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Early Career Lawyer Committee Guide

For CPD-related information see the Early Career Lawyer Lecture Series Policy here.

Early Career Lawyer Committees run from 1 May to 30 April each year. ECLs are guided by the Early Career Lawyer Constitution (and attached schedule).

ECL Annual Obligations

1. Committee Information and AGM
In each committee year, each ECL is to:

  1. Provide its AGM date to the Society at cpd@lst.org.au by 31 March of the outgoing committee’s sitting year.
  2. Hold the AGM in April in the outgoing committee’s sitting year.
  3. Provide the list of the incoming committee members to the Society at cpd@lst.org.au by 1 May.
  4. Supply a quality professional colour head shot of the president (jpeg 200-400dpi) to the Society at cpd@lst.org.au by 31 May.

2. Minutes of Meetings

  • Minutes from each and every ECL meeting must be forwarded to cpd@lst.org.au at latest by two weeks post the scheduled meeting date.
  • Minutes are to be received as a pdf and titled using the following naming protocol – [N][S][NW]ECLDD.MM.YYMinutes (as an example – NECL05.07.23Minutes). The Society’s Agenda/Minutes/Action template is recommended.

3. Orientation Meeting
All incoming ECL presidents are to attend a meeting (either in person or via phone/videolink) with Society’s Executive Director, Deputy Executive Director and Professional Development Officer as soon as possible after their appointment. The Society will be in touch to arrange a mutually suitable time.

The purpose of this meeting is orientation; to discuss policy, guidelines and procedures, including the Early Career Lawyer CPD Lecture Series Policy, and any other ECL agenda items.

4. Written Report
ECL presidents are to provide a written report for inclusion in Society’s Annual Report which is produced in October of each year. This report should be submitted no later than the first Friday in September.

The purpose of this ECL report is to advise on activities conducted by the ECLs throughout the year. The Society will be in contact with presidents in August with a reminder of the deadline. Examples of previous reports can be found here. For any other information about this report please contact info@lst.org.au.

5. Chair Training
ECL presidents are required to attend Chair Training which is held for all Society committee chairs around May or June. Presidents will be contacted directly with further details as soon as the current year session has been arranged.

6. Society Journal – Law Letter Articles
The Society highly recommends that ECLs provide approximately three articles or ECL activity updates for publication in the Society’s triannual journal, The Law Letter. Shelley Harwood will send out publication deadlines, or contact Shelley at shelley.harwood@lst.org.au.

7. Early Career Lawyer CPD Lecture Series

7.1 Early Career Lawyer CPD Lecture Series Policy
Prior to running your ECL CPD Lecture Series presentations it is essential that you refer to the information and protocols in the Early Career Lawyer CPD Lecture Series Policy 2023 and the Early Career Lawyer Presentation Checklist 2023 (see here).

7.2 Historical Agreement for CPD Lecture Series Scheduling
There is a longstanding agreement between ECLs and the Society in relation to the ECL CPD Lecture Series annual schedule.

7.3 Annual CPD Events Schedule
This annual schedule was established taking into consideration several factors including the Society’s human resources, technology requirements and capacity. These schedules take considerable time to prepare, and as such the ECL CPD Lecture Series dates provided by the Society each year need to be factored into this. The Society schedules and hosts:

  • over 100 meetings each year for its Committees and Council alone; and
  • approximately 80-100 CPD hours a year.

As such, the ECL CPD Lecture Series can be held as follows:

  • SECL runs CPD events on the first Thursday of every second month (i.e. 5–6 times a year).
  • NECL and NWECL run CPD events on the third Thursday of every month, on an alternating basis (i.e. 5–6 times a year each).

7.4 Forfeit
It is important to note that where an ECL does not indicate, at the latest 6 weeks ahead of the schedule, that they will be utilising the scheduled CPD date, that date will be forfeited and automatically reabsorbed into the Society’s CPD Program without notice.

7.5 CPD Event Dates
See the list of available dates for each ECL CPD Lecture Series for the current committee year (found in the ECL CPD Lecture Series Policy here). These dates must be confirmed to the Society by the respective ECL at the latest 6 weeks prior to the CPD event. For more information see the Policy.

