What It Solves
You may be recording continuing competence. But are you managing it?
Moving beyond training records towards effective professional-development governance.
Most law firms already have arrangements for continuing professional development.
They may provide training programmes, maintain learning management systems, circulate regulatory guidance and ask solicitors to keep records of their development.
These activities are valuable. But they do not necessarily provide a complete picture of how continuing competence is being managed.
The important questions are not simply whether training has taken place or whether records exist.
They include:
- Have solicitors considered their development needs?
- Are learning activities connected to those needs?
- Has the effectiveness of development been evaluated?
- Are outstanding actions visible to the appropriate people?
- Can the firm identify where support or intervention is required?
- Does management have reliable information about the operation of its continuing competence arrangements?
Unity: Solicitor is designed to help firms answer these questions.
Challenge 1 — Records do not always demonstrate a complete development process
An LMS can show which courses someone has completed. A spreadsheet can record development hours or activities.
Neither necessarily demonstrates that an individual has reflected on their practice, identified relevant needs or evaluated whether their development has been effective.
The Unity: Solicitor approach
Unity: Solicitor supports a structured continuing competence cycle, helping solicitors connect reflection, identified needs, planned activities, learning and evaluation.
This provides a more meaningful record of professional development than a list of activities alone.
Challenge 2 — L&D teams cannot easily see what needs attention
When development records are maintained individually or across multiple systems, L&D teams may have limited visibility of the overall position.
Checking progress can require reminders, emails, spreadsheet reviews and manual follow-up.
This consumes time without necessarily improving development outcomes.
The Unity: Solicitor approach
Management dashboards and exception reporting help identify incomplete requirements and other matters requiring attention.
Authorised users can focus on relevant exceptions rather than reviewing every individual’s record.
Challenge 3 — Follow-up can be difficult to manage consistently
Identifying an outstanding requirement is only the beginning.
Someone must determine whether action is needed, decide who should respond, support the individual where appropriate and establish whether the matter has been resolved.
Without a structured process, actions may be handled inconsistently or become difficult to track.
The Unity: Solicitor approach
Unity: Solicitor supports the identification, assignment, monitoring and resolution of exceptions.
This helps firms maintain a clearer record of the governance actions taken and their outcomes.
Challenge 4 — Organisational oversight can depend on fragmented information
Senior management and those responsible for risk and compliance need appropriate confidence in the firm’s arrangements.
But relevant information may sit across L&D systems, individual records, spreadsheets and informal processes.
Producing a meaningful overview can be difficult.
The Unity: Solicitor approach
Unity: Solicitor provides structured governance information and reporting to help firms understand the operation of their continuing competence arrangements.
It supports more informed management review and provides evidence of the processes and actions undertaken.
Challenge 5 — Better governance should not create more administration
Introducing a new process can create additional work if the firm must configure, monitor and administer everything itself.
For many L&D teams, capacity is already constrained.
The Unity: Solicitor approach
Fresh Managed Services supports implementation and the ongoing operation of agreed governance processes.
The combination of technology and practical administration helps firms improve oversight without transferring every additional task to their internal team.
A more proportionate way to manage continuing competence
Focus attention where it makes a difference.
Most solicitors will manage their development without requiring regular intervention.
The purpose of governance is not to supervise every learning decision or examine every reflection.
It is to establish an appropriate framework, identify matters requiring attention and ensure that those matters can be addressed.
Unity: Solicitor helps firms adopt this management-by-exception approach.
Less time chasing records. More time supporting effective development.
