Continuing Professional development (CPD) for Ontario lawyers is no longer a once-a-year scramble to “get hours in.” It has become a year-round risk-management and competency exercise shaped by regulation, accelerating legal change, and rising client expectations. The core requirement is familiar, but the way lawyers meet it and what high-quality CPD needs to cover have shifted meaningfully in the last few years.
In his campaign for Chair of Continuing Professional Development with the Ontario Bar Association (OBA), David Milosevic (founding partner of Milosevic & Associates) is committed to advancing a thoughtful, forward-looking approach to professional development. His vision is rooted in ensuring that OBA programming is not only accessible and innovative but strategically designed to help members navigate emerging risks, technological change, evolving client expectations, and the growing complexity of practice.
Voting for the OBA Board Elections will take place from February 27 to March 5, 2026 (noon).
The Regulatory Baseline: What Ontario Lawyers Must Complete
Ontario’s mandatory continuing professional development framework is set by the Law Society of Ontario (LSO). Most licensees are required to complete at least 12 hours of eligible educational activities each calendar year, including a minimum of 3 Professionalism Hours and up to 9 Substantive Hours.
A key feature of Ontario’s framework is the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) requirement: of the Professionalism Hours, at least 1 hour each year must address EDI and must be accredited as such.
There are also important compliance mechanics. CPD is completed by December 31 each year and reported through LSO Connects by March 31 of the following year (for example, 2026 CPD is completed by December 31, 2026 and reported by March 31, 2027).
This structure matters because it drives behaviour. When lawyers view CPD as a compliance checkbox, they often default to whatever is cheapest, quickest, and easiest to access. When CPD is approached as a competency plan, lawyers are more likely to invest in programming that improves files, reduces practice risk, and supports career sustainability.
What “Counts” Is Broader Than Many Lawyers Assume
One reason Ontario’s CPD market is diverse is that the LSO recognizes a range of eligible learning activities beyond traditional classroom-style CPD.
For example, mentoring can qualify (including up to the full 12 hours in a year in some instances), with guardrails around what is eligible and how Professionalism Hours apply. Teaching can also count, with the LSO setting conversion formulas in its accredited provider framework.
This flexibility is positive, but it also creates a quality challenge: not all “eligible” learning is equally effective. The future of Ontario legal CPD is likely to rely more on outcomes (i.e., what lawyers can actually do better after the program) rather than simply how many hours were logged.
Delivery Has Shifted: On-Demand Is Now Core Infrastructure
The most significant operational change in Ontario CPD is the format. While in-person programming still matters, especially for relationship-building and practice-community cohesion, virtual and on-demand options have become foundational to how many lawyers maintain competence across a full calendar year.
The OBA’s own CPD ecosystem reflects this shift, emphasizing on-demand learning that lawyers can access “anytime, anywhere,” aligned with busy practice schedules.
This change has real implications:
- It improves access for lawyers outside major urban centres and for those balancing heavy file loads or caregiving responsibilities.
- It allows lawyers to respond quickly to legal developments (such as new cases, regulatory guidance, and procedural changes).
- It increases the “signal-to-noise” risk because an abundance of content does not automatically mean high-quality, practice-relevant training.
In other words, the market now rewards convenience, but the profession still needs CPD that builds judgment, not just awareness.
What Lawyers Are Asking For: The Content Trends Shaping Ontario CPD
Ontario lawyers are still buying substantive updates, but the most noticeable growth areas are “practice-adjacent” competencies: the skills that determine whether a file is handled competently, efficiently, and ethically in modern conditions.
1. Professionalism as lived practice, not abstract ethics
Ontario’s 3 Professionalism Hours (including the EDI component) ensure that ethics, professional responsibility, and practice management remain part of annual learning. The practical direction of this content is increasingly important: lawyers want scenario-based learning on conflicts, confidentiality, supervision, client capacity, civility, and professional boundaries—especially under time pressure and in contentious settings.
2. EDI as a competence issue, not a standalone topic
The EDI hour requirement is not simply a values statement—it is a recognition that inequity and bias can become professional risk: in hiring and supervision, client communication, negotiation, courtroom dynamics, and service delivery. The quality question is whether EDI programming is integrated into the realities of practice (and not reduced to generic training that lawyers “sit through” once a year).
3. Technology risk, privacy, and the lawyer’s duty of competence
Ontario lawyers increasingly need CPD that treats technology as a practice system with legal consequences. The LSO itself offers CPD programming focused on using technology effectively and managing technology risks.
This category has expanded quickly due to:
- Remote practice and virtual litigation infrastructure;
- Cybersecurity threats and vendor risk;
- Client expectations about efficiency and responsiveness; and
- Widespread use of AI-enabled tools (even when firms do not formally “adopt AI,” individual users often do).
The practical CPD demand here is not “what is AI?”, but instead governance: confidentiality, competence, reliability, supervision, and defensible workflows.
4. Reconciliation and cultural competency expectations
Across Canada, professional regulation and legal institutions continue to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, including Call to Action #27, which calls for ensuring lawyers receive appropriate cultural competency training (including history and legacy of residential schools, UNDRIP, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations, plus skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism).
Even where particular requirements differ by jurisdiction, Ontario lawyers increasingly expect CPD providers to offer credible, well-designed programming in this area, delivered with seriousness and specificity over symbolism.
The Access and Equity Problem: Time, Cost, and Practice Realities
Ontario has a vibrant CPD marketplace (OBA, CBA, specialty associations, vendors, and private providers), but “access” is not just whether a webinar exists.
The real constraints are:
- Time scarcity: Many lawyers can attend CPD only outside billable hours, creating a permanent tension between learning and workload.
- Cost sensitivity: Especially for sole practitioners, small firms, legal aid environments, and new calls.
- Relevance gaps: Lawyers will disengage if programming feels disconnected from the files they actually run.
This is where OBA leadership can matter. CPD can be positioned not only as compliance support, but as member-facing infrastructure that improves day-to-day practice outcomes.
Where This Leaves Ontario CPD in 2026
Ontario legal CPD is at a pivot point. The required framework is stable—12 hours, including Professionalism and an EDI component, completed annually and reported after year-end. But the profession is experiencing fast-moving change in how law is practiced, how clients evaluate value, and how risk materializes (particularly through technology and information handling).
Three expectations will likely define the next “era” of Ontario CPD:
- Accessibility without dilution (on-demand convenience paired with strong instructional design),
- Practice realism (training that mirrors actual file pressures and professional judgment calls), and
- Competence as culture (CPD that supports ethical, inclusive, technologically literate practice as the norm, not the exception).
Leadership That Elevates Professional Development
As the profession continues to evolve, professional development cannot remain static. It must be responsive, practical, accessible, and aligned with the real-world pressures Ontario lawyers face every day. High-quality CPD is not just about regulatory compliance; it is about protecting the public, strengthening competence, and supporting lawyers at every stage of their careers.
If elected as Chair of Continuing Professional Development within the Ontario Bar Association, David Milosevic will prioritize meaningful CPD reform and member-focused programming. He aims to reinforce the OBA’s role as the leading voice for practical excellence in Ontario’s legal profession, equipping lawyers not just to meet requirements but to thrive in modern practice.
Voting for this year’s OBA board elections takes place between February 27 and March 5, 2026 (ballots close at noon). David Milosevic can be contacted to discuss his platform at (416) 916-1387 or via email at dm@mlflitigation.com.