CA1 (Practice Management)
This is Piddington’s online CPD library for practice management. We have a range of sessions covering issues including employment, performance, costs, sexual harassment and more.
If you are looking for other online CPD sessions click the following:
Please note:
Some sessions were recorded before the current CPD year. In accordance with Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act (2022), Legal Profession Uniform Continuing Professional Development (Solicitors) Rules (2015) and Legal Profession Uniform Continuing Professional Development (Barristers) Rules (2015), the sessions and questions are regularly reviewed for relevance, and changed or deleted where appropriate.
Unless otherwise marked, all of our sessions are considered “interactive”.
Balancing careers
Many parents aren't just managing raising children and their own careers, they are also having to consider the career and ambitions of their partner, too.
In this session, Magistrate Linda Keane and Tony Hager (Geoffrey Miller Chambers) discuss how they mutually have pursued their own careers and raised their children as a team
The sessions considers blended families, high-pressure workplaces, competing deadlines and prioritising family responsibilities.
CPD points: 1 in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
Piddington AI Program
The expanded use of artificial intelligence is having a profound impact on the profession. With practice directions from the Courts, new platforms and yet-to-be answered questions about how to govern and manage AI law firms, Piddington has decided to create the Piddington AI Program.
In consultation with the profession, judiciary and technical experts, the Piddington AI Program covers what goes into AI and how it works, the tools practitioners and firms are using today and how AI can be governed and managed in a legal workplace.
All sessions in the Piddington AI Program were recorded between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
How AI works: Fiona McLay (McLay Legal Consulting) explains what AI is and how it works. This 101 of AI doesn't assume any technical understand of the technology and will assist in grasping how AI works.
CPD: 0.5 points in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 in CA2 (Professional Skills)
How to use AI: Angus Lang SC (NSW Bar) is a leading legal practitioner and sought-after contributor on intellectual property law and AI, addressing developments in Australia and Europe. Katherine Thomas (CIE Legal) is an expert in the business of law.
Mr Lang considers issues related to practice management and the application of AI, while Ms Thomas considers the options for AI in the operations of a law firm and legal practice.
CPD: 0.5 points in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 in CA4 (Substantive Law)
Ethical and governance considerations - CPD: 1 point in CA3 (Ethics and Professional Responsibility)
Data management - trends and issues
Data management is a big and complex topic, with new regulatory and legislative developments impacting organisations and individuals.
Professor Ed Santow (Human Technology Institute, University of Technology) is a former Australian Human Rights Commissioner who has spent more than a decade investigating issues related to privacy. He is an expert adviser on a range of government and industry boards. Clare Mould (Corrs Chambers Westgarth) is a senior lawyer focused on intellectual property, privacy and data, advising clients on matters including ownership and commercialisation.
Professor Santow considers the macro landscape and policy developments while Ms Mould speaks to practical issues facing clients and law firms.
CPD points: 0.5 CPD points in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 CPD points in CA4 (Substantive Law).
Recorded between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
Pricing Legal Services: Clients, costs and business continuity
Finding the right price for your legal services is hard - you are balancing client expectations, regulation, salaries and payments as well as maintaining a business.
In this session, Gemma Nugent (Sound Legal) and Nic D'Adamo (FMD Legal) discuss their own experiences since starting their firms and how they approach pricing for their clients and how this has developed over time. They are joined by Amy Pascoe (Pascoe Legal) who considers current issues in legal costs, including what is being charged, what is disallowed and what is changing.
The presenters will also consider issues across front-end and back-end legal work, clients across sectors and market forces.
CPD points: 1 in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
Mastering the art of stress
The practice of law brings with it unique stress, being unable to manage this can perpetuate the problem.
In this session, psychologist Dr Marny Lishman will present on stress reduction and management. She will provide actionable techniques for effectively managing stress, to reduce their impact on your performance and overall wellbeing.
This presentation covers a range of strategies, including mindfulness practices, time management skills, and relaxation techniques. Dr Lishman will discuss how to cultivate a healthier relationship with stress, enabling participants to boost productivity and achieve their goals without compromising their well-being.
CPD points: 1 in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
Workplace Wellbeing
Managing our mental health can be hard, and is only more difficult when clients have complex and traumatic issues.
