CPDCourses.com provides flexible Law CPD learning for solicitors and other legal professionals who want to maintain and develop knowledge relevant to their work. From legal and ethical knowledge to communication, client care, compliance and emerging technology, professional development can help you respond to changing responsibilities throughout your career.
You can explore subjects through our full CPD course catalogue, including our current Law course selection and related professional-development areas.
For solicitors in England and Wales, Continuing Professional Development should be understood alongside the Solicitors Regulation Authority's continuing-competence framework. There is no prescribed minimum number of SRA CPD hours. Instead, solicitors are expected to reflect on their practice, identify learning and development needs and undertake appropriate activities to maintain their competence.
Continuing Professional Development is the ongoing process of maintaining, updating and extending the knowledge and skills required for professional work.
In law, relevant development can cover much more than changes in legislation.
Depending on your role, useful development may include:
The appropriate development depends on your work.
A solicitor specialising in family law may have different learning priorities from an in-house commercial lawyer, compliance professional or practice manager.
For a broader introduction to professional development, see our guide to what CPD means.
Legal CPD courses and other learning activities may be relevant to:
Requirements differ according to professional status, regulator and jurisdiction.
For example, the SRA continuing-competence framework applies to solicitors within its regulatory scope. You should not assume that the same framework automatically applies to barristers, CILEX professionals or lawyers regulated in another jurisdiction.
For SRA-regulated solicitors, professional development is based on continuing competence rather than completing a fixed number of annual CPD hours.
The process centres on four connected activities:
Consider the quality of your practice and identify areas where knowledge or skills need development.
Decide how you will address the learning need.
Complete an appropriate development activity.
Consider whether the activity addressed the original need and how the learning will influence your practice.
This approach makes relevance more important than accumulating hours for their own sake.
There is currently no minimum SRA continuing-competence hours requirement.
This is an important distinction from the former hours-based CPD system.
A solicitor should instead undertake learning and development appropriate to the needs identified through reflection on their work.
This means one person's development plan may look very different from another's.
A solicitor dealing with a new practice area could require substantial structured learning, while another professional might address a specific need through targeted research, guidance, discussion or a short course.
The focus is maintaining competence, not reaching an arbitrary hours total.
The terms Law Society CPD and SRA continuing competence are sometimes used in the same conversation, but they should not be treated as identical.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority regulates solicitors in England and Wales and sets the continuing-competence requirements.
The Law Society is the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales. It continues to use CPD terminology in relation to broader professional learning and provides tools and resources that can support solicitors with their development.
Therefore, when deciding whether a learning activity helps you meet a regulatory responsibility, refer to the current requirements of your regulator rather than assuming that a generic CPD certificate automatically satisfies them.
The SRA's competence framework provides a useful reference point when reflecting on development needs.
It covers four broad areas:
Solicitors need to act professionally, exercise judgement and understand the ethical responsibilities relevant to their practice.
This includes the legal knowledge and practical skills needed to provide appropriate legal services.
Legal work involves communication and relationships with clients, colleagues and other parties.
Solicitors need to organise their work, manage responsibilities and maintain their professional capability.
These areas provide a useful framework for identifying where professional development may be needed.
Ethical competence is fundamental to legal practice.
Development may involve issues such as:
Ethical problems are not always obvious.
A situation may involve competing duties or incomplete information, requiring the practitioner to identify the relevant obligations and exercise professional judgement.
CPD can support ethical awareness, but completing a course does not transfer responsibility for the final professional decision to the training provider.
Law changes.
Legislation, regulations, judgments and professional guidance can all affect legal practice.
Legal professionals therefore need methods for keeping relevant knowledge current.
Depending on your role, these may include:
The important question is not simply whether you completed an activity.
It is whether the activity addressed a relevant knowledge or capability need.
Effective legal research involves more than locating information.
Professionals may need to:
Digital tools can accelerate research, but faster access does not remove the need to evaluate authority and relevance.
This becomes especially important when AI-assisted research tools are used.
Legal knowledge alone does not guarantee effective client service.
Professionals may also need capabilities in:
Communication should be appropriate to the client.
Technical legal language may be necessary between specialists but unsuitable when a client needs a clear explanation of their options and potential consequences.
Drafting may involve:
Good legal writing should be accurate, purposeful and appropriate to its audience.
Professional development can help strengthen areas such as:
The objective is not simply to make documents sound more formal.
It is to communicate legal meaning accurately.
Negotiation is relevant across many areas of legal work.
Useful capabilities may include:
Effective negotiation does not mean pursuing agreement at any cost.
A practitioner needs to understand the client's objectives, relevant legal position and limits within which an acceptable outcome can be pursued.