7.6 Early Career Lawyer Presenter Agreement Form
ECLs are to use the Early Career Lawyer Presenter Agreement Form and Checklist 2023 found here, to confirm its respective CPD activities, and to gather CPD topic and presenter information to forward to the Society.

  • Once the presenter is confirmed and all required information is collated in the forms, email them to cpd@lst.org.au at the latest 6 weeks prior to the CPD event date.
  • Incomplete information may result in the ECL CPD event being postponed to another scheduled date. It is the ECLs’ responsibility to provide, in time, the relevant and correct information for listing the event. The Society will not chase the ECLs.

7.7 Mandatory CPD Areas
CPD events must cover points in each of the respective 5 mandatory CPD areas – Ethics, Professional Skills, Practice Management, Substantive Law, and Equality and Wellbeing – as per CPD Practice Guideline 4. The 5 mandatory CPD area/s must be stated along with the CPD title/topic area.

7.8 CPD Event Fee Structure

  • Event registration fees – The ECL CPD event fee structure is the sole discretion of each ECL . It is a requirement that each ELC notify the Society of its current CPD event registration rates by 31 May of the committee’s sitting year, or after its first committee meeting, whichever comes first.
  • Registration fee discounts for law students – This is to be considered by each ECL and the Society is to be notified of any CPD event fee discounts on offer in any given year.

7.9 CPD Event Registration Fees to the Society
These fees contribute to supporting the overall Society CPD program including administrative, technology, venue, and other associated costs. Terms and conditions of the Society, which have been adopted by the ECLs, can be found here. These fees may change, at the Society’s discretion, in line with its annual registration fee review.

Event and recordings fee structure from 1 May 2023

  • ECL CPD event: Society deducts a 25% admin fee per standard 1 hour registration/ticket purchase after GST and TryBooking fee (2.5%) is deducted.
  • For ECL CPD events that are one hour and more, the Society deducts a 30% admin fee per registration/ticket purchase after GST and Trybooking fee (2.5%) is deducted.
  • ECL Social event: GST and TryBooking fee (2.5%) will be deducted. Admin fee will be waived.

7.10 CPD Event Recordings

  • For a CPD event to be recorded the ECL must notify the Society through the ECL Presenter Agreement Form section B – Consent to Record – before the CPD event day.
  • Profit margin share for sold recordings – ECL receives 25% per standard 1-hour recordings sale after GST is deducted. Eway gateway (cart) fee is waived.

7.11 TryBooking Social Event Listings other than CPD – Contact the Society at cpd@lst.org.au
The Society’s TryBooking portal is available for ECLs to list events that require RSVP and payment. This is managed by the Society. To list an event, please send the following information to cpd@lst.org.au at least 4 weeks before the scheduled event.

  • Event title.
  • A paragraph description of the event – to encourage attendees.
  • Date and time of event.
  • Venue details.
  • Image for marketing plus any sponsorship logos – all must be in JPEG or PNG format at least 400kb (200-400 dpi). Image width for event banner should be landscape and a minimum of 890-pixel width.
  • Capacity – quantity of tickets available.
  • RSVP/close off date.

The Society, by default, collects attendee name, mobile and firm details plus dietary requirements. If there is additional information the ECL needs/wants collected for a particular event, this should be included in the initial information.

For ECL committee records, the social event coordinator (or person coordinating the relevant event) will receive a final list of event registrants soon after the registration portal closes.

7.12 Financial Information (TryBooking Events) – Financial information about CPD and social event are provided on a quarterly basis. The financials take into consideration a number of factors such as RSVP numbers, refunds, ticket changes and access discounts, where applicable.

8. Online Manual for Early Career Lawyers
The Society has published The Ultimate Survival Guide for Early Career Lawyers in hardcopy and available electronically here. If you have any queries about this publication please contact cpd@lst.org.au.

Queries
If an ECL has any queries or concerns regarding any of the above or any aspect of the role as an ECL president (or that of the ECL ), please contact the Executive Director or Deputy Executive Director for an informal chat at any time.

Note – This is an ever-evolving working document – the ECLs are encouraged to submit suggestions, revisions and additions to cpd@lst.org.au.