Back to the Future

For anyone who spent or spends considerable time in academic pursuits, which includes virtually all lawyers, September is as much of a marker of a new year as is January.
Back to the Future
Jean Cumming, Lexpert
FOR ANYONE WHO SPENT or spends considerable time in academic pursuits, which includes virtually all lawyers, September is as much of a marker of a new year as is January. Lawyers take particular interest this time of year in their CLE and other educational options. This may be in part because they know the annual compulsory education deadline looms, but it is more generally an opportune moment to consider career and personal satisfaction. Would a course help you evaluate that? Even turn things around if the answer to that question is that you are not satisfied. It often does.

This will sound rather self-serving. After all, Lexpert offers courses (see cpdcentre.ca/lexpert/) that qualify for CPD credit. They are taught by excellent practitioners. So too, however, there are other course providers, including the law schools, whose programs definitely provide opportunity for reflection and future planning in addition to core CLE. Osgoode Professional Development, for example, has a “try it out” option in its Professional LLM Program — take one course without committing to the entire LLM. See if you like it. If not, at least you learned something new.

Virtually all lawyers (except perhaps for those retiring imminently) are trying to decipher the future of the profession. As you face the advent of Artificial Intelligence (see p. 50) or any other incoming change factor, broadening one’s “legal” education can only help you plan for the future and allay a certain level of anxiety about it.