Presenter/s: Lynn Gaudet B.A., LLB., RCIC
Date: 28 March 2023
Time: 11 am to 2:15 pm Pacific
Location: webinar
Type: webinar and recording
Price: $75.00
CPD approval:
- CICC 3 hours - 3 CPD hours approved, recording valid until 28 March 2024. Includes 3 hours of professionalism/Code of Professional Conduct.
- LSBC 3 hours - 3 CPD hours approved, video recording valid until 31 December 2023 - attendance to this course will provide you with 45 minutes of ethics and professional responsibility component for your BC Law Society reporting.
- For Alberta lawyers, consider including this course as a CPD learning activity in your mandatory annual Continuing Professional Development Plan as required by the Law Society of Alberta.
This series focuses on the new RCIC Code of Professional Conduct and will appeal to both experienced RCICs as well as those starting out. A very practical “how-to” approach is taken to help RCICs fulfil all their professional duties to their clients and to the College. Some seminars span several Code sections to cover a wide-ranging topic like client service; others take a deep dive into one key section such as service agreements. All have a practical focus on common ethical pitfalls with examples, solutions and opportunities for participants to engage in resolving these issues for better practice management and preventing client complaints.
Outline:
Excellent client service involves systems of best practices that become routine. The new Code of Professional Conduct imposes many specific obligations on RCICs, several of which are new, such as communicating with the client at certain stages of the case and providing a written opinion before proceeding on a weak case. This seminar will identify key client service obligations with a focus on the new obligations imposed by the new Code and present strategies for implementing them. All participants are invited to bring a client service issue forward to the seminar for analysis and assistance, time permitting, or send them in advance to the Presenter who will try to work them into the program.
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Client communication requirements: Before, during and upon completion of a file
- Other quality of service obligations under s. 22
- Confidentiality requirements and exceptions
- Requirements for consultations and service agreements
- Identifying, avoiding and managing conflicts of interest
- Possession of original client documents
- Options when not competent at outset or during the process
- Supervision of assistants, record keeping
- Errors and omissions, client complaints – duties before/after a formal complaint
- Termination, ending representation and file transfer
- Fees, advance payments, invoices, client accounts
- Professionalism
- Q & A
College of Citizenship and Immigration - Essential Competency mapping
RCIC
Case Management
2.7 Proficiently uses a customer relationship management system and practice management data base.
2.9 Maintains accurate and current client records and documentation according to regulatory requirements.
2.9.2 Maintains accurate and current client case documents.
Business Management and Leadership
4.7 Reviews business practices and performance to ensure efficient and quality service.
4.7.1 Establishes processes and tools to evaluate the effectiveness of business practices and client service
Professionalism
6.1 Demonstrates and maintains competence in practice
6.1.2 Stays current and complies with legislation, regulation, professional standards, policies and guidelines.
6.2 Demonstrates accountability and integrity in professional behaviors and in practice.
6.2.6 Demonstrates transparent communication with clients and other professionals.
Communication, Counselling and Advocacy
8.5 Manages client expectations through effective communication
Speaker/s:
Lynn Gaudet B.A., LLB. RCIC
Lynn is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) who operated her own business as a sole practitioner in Calgary, AB for 17 years from 2004-2021, is now semi-retired in Nanaimo, BC. Her practice areas spanned a broad spectrum of immigration and refugee applications with a focus on Permanent Resident applications and criminal inadmissibility issues. She also has decades of experience in adult education - teaching, writing and developing instructional materials such as the Immigration Practitioner’s Handbook published annually by Thomson Carswell Ltd. from 2006-2012.
Lynn is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at Queens University teaching in the Graduate Program in Immigration and Citizenship Law [GDipICL]. She has taught the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Course for the Program since its inception and has also served as the Coordinating Instructor with responsibility for the curriculum.
She has a B.A. in Communications from Simon Fraser University and an LL.B. from the University of Victoria. She is a licensee in good standing of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) and a member of the Canadian Bar Association, National Immigration Section.
While speakers and topics are confirmed at the time of publication, sometimes things happen which are beyond the control of ImmSeminars. If that happens substitutions or cancellations to speaker/s and/or topic/s may be necessary. In those cases, ImmSeminars will advise all registrants by email as soon as possible. We will also
