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31 July 2015 / Martin Burns
Issue: 7663 / Categories: Features , Training & education , Profession
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Never too old

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Martin Burns underlines the importance of committing to continuous learning & development

Qualifying as a chartered surveyor, or other professional, is only the first step in what, for many, is a lifelong learning process. For anyone who wants to maintain a career in their chosen sphere of professional practice, there needs to be a commitment to continuous learning and development.

Out of date

Just recently I came across a situation which demonstrated just what can go wrong when someone, working in a professional capacity, fails to maintain regular training and development.

A chartered surveyor, who had been acting as an expert witness in an arbitration hearing, had been made to look a fool under cross-examination.

He had been asked by Counsel for the claimant about his fee arrangement with the respondent, ie his instructing party. The surveyor cited the 3rd edition of RICS guidance for expert witnesses, which allowed for fee arrangements based on the relative success achieved by the instructing party.

The problem was the guidance was out of date. Fresh guidance

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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