84 Global Opportunity Middle East 2015 | Issue 01 Issue 01 | Global Opportunity Middle East 2015 85global-opportunity.co.uk global-opportunity.co.uk

| Law2020

explained, “When designing our March 2015 course on international joint ventures and acquisitions for Dubai, I began with the need to explore the parties’ commercial objectives, and then factored in the very different perspectives that their lawyers will bring to the deal. Practitioners brought up in a common law environment, such as England or Australia, must understand the different approaches to issues such as duties of good faith or the effect of force majeure events that prevail in civil code jurisdictions. Our sessions are designed to identify and explore those key issues so that practitioners from different starting points are better equipped to work together and to meet their clients’ needs.”

Law2020’s formula for effective international legal training depends on extremely realistic case studies, practical exercises and group discussion. Malcolm Dowden attributes consistently excellent feedback to the immediate practical relevance of those case studies, explaining that, “We cannot be completely immersed in the laws of every jurisdiction, so we spend a lot of time working with experienced local practitioners. We listen, discuss, and then we build local perspectives and advice into our training materials. Whenever possible, we include expert panel sessions so that delegates can hear directly how key elements of our case study would be approached in practice. For Dubai, we have excellent local contacts so the panel sessions really do add value to the training sessions.”

Dubai’s move towards mandatory continuous professional development (CPD) is in line with developments in other key global jurisdictions such as Singapore. The main benefit of mandatory training is that it links entitlement to practice with a requirement to keep up to speed with legal and commercial developments. Properly implemented and rigorously monitored, mandatory CPD provides clients with an assurance of quality and allows law firms to develop a structured approach to the continuous improvement of its lawyers and legal processes.

However, mandatory regimes can all-too easily degenerate into mere tick-box exercises. In England and Wales the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has abandoned accreditation and any mandatory requirement for training hours. From April 2015, instead of mandatory hours, lawyers in England and Wales must determine the learning and development they need to deliver a competent service, and each year sign a statement of competence.

Further informationLaw2020’s two day course on International joint ventures and acquisitions is in Dubai on 25-26 March. For further details, and to claim your 20% discount on the course fees, email training@cdbdubai.com quoting the discount code GLOBALOPP.

Once, formal legal training involved no more than learning the black letter law of a single jurisdiction. Skills such as legal drafting or writing effective advice

were picked up informally, even haphazardly, on the job. Globalisation of clients’ deals and commercial relationships now means that training for General Counsel and private practice lawyers requires a strong international element. It must promote efficiency and control of legal costs, together with a practical appreciation of the provisions required to make obligations meaningful across jurisdictions.

Law2020 specialise in international legal training. As lead training consultants to the Law Society of

l International legal training experts Law2020 return to Dubai on 25 and 26 March 2015 with a two day workshop on International Joint Ventures and Acquisitions. Director of Law Programmes, Michael Twomey said, “It is great to be back after three successful visits in 2014. Later this year, we look forward to returning to Dubai to deliver our improved and updated course on Contract Management.”

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England and Wales, principal course designers and presenters Michael Twomey and Malcolm Dowden have delivered high-quality courses to practising lawyers, government departments and contract managers around the world. In 2013-14 alone, they presented tailored courses in Dubai, Bahrain, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Russia, the UK, Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland, learning valuable lessons along the way.

Exploring key issuesMichael Twomey trained at City of London law firm Slaughter & May and has more than 20 years’ experience of legal training and education. He

Practical trainingWhether practising in a jurisdiction with mandatory CPD requirements or under a ‘light touch’ approach, such as the SRA’s in England and Wales, Law2020’s view is that legal training is most effective when it is driven by the business planning process. Carefully structured and properly focused legal training enables practitioners to provide a more efficient and risk-sensitive service to existing clients, and also to acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills required to extend their professional reach. Practical training can be the key both to efficiency and to winning new work.

Malcolm Dowden explained, “When we design courses for individual firms or companies, or for groups from across the profession, we draw on our own practical experience, which in my case is as consultant to international law firm Charles Russell Speechlys LLP. We work this into our discussions with local specialists to create up to date, realistic and challenging case studies. Our training scenarios closely reflect the work that delegates are likely to have on their desks the following day. Then to achieve ‘just in time’ learning to reinforce the live courses, we offer key elements of the content as brief e-learning modules. At every stage, our priority is to help lawyers to provide the best possible service to their clients.”

MICHAEL TWOMEY

Michael specialises in designing bespoke training sessions and programmes in close liaison with practitioners and know-how professionals. He has 20 years’ experience in delivering corporate

and commercial training courses to most of the leading firms in the UK and beyond.

MALCOLM DOWDEN

Malcolm Dowden is a UK based solicitor, consultant and environmental law expert. He is the author of EG Books’ Climate Change – Law, Policy and Practice (2008).

A frequent commentator on green legal issues, Malcolm has contributed to Carbon Disclosure Project reports on climate change adaptation and to a major London Climate Change Partnership report on ‘green procurement’.

International legal trainingAs commercial relationships become more global, legal training needs to have a strong international element, so high-quality courses based on realistic case studies, practical exercises and group discussion are vital says Michael Twomey and Malcolm Dowden from Law2020