Key activities and highlights
- The financial year saw a fairly settled CLE product mix that included a suite of conferences, seminars, workshops and forums.
- A total of 66 courses were run, which were attended by 3664 people. 8.2% of these were non members
- The financial highlights are as below:
- Revenue: $917,615
- Net profit: $260,410
- Surplus against budget: $87,225.
- CLE conferences continue to be popular. This year saw successful day long courses on Trusts, Credit Law, Property Law, Commercial Contracts and Employment Law.
- March 2007 saw a successful seminar series on the 8th Edition of the Agreement for Sale and Purchase of Real Estate. Close to 1000 people attended the seminars nationwide.
- The Flying Start programme continued to evolve in an attempt to continually refresh the programme and offer contemporary information. 95 people attended this programme over the year.
- The Police Court Workshop, now limited to once a year attracted 33 attendees and was received well.
- At a policy level, the CLE Committee debated on the way forward for mandatory CLE. Sukumar Verma presented a paper that encapsulated the pros and cons of such a policy, backed up with information on policies of other legal and professional services jurisdictions across the world.
The CLE Committee supported the desirability of some form of Mandatory CLE but acknowledged the format and implementation needed consultation with the profession.
- The Committee debated at length on the need to provide more CLE for criminal law practitioners. Key challenges were timing and price. It was resolved to offer a pilot course at $50 plus gst on Saturday afternoons. The first of these is scheduled for March 2008.
- In response to a request from the Waikato Bay of Plenty Law Society, the Committee agreed to explore CLE options in that region. Initial attempts have been successful with the following courses offered
- Civil Interlocutories and Case Management, 4 December 2006, Hamilton (38 attendees)
- Rural Law Conference, 12 March, Rotorua (65 attendees)
- Estate Planning for beginners, 16 August, Hamilton (34 attendees)
- Conveyancing Pot Pourri, 18 September, Tauranga (27 attendees)
- Trusts, 22 November, Hamilton (44 attendees)
All courses were received well, and it is anticipated that the next financial year will see more initiatives in this area.
A significant achievement for CLE was member feedback via the Q-ZONE survey. This independent market research agency was commissioned by ADLS to seek feedback from members on what the organisation needs to do retain members in a voluntary environment, and how current services are rated.
All CLE products and services were highly valued and rated.
In summary
The CLE programme of Auckland District Law Society continues to thrive in a highly competitive environment. ADLS CLE today is a strong and recognisable brand, associated with value and quality. Inputs from the committee members have been
invaluable towards ensuring that that the programme fulfils its obligations towards members.
The coming year is poised to be equally challenging with the restructuring of Law Societies likely to be implemented.
Amongst another things, efforts will also be made to develop more synergies with NZLS CLE.
We would like to thank members of the Committee for their time and excellent contribution over the past year, and look forward to a continued and fruitful association.
David Smith, Convenor, Continuing Legal Education Committee
Sukumar Verma, Director, Continuing Legal Education