In this session, clinical psychologist Stephen Cohen and barrister Marion Buchanan cover a range of topics from self-management to organisational issues. They speak on topics including the categories of mental health issues facing lawyers and courts, realistic expectations for clients and those for individual lawyers.
CPD points: 1 in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.
Briefing Counsel
Whether you brief counsel regularly or infrequently, it can be a daunting undertaking.
While all barristers have different requirements for their briefs, this session will look at how your briefs should consider case theory, how to frame that and how this supports the efficient resolution of a dispute.
The speakers have different practice areas to share their advice, insight and tips for getting this right. The speakers are Craig Astill, Hayley Cormann and Rachel Oakeley. This session was recorded prior to the appointments of Judge Astill and Judge Cormann.
CPD points: 0.5 in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 in CA2 (Professional Skills).
Recorded between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
The Right to Disconnect: Issues for lawyers and clients
As part of a sweep of changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act), the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 has created a “right to disconnect”. This “right”, and its enforcement regime, will be contained in a New Division 6 to Part 2-9 of the FW Act. It will comprise of about five significant new statutory provisions, and a handful of relatively bespoke exemption provisions, that will be construed by decision-makers, debated by lawyers, and applied in practice by employees and employers.
Barrister Justin Pen walks through the law with consideration generally and that for lawyers and legal practices.
CPD allocation: 0.5 in CA1 (Practice Management), 0.5 in CA4 (Substantive Law).
Recorded between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.
Tax Deductions for Lawyers and Legal Practices
For lawyers and legal practices, every year around tax time we need clarifications and want to know what can be deducted. We usually need to be more on top of it than before June 30 comes around.
Joshua Haque (Pitcher Partners) will provide a presentation and answer questions on this topic. He will cover everything from what you can cover as an individual lawyer, including CPD/training, your home office and more, through to options for practices to maximise your spend.
CPD points: 0.5 CA1 (Practice Management), 0.5 CA4 (Substantive Law).
Recorded between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Working with and supporting LGBTIQA+ clients
While most legal discrimination against LGBTIQA+ people has been removed, challenges continue to face the community.
In this session, hear from members of the community and lawyers who have supported LGBTIQA+ people with legal issues and through the justice system. This session will primarily consider supporting these clients and navigating the often complex legal issues that face them.
Speakers: Lauren Butterly (Pride WA), Briannen Morrow (Butlers Lawyers and Notaries) and Aidan Ricciardo (UWA Law School)
CPD points: 1 CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.
Time Management: A User’s Guide
We have all been there: Overwhelmed by work, with more piling up and wondering how we can manage it all. In this session, join practitioners from different parts of the profession who will share their insight and advice on managing their workflow.
Speakers are Demi Swain (Bennett), Kate Turtley-Chappel (Legal Pathways), Curtis Ward (Clairs Keeley) and Lucy Wardle (MDC Legal) who will discuss their practices and strategies for staying on top of their work, getting ahead, how to manage competing priorities, managing up and dealing with an influx of work.
CPD: 0.5 CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Bullying and sexual harassment jurisdiction of the WA Industrial Relations Commission
Commissioner Toni Emmanuel and Nikita Barsby (MDC Legal) go through developments and changes in the law relating to sexual harassment and bullying generally. They clarify the role of the WAIRC and when to engage in proceedings.
CPD allocation: 0.5 points in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 points in CA4 (Substantive Law)
Recorded between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Balancing careers
Many parents aren't just managing raising children and their own careers, they are also having to consider the career and ambitions of their partner, too.
In this session, we have brought together her Honour Judge Natalie Whitby (District Court of Western Australia) with her husband the Hon Reece Whitby MLA (Minister for Environment and Climate Action) who will discuss how they mutually have pursued their own careers and raised four children as a team.
This session will is led by Felicity McLeish (Wright Prospecting) and consideration will be given to issues around dealing with deadlines and high-pressure workplaces and jobs, home-life structures that allow people to maintain demanding work, prioritising family responsibilities over those at work and escaping the stress of work and family demands.
CPD points: 0.5 CPD points in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 CPD points in CA3 (Ethics and Professional Responsibility).
