Bar Association office, library, CPDs, conferences and events

16/03/2020

COVID-19

In order to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the following arrangements have been adopted at the New South Wales Bar Association’s premises from today.

Access to New South Wales Bar Association office and library

Members are advised that any non-essential visits to the Bar Association’s premises should be postponed until further notice. Members are requested to consider whether their needs can be met by phone or email.

Please do not visit the premises if you have any of the following symptoms:

• fever
• cough
• sore throat
• shortness of breath.

If you have:

• travelled to (including through) another country in the last 14 days; or
• had close contact with someone diagnosed with or suspected of having coronavirus in the last 14 days

please self-isolate and do not visit the office. In these circumstances, if you need to contact BarAssociation staff, please call (02) 9232 4055 or email reception@nswbar.asn.au and we will be able to assist you. If you need assistance from the library, please call (02) 9233 4025 or email libref@nswbar.asn.au and we will assist you.

If you do not have the above symptoms and do need to attend the premises in person, please make use of the hand sanitisers provided.

In light of the growing concerns around COVID-19, the Bar Association would like to update you on the measures and precautions we are taking for upcoming events.

New South Wales Bar Association CPDs and conferences

After careful thought and deliberation of our duty in the face of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, and in what we believe is in the best interests of our members, staff and the wider community, the Bar Association has made the difficult decision to cancel all group gatherings, including all CPDs, conferences and events, effective immediately.

There will be no access to the common room for CPD sessions including tonight and until further notice. The association's Professional Development Department will endeavour to proceed with our current CPD program as an online offering only. The department will work with the presenters to record as many presentations as possible and put these up online with the papers.

The cancellation will also affect the two upcoming CPD conferences, Sydney on Saturday 21 March and Parramatta on Saturday 28 March. We will provide a full refund to all registered attendees. We appreciate your patience as we work hard to process all refunds in a timely and efficient manner.

We are aware that COVID-19 may affect the ability of some practitioners to satisfy their continuing professional development (CPD) obligations for the CPD year ending 31 March 2020.

We note there is no limit to the number of points a barrister practising in New South Wales, can earn via video streaming and private study of audio visual material. Bar Association members are encouraged to access the association's online streaming service, CPD Online. CPD Online provides access to all the latest Bar Association seminars, along with any papers provided by presenters: https://cpd-streaming.nswbar.asn.au/login.

If you have misplaced your CPD Online login and password details you are able to reset your details by clicking on 'member sign in' which appears in the top right-hand corner of the screen on our homepage. You then click on 'unknown password or username', this will then prompt you to add your surname and date of birth. This will trigger an email to be sent to you with your new details. The email will be sent to the registered email address on our records.

In addition, in recent months, the Association has taken steps to expand the definition and provide clarity on CPD Activity. For further information please refer to the Legal Profession Uniform Continuing Professional Development (Barristers) Rules 2015, in particular rules 6 & 6A.

The information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic is changing rapidly, and we are doing our best to remain as responsive as we can to meet the requirements of our members. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this uncertain time.

Members will be kept up to date with further developments via In Brief and the Member Dashboard.

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