Law Society Skillnet’s new planning course

A new online course on planning and environmental law is among the spring courses being offered by Law Society Skillnet. 

The Planning and Environmental Law Masterclass 2025 is aimed at practitioners acting in both residential and commercial transactions, and is worth ten general CPD hours by e-learning.    

Pre-recorded lectures will be released on the online learning platform Moodle, and three live Zoom workshops will take place: 

• Tuesday 18 March (10am to 12.30pm),
• Tuesday 25 March (10am to 12.30pm), and
• Tuesday 1 April (10am to 11.30am).

Topics and speakers 

The format includes a workshop element in each module to gain a practical and applied understanding of this area of the conveyancing process. 

The topics covered reflect the planning and environmental issues arising for conveyancers, in addition to an overview of the planning application and appeal process. 

The Planning and Development Act 2024 will be covered in the course content. 

The speakers, in order of appearance, are: 

• Denise Healy (Kearney Roche & McGuinn Solicitors),
• Finola McCarthy (partner, RDJ),
• Brendan Slattery (partner, McCann FitzGerald),
• Alan Roberts (partner, A&L Goodbody),
• Prof Yvonne Scannell (consultant, Arthur Cox), and
• Jeanie Kelly (senior associate, Arthur Cox). 

Complex property deals 

A Commercial and Complex Property Law Transactions Masterclass, aimed at practitioners acting in all property transactions, will run from 25 February to 1 April. 

There are 13 general hours of CPD by e-learning and five general hours by group study available from this course. 

The first module is focused on complex property transactions and the second module on commercial-property transactions. 

Working towards LSES 

A Diploma in Legal Practice Management runs from 19 March to December and offers the full requirement of CPD hours for 2025. 

Its aim is to equip participants with the practical knowledge and skills needed to gain a deeper understanding of the establishment and operational management of a legal firm in Ireland from a business, human resources, and financial-management perspective. 

There will be a particular focus on working towards the achievement of approved practice and risk-management standards such as the Legal Services Excellence Standard (LSES) offered by the Law Society and assessed by the National Standards Authority of Ireland.