Recorded between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022.
Costs and the uniform profession law
Join legal costs expert Amy Pascoe as she provides a comprehensive update to legal costs and the uniform profession law, including highlighting some issues she is seeing arise now the law is in place.
CPD points: 0.5 CPD points in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Social media for client engagement and education
Dr Lauren Butterly leads a session with three practitioners who use social media to communicate the law to their clients and the wider community. Rachael Doraisamy explains her perspective in the community legal sector, Claudia Maw shares her insight from being a firm owner and Kieran Pender outlines how he uses social media to build legal knowledge in the community.
CPD points: 1 point in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
Reading financial documents - a guide for lawyers
Lawyers and numbers don't always go well together. Spreadsheets, financial accounts and audits can seem like a foreign language, but is an essential skill to understand.
Rhiannon Clews (Pitcher Partners) covers profit and less, balance sheets and notes to financial statements.
CPD points: 0.5 points in CA1 (Practice Management); 0.5 points in CA2 (Professional Skills).
Recorded between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
Lawyering from home
Join Chris Pearce (Blackwall Legal), Heather Millar (Francis Burt Chambers) and the Hon John Chaney SC (Chair, The Piddington Society; formerly Supreme Court of Western Australia) for a discussion about practical ways to make working from home work for you and the ethical challenges which can arise.
CPD points: 1 point in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020.
Coaching and Feedback
How can you support your staff and colleagues to be their best? Three senior lawyers - Catriona Macleod, Selena McCrickard and Chris Pearce - with wide experience in management offer their insights and advice on helping staff perform better in a collegial environment.
CPD points: 0.5 CPD points in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020
Managing Up
In this session, three lawyers from different parts of the profession will discuss their experiences and share their advice on how to manage up in ways that maintain sustainable workflow, knowing how and when to say no, considering your own mental health and navigating ethical issues. Consideration will be given to issues relating to working with clients, non-lawyers and within larger teams.
At time of recording, Julien Blais is a legal associate at Gold Corp and previously worked in commercial litigation for a top-tier firm, Richa Malaviya is a lawyer in the Djinda team at the Women's Legal Service and has worked across the community legal sector in Perth and regional Western Australia and Maggie Shipp is a solicitor at Cullen Macleod Lawyers working across litigation and commercial matters.
CPD points: 0.5 CPD points in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 CPD points in CA3 (Ethics and Professional Responsibility).
Recorded between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022.
The Uniform Profession in practice with Libby Fulham and Russell Daily
Hearing from the Legal Practice Board and Legal Profession Complaints Committee about the uniform profession in practice as it relates to overall regulation and complaints. This session was recorded a few months after the the uniform profession came into effect, Libbt Fulham and Russell Daily consider the practice issues that have arisen.
CPD points: 0.5 CPD points in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 CPD points in CA4 (Substantive Law).
Recorded between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Rights, Responsibilities and Respect - Sexual Harassment
With Kate Jenkins, the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Eastman SC, Matthew Howard SC, Libby Fulham (Legal Practice Board of WA) and Charmaine Tsang (HFW), this practical and engaging session offers lawyers an overview of the law around sexual harassment, what the regulator is doing on the matter in legal workplaces and what management can do.
CPD points: 0.5 CPD points in CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 points in CA4 (Substantive Law).
Recorded between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020.
Practice post-COVID with Chaney SC, Macleod and Malone
The Hon John Chaney SC (Chair, The Piddington Society), Catriona Macleod (Cullen Macleod Lawyers) and Nick Malone (Convenor, The Piddington Society; Associate, Pragma Lawyers) share their perspectives on what has changed for practice because of the pandemic, opportunities for collegiality and pro bono work and how the profession has adapted.
CPD points: 0.5 points in CA1 (Practice Management).
Recorded between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
Employment law in 2020
Daniel White (Mills Oakley) joins with Rachel Cosentino (Francis Burt Chambers) and Carla Vinciullo (Mason Ledger) to consider immediate issues in employment law, the structure of the system, the State Wage Case and hotspots for employers and managers alike.
CPD points: 0.5 points CA1 (Practice Management) and 0.5 points in CA4 (Substantive Law).
Recorded between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019.