still need to take to verify text output
• How AI applications are used in legal tasks (including review of disclosure etc), the risks associated with this (including data bias etc) and what safeguards and questions need to be asked within the firm to better understand the use and risks
• Relevant guidelines and directives currently in place in Australian courts, and likely to appear in the future