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The Council has the power under section 6 of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance to refuse to
issue a practising certificate to an applicant who has not complied with the CPD Rules, or to
suspend or cancel the practising certificate of a solicitor.
The Council's policy in the event of failure to comply with the CPD requirement ascertained during:
General Audit:
In the absence of acceptable mitigating factors, solicitors who did not acquire the necessary CPD points for the preceding CPD practice year shall, unless the outstanding CPD point(s) was subsequently acquired by a deadline specified by the Society, be subject to suspension or cancellation of their current practising certificate.
Practising Certificate Applications:
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In the absence of acceptable mitigating factors, the Council may refuse to issue a practising certificate to a solicitor who fails to acquire the necessary CPD point(s) by 15 December pursuant to its powers under section 6 (5)(d) of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance.
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Applications for renewal of practising certificates by solicitors who had not acquired the necessary CPD point(s) by 31 October, but did acquire the necessary CPD point(s) by 15 December, will be processed in the usual way.
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Failure by a solicitor to acquire the necessary CPD point(s) by the end of a CPD practice year may be referred to the Conduct Section of the Compliance Department of the Society for investigation.
Breaches of the CPD requirement
Breaches of the CPD requirement are regarded by the Council as professional misconduct.
Mitigating factors will be taken into account in assessing individual cases. Serious cases will
be referred to a Disciplinary Tribunal. Sanctions by the Disciplinary Tribunal may involve
imposition of a fine, censure, suspension or striking off of solicitors, and cancellation or
suspension of a trainee solicitor contract.
Form 4 declaration of compliance by trainee solicitors
In addition to complying with the requirement to acquire 15 CPD points (or a pro-rata as
applicable) during a CPD practice year, a trainee solicitor is required to have accumulated 30
CPD points by the end of his period of employment as a trainee solicitor. Trainee solicitors
must declare in the Form 4 Application for a Certificate of Eligibility for Admission that they
have accumulated the number of CPD points that is required by section 5 of the CPD Rules to
be accumulated by the end of their period of employment as a trainee solicitor.
Any failure to comply with section 5 of the CPD Rules by trainee solicitors (including failure to comply with the pro-rata acquisition of CPD points during each CPD practice year of the trainee solicitor contract) may be referred to the Conduct Section of the Compliance Department of the Society for investigation.
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