Reflecting on practice and identifying learning or development needs
Most attorneys reflect on their practice and how they perform during the course of the year. It may not always be a conscious exercise, but we know from feedback from the regulated profession that attorneys are proud of their qualifications and always look for ways to develop their expertise to ensure they are providing the best possible service to their clients and employers. Reflection might naturally take place after completion of a particularly novel or complex piece of work or following feedback from a client. Many attorneys also reflect on their practice as part of their firm's or employer's internal appraisal or performance review process which often requires the setting of objectives or areas for further learning and development.
By 'reflect' we mean you should ask yourself “Which areas of my knowledge and skills do I need to enhance? Why?”
You could also ask yourself:
• Do I have any learning gaps or weaknesses? • What do I want to know and why do I want to know it? • Is there a new law, procedure or system that I need to know about? • Is my job or role changing? Are there things I could work on to help me with that? • What work would I like to be doing next year? Are there things I could work on to help me achieve this? • How did my last performance review go? Was anything identified that I could work on? • Thinking about a piece of work I am doing / have recently completed, were there things that I could do better or could have gone better? • Is there a piece of work I am really enjoying or am interested in? Can I take this further and what would help me to do so? • Is there a process, procedure or system we use at work that could be improved? Could I help improve it?
Learning needs identified by an attorney will change over the course of their career, and so too will the activities they need to undertake to address those needs. A newly qualified attorney might identify learning or development needs in ethics and professional behaviours of regulated persons, or technical requirements such as litigation and advocacy as they study for the litigation skills certificate. A more senior attorney may identify needs around practice management, financial accounting and money laundering requirements or personnel management as they take on more managerial responsibilities within an organisation.
An attorney’s learning and development needs will be different depending on how they work, whether in-house or in private practice. Their development priorities will change if they move between the two practice categories. Areas for development or knowledge growth will be impacted by changes to or developments in the law, regulation and government policy. Those working as sole traders or in a smaller practice will likely benefit from regular refresher training on firm management compliance issues around money laundering and managing a practice.
What an attorney might identify as a learning need initially could later be abandoned as priorities and workstreams change. This is a natural part of developing a career. What is required of attorneys, is that they consider their practice and development needs consciously, considering how to meet needs and evaluating whether learning activities have helped to address the need.