Professionals involved in advocacy may need development in:
Even professionals who do not regularly appear before a court or tribunal can benefit from stronger persuasive communication and structured reasoning.
Where advocacy is subject to specific professional or regulatory requirements, general CPD should not be treated as a substitute for those requirements.
Legal services operate within extensive professional, regulatory and organisational controls.
Depending on the role, development may be needed in areas such as:
Risk and compliance learning should reflect the individual's actual responsibilities.
A general course can develop understanding but should not be presented as guaranteeing compliance with legislation, regulation or firm procedures.
For broader development in identifying and managing organisational risks, explore our Risk Management CPD guidance.
Anti-money laundering is a significant professional-development area for many legal practitioners.
Learning may involve:
Requirements depend on the work undertaken and the regulatory framework that applies.
Legal professionals should therefore use current official guidance alongside any general learning material.
Professional development can also address equality, diversity and inclusion.
Relevant areas may include:
These issues can affect both client service and professional relationships.
Development is most valuable when it leads to considered changes in professional behaviour rather than being treated solely as an attendance requirement.
Senior legal professionals may have responsibilities extending beyond their own legal work.
These can include:
Professionals moving into management may therefore need development that differs from purely technical legal training.
Our Management CPD resource provides additional guidance where management capability is becoming an important part of your role.
Technology affects how legal services are researched, delivered, documented and managed.
Relevant areas may include:
Professional development should consider both capability and risk.
A tool that improves efficiency may also introduce new confidentiality, security or accuracy concerns.
AI is increasingly relevant to legal work.
Potential applications include:
However, AI-generated material can be incomplete, inaccurate or misleading.
Legal professionals should consider:
AI output should not automatically be treated as authoritative legal research or advice.
The legal professional remains responsible for determining whether information is accurate, current and suitable for the matter.
Generative AI can produce apparently convincing legal information even when the underlying material is inaccurate.
Before relying on AI-assisted research, consider:
AI can support research efficiency, but verification remains essential.
Legal professionals may handle highly sensitive information.
Before entering client or matter information into an AI platform, consider:
Convenience should not override professional obligations.
Professional development does not have to consist entirely of formal legal cpd courses.
Depending on your learning need, appropriate activities can include:
For SRA continuing competence, the important consideration is whether the activity genuinely helps address an identified learning need.
Our course catalogue includes a dedicated Law selection alongside other professional-development subjects.
When comparing law cpd courses, consider the subject before the certificate.
Ask:
This approach helps you select learning for professional relevance rather than completing courses simply to accumulate certificates.
Ethics can be a particularly valuable development area for legal professionals because professional decisions frequently involve judgement rather than straightforward rule application.
Relevant development can include:
If you identify an ethical learning need, choose development that is relevant to your professional status and current regulatory framework.
Contract law may be relevant to professionals working with:
Development may involve updating substantive knowledge or strengthening practical skills such as reviewing terms, identifying risk and drafting.
The appropriate depth depends on the practitioner's responsibilities.
Employment law is a changing area that can be relevant to legal practitioners, HR professionals and managers.
Development may involve:
Professionals providing legal advice should ensure that their knowledge reflects current legislation, case law and authoritative guidance.
Family-law practitioners may need ongoing development in subjects relevant to their particular work.
These can include:
Family-law work can also involve sensitive circumstances, making communication, professional judgement and client care particularly important.
Criminal-law development may address:
The subject can change through legislation, case law and procedural developments.
Practitioners should therefore combine appropriate structured development with reliable current legal sources.
A short course can be appropriate when you have a focused learning need.
For example, you may need to strengthen your understanding of:
Broader study may be more appropriate when:
Choose according to the gap you need to address rather than assuming that longer training is always more valuable.
The answer depends on your professional status and regulator.
For solicitors regulated by the SRA, maintaining competence is a professional requirement.
However, the SRA does not currently require solicitors to complete a prescribed minimum number of annual CPD hours.
Solicitors are instead expected to reflect on their practice and undertake learning and development necessary to maintain competence.
Other legal professionals may be subject to different requirements.
Always check the current rules of your own regulator, professional body or employer.
Solicitors holding a practising certificate are required to make an annual declaration relating to continuing competence.
The declaration forms part of the SRA's approach to ensuring solicitors maintain their knowledge and skills throughout their careers.
The continuing-competence process should therefore be more than a year-end administrative exercise.
Regular reflection can help identify learning needs while they are relevant to your work.
Professional requirements can change.
In 2026, the SRA consulted on proposals to strengthen aspects of its continuing-competence framework, including more formal recording of learning and development needs and annual ethics discussions.
These were proposals rather than existing requirements at the time of the consultation.
Legal professionals should therefore check current SRA guidance rather than relying on older summaries of the framework.
