Presenter/s: Lynn Gaudet B.A., LLB., RCIC
Date: 15 May 2024
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. Includes 3 hours of professionalism/Code of Professional Conduct. Video recording expires 15 May 2025.
- LSBC 3 hours - 3 CPD hours approved. Video recording will expire on 31 December 2024. Attendance to this course will provide you with 45 minutes of ethics and professional responsibility component for your BC Law Society reporting.
- Law Societies of Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Barrister's Society of Nova Scotia
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- For members of these Law Societies, consider including this course as a CPD learning activity in your mandatory annual requirements.
This 5-part series focuses on the RCIC Code of Professional Conduct providing expert guidance for both experienced RCICs and those just starting out. A very practical “how-to” approach is taken in each seminar to help RCICs properly fulfil all their professional duties to clients, as well as their duties to the College. All sessions will focus on common ethical pitfalls with examples, solutions and opportunities for participants to engage in resolving common issues for better practice management and preventing client complaints.
Writing your Service Agreements
Writing proper service agreements is not just a necessity or formality under the Code of Professional Conduct. It is the key to managing client expectations and conducting your practice in a way that best protects yourself and reduces stress in client relationships. This seminar takes a deep dive into the process of writing service agreements under section 24 of the Code from start to finish, with examples of clauses needed and strategies for their proper use. We will reference the new College Guide for Service Agreements which focuses on RCIC obligations necessary under section 24, but will also cover clauses needed for client obligations and enforcement of them – both are necessary for managing client expectations.
TOPICS TO BE COVERED
- The role of the contract in efficient immigration practice
- Key considerations in drafting clauses.
- College guidance on Service Agreements
- Additional terms regarding client obligations.
- Appropriate use of templates
- Pre-conditions to the contract: information, verification
- Samples of essential terms for RCIC obligations
- Samples of essential terms for client obligations
- Reviewing, signing, commencing the service agreement
- Amending the service agreement
- Enforcing the service agreement – options for client non-compliance
College of Citizenship and Immigration - Essential Competency mapping
RCIC
Business Management and Leadership
4.7 Reviews business practices and performance to ensure efficient and quality 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.
Communication, Counselling and Advocacy
8.5 Manages client expectations through effective communications.
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 update the Imm Seminars website. We appreciate your cooperation in these cases.
