The Canadian Government-funded Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) Project will continue its region-wide sensitisation programme on Continuing Legal Profes-sional Development (CLPD) in Guyana today.
A release from the project said that the meeting at the Guyana Pegasus at 5 pm is being held in association with the Guyana Bar Association to raise awareness among its members of the benefits of mandatory CLPD.
Velma Newton
Professor Velma Newton, Regional Project Director, IMPACT Justice said in the press release that professional development is an important continuous improvement process.
“There is always a need to learn and develop. Continuing Legal Professional Development is something IMPACT Justice feels very strongly about and we would want to see it happening on a region-wide basis,” she said. “The importance of CLPD is to keep legal professionals in the region updated with relevant training, information, knowledge and skills to remain competent throughout their careers.”
Currently, Jamaica and Grenada are the only CARICOM Member States to have legislation which addresses continuing legal education.
The release said that the IMPACT Justice Project held a meeting on legal professionalism in Jamaica earlier this year, at which the current Bar Association Presidents from around the region pledged their support for CLPD for lawyers.
“IMPACT Justice received the full support and commitment of the Bar Associations around the region for the move towards implementing mandatory CLPD. Jamaica is the foremost with respect to Continuing Legal Education in the region and this is the model with which we agreed to move forward,” she said.
The featured speaker for the awareness building session Michael Hylton, O.J., Q.C., chairman of the General Legal Council of Jamaica, will share the Jamaican perspective in his presentation ‘Continuing Legal Profes-sional Development: The Jamaica Model’.