The SRA does not accredit training courses or course providers for continuing competence.
This means you should not select a course simply because it is described as suitable for solicitors and assume that this creates automatic SRA recognition.
Instead, consider whether the activity addresses an identified learning and development need.
Where your employer has its own training or competency framework, you should also follow those requirements.
A CPD certificate can provide evidence that you completed a particular learning activity.
It may be useful within:
A certificate does not itself prove that a solicitor has satisfied every element of continuing competence.
You should also be able to connect the learning with the professional need it was intended to address.
When comparing accredited legal CPD courses, distinguish between CPD accreditation and professional regulatory recognition.
CPD accreditation is not the same as:
Our guide to CPD accreditation explains these distinctions in more detail.
If you need an activity to satisfy a specific employer, regulator or professional-body requirement, confirm acceptance with that organisation before relying on the certificate for formal credit.
Useful CPD begins with reflection.
A learning need might become apparent through:
The next question is what capability needs to improve.
This produces a more useful development objective than simply deciding to “do some CPD”.
Once you identify a need, consider the most effective way to address it.
For example:
Need: Update knowledge after a significant legal change.
Possible activity: Current legal guidance, research or specialist training.
Need: Improve difficult client conversations.
Possible activity: Communication training, observation, coaching or reflective practice.
Need: Understand AI risks in legal practice.
Possible activity: Structured AI training combined with current regulatory and professional guidance.
Need: Improve supervision.
Possible activity: Management training, mentoring and practical application.
The activity should follow the need, not the other way around.
A useful professional-development record can include:
If your regulator, employer or professional body specifies a particular format, use that framework.
A weak development record might say:
A more useful reflection could say:
I identified a need to strengthen my approach to conflicts after reviewing a complex client matter. The ethics learning helped me reconsider how I identify and escalate potential conflicts. I will apply the revised approach to future matter-opening decisions and review its effectiveness during supervision.
Only record outcomes and actions that genuinely occurred.
Professional reflection should be accurate rather than written to make an activity appear more significant than it was.
A practical cycle can be:
Review your work, responsibilities and professional obligations.
Define a specific knowledge or skills gap.
Decide which needs require attention first.
Select an appropriate learning activity.
Complete the activity.
Use relevant learning in practice.
Consider whether the original need was addressed.
Maintain suitable evidence and identify any further development.
This makes CPD an ongoing professional process rather than a certificate-collection exercise.
Online learning can be useful for legal professionals balancing development with:
Before choosing an online course, consider:
Flexibility is useful only when the learning itself addresses a genuine professional need.
Legal work increasingly overlaps with wider management, risk and technology responsibilities.
Depending on your role, useful related areas may include:
Select related learning only when it connects to your responsibilities or identified development needs.
Law CPD courses are structured learning activities designed to develop knowledge or skills relevant to legal work. Subjects can include legal knowledge, ethics, client care, compliance, communication, management and emerging technology.
The SRA currently sets no minimum number of continuing-competence hours. Solicitors should reflect on their practice and complete appropriate learning and development to maintain competence.
The SRA regulates solicitors in England and Wales and sets continuing-competence requirements. The Law Society is the professional body for solicitors and provides broader CPD and professional-development support.
Solicitors must maintain their competence, but this is no longer based on completing a prescribed annual number of CPD hours. Relevant learning remains an important way to address development needs.
An online course can form part of continuing competence when it appropriately addresses an identified learning need. The SRA does not accredit individual courses or providers for continuing competence.
A CPD certificate can provide evidence that learning was completed, but it should not be described as an SRA-approved certificate. The SRA does not accredit CPD courses or course providers under its continuing-competence approach.
Not exactly. CPD is a broad term for professional development. SRA continuing competence is the regulatory framework that applies to solicitors within the SRA's scope.
Choose subjects based on your professional needs. Relevant areas can include legal updates, ethics, client care, drafting, communication, risk, compliance, management, cybersecurity and AI.
Yes, where AI is relevant to your work or an identified learning need. Useful development should address not only how AI tools work but also accuracy, confidentiality, data protection, verification and professional responsibility.
No. Completing a course cannot guarantee compliance. Regulatory compliance depends on your conduct, competence, professional responsibilities and the requirements applicable to your work.
Not necessarily. Barristers are regulated under a different professional framework. You should follow the requirements of the regulator applicable to your professional status.
A useful record identifies the learning need, activity, learning gained, application and reflection. Follow current SRA guidance and any additional requirements set by your employer.
Professional development is most useful when it starts with a clear need.
Reflect on your work, identify where your knowledge or capability needs strengthening and choose learning that directly addresses that requirement.
Browse the Law selection through our CPD course catalogue and compare learning that supports your individual professional-development priorities.
