Lawscot Trainee CPD

This comprehensive programme ensures you meet all regulatory requirements with a structured curriculum covering all PEAT 2 competencies such as professionalism, ethics, communication, and business awareness. It provides premium training tailored to the demands of modern legal practice.

Our TCPD programme equips you for the evolving legal landscape with forward-thinking modules on legal technology, AI, trauma awareness, commerciality, and using plain English to communicate effectively with clients. Our programme empowers you with the skills needed to thrive in the future of law.

Designed and taught by experienced solicitors, our TCPD program maintains the highest professional standards. Delivered live online, it fosters active discussion and gives you direct access to a network of legal professionals.

This module will introduce you to the legal profession, encouraging you to develop your judgement, build and maintain professional relationships, reflect upon and evaluate your performance and identify areas for further development.

• Training day (6 hours)
• Independent learning (4 hours)

Excelling as a solicitor doesn’t just require a firm grasp of the law – you will also need to be adept at building productive working relationships, organising your workload and developing your commercial sense and risk awareness. These skills aren’t easily picked up in the lecture theatre or by reading a textbook: most of them will be improved through your day-to-day work. This module will be a valuable companion throughout your first few months in the legal profession. You will be encouraged to reflect on your strengths and areas for development, to set achievable goals and to reflect upon your successes and failures.

Taking the form of a training day ending in a debate around ethics, this module will fulfil the mandatory professional ethics and standards PEAT 2 outcomes. You will gain insight into issues that can arise from client confidentiality, conflict of interest and anti-money laundering obligations.

• Pre-reading (1 hour)
• Professional ethics training day (7 hours)
• Reflective essay (2 hours)

It is imperative that solicitors maintain the highest ethical standards, and as such professional ethics is a mandatory component of trainee CPD. This course will focus on key aspects that are applicable and relevant to all legal professionals, including client confidentiality, conflicts of interest and anti-money laundering. This module will be centred around preparing for and participating in an ethics debate, engaging the trainee in a task requiring critical thinking and practical application of professional ethics. The ethics module must be taken between the 9th and 24th months of your traineeship.

This module will cover communication with clients and other solicitors. In a series of trainer lead sessions and practical role-play exercises, you will be given the opportunity to conduct client-solicitor interviews and participate in negotiations.
• Preparation: case study familiarisation (1.5 hours)
• Training day (7 hours)
• Independent work: write client letter and reflective essay (1.5 hours)

Learning to communicate effectively with clients and solicitors is a key part of your development. This module is intended to to hone your skills in this area, including conducting negotiations with other solicitors and interviewing clients.

This module will focus on developing your commercial knowledge and ability to lead and manage. In a series of instructor-led sessions and practical exercises which place you in a management role at a law firm, you will be confronted by dilemmas that will test your judgement and risk awareness.

• Preparation: case study familiarisation (1.5 hours)
• Training day (7 hours)
• Independent work: responding to client letter of complaint and reflective write-up (1.5 hours)

Whether you work in-house or private practice, it is important to be attuned to the commercial realities of your organisation. Accordingly, this module will focus on developing your understanding of the internal and external business contexts of your work. Relevant issues such as time management, risk, and regulatory and fiscal frameworks will also be addressed.

O Shaped has a strong reputation for helping legal professionals to achieve their potential and bring about positive changes in client relationships through the development of human and business skills. An O Shaped lawyer is well-rounded, an expert not only in the law, but also people centered, emotionally intelligent, focused on growth (both personally and professionally), and adaptable to change. All of these skills are essential for modern-day lawyers to generate value for their clients and colleagues.

This module will develop your understanding of the mindset, attributes and skills of an O Shaped Legal Professional, and their potential for both your personal development, and interactions with colleagues and clients. This will be achieved through a series of trainer-led sessions and practical activities. These will enable you to reflect on your current mindset, skills and attributes, and evaluate how they can best be developed to achieve your personal and business goals.

The O Shaped mindset which will be explored in this module is shaped by five Os: Open, Original, Opportunity, Ownership, and Optimism. Related to this mindset, are the 12 O Shaped Attributes, which were developed from interviews with in-house leaders in the UK. These attributes are qualities which these leaders look for in solicitors, and include attributes relating to building relationships with stakeholders and clients, creating value for colleagues and clients, and being adaptable to the ever-changing landscape of the legal profession.

This module supports the achievement of several PEAT2 outcomes over the course of the day, including professionalism and professional communication. It counts for 10 hours of authorised TCPD, and is broken down as follows:

• Preparation: familiarisation materials (1 hour)
• Training day (7 hours)
• Independent work: developing a target case study and development plan for application of O Shaped attributes (2 hours)

Plain English enables you to get your meaning across clearly and concisely to your audience, with the necessary impact and the most suitable ‘tone of voice’. Whether you are writing conventional letters, reports or proposals, or using electronic media, the principles are the same. Plain English will enable you to convey the same message using fewer words, which enables the reader to grasp your message faster and, incidentally, uses less paper or electronic storage space.

By the end of the workshop, delegates will:

• Be able to write in a Plain English style in all documents
• Express ideas more clearly, concisely and interestingly to the reader
• Organise and structure information more effectively
• Be more aware of their writing style
• Learn some techniques on time management and personal effectiveness
• Overall, feel more confident about their ability to project a professional image of themselves and their organisation through their writing style.

The hours for this module are:

• Training day (3 hours)
• Independent work following training day (2 hours)

Trainees on this course will gain a theoretical and practical understanding of trauma and how it impacts behaviour in ourselves and other people, including tools and strategies to help.

Course aims:

• Develop an awareness of the perceived threats and risks a person may associate with authority figures
• Explore recent case study examples where a trauma-informed approach has been applied successfully
• Understand triggers and how to prevent/repair relational rupture in helping role
• Learn tools and practices to effectively relate and respond to those dealing with trauma
• Learn about vicarious resilience, understanding the dynamic of post traumatic growth 

Trainees will also have complimentary access (up to a total of 20 hours) to our live conferences and seminars and on-demand CPD (excluding certification and essential skills courses), allowing you to make up the remaining 20 hours of unauthorised TCPD.

Our 2025 modules are available to book now. Modules 1 and 2 are going to be offered as half days, with trainees required to register for two half day sessions for each module. Modules 3, 4 and 5 will continue to be offered as full days.

*These modules are now full

Our 2026 modules are currently being confirmed. Modules 1 to 5 are available to book now.

Modules 1 & 2 will revert to being full training days from 9.30am to 4.30pm for 2026.

Dates in bold will be held in-person at the Law Society of Scotland's offices in Edinburgh.