Erika Abner - Professional development for lawyers- home page

Professional Development Professional development is key to the success of any law firm. Formal programs can be part of a vibrant approach to professional development – providing the “big picture” overview of practice, supporting mastery of a specific skill set, or confirming the firm’s best practices in a specific area. I provide three services to support professional development in law firms: •program planning • mentoring research and workshops • legal writing workshops and coaching. Update September 2011. Dr. Shelley Kierstead of Osgoode Hall Law School and I have been awarded the first Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Research. Our qualitative exploratory research aims to understand how lawyers learn professionalism and civility in the legal workplace. We plan to include a broad range of participants from different practice groups, firm size, and year of call – both in and out of Toronto – in the research. We anticipate findings that include rich descriptions of learning professionalism across a wide spectrum of experiences. November 17, 2011. I will be co-leading (with Dr. Kierstead) two continuing legal education programs at Osgoode Professional Development: a program on legal writing, and a program on mentoring and feedback. Both programs have been certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada towards professionalism credits. Click here for more information.