Membership

Guidelines for Membership

Application

City Professional Development Groups

Guidelines for Membership

Mission Statement

The Professional Development Consortium (PDC) was established in August 1990 to meet the needs of individuals working in-house at law firms, government agencies and corporations who are charged with the responsibility of developing and administering training and continuing professional development for lawyers.
The goals of the PDC are:

1. To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and the development of programs, materials and resources that will help PDC members provide high quality training and professional development programs within their organizations;
2. To assist in the ongoing professional development of its members;
3. To provide guidance for implementation of in-house professional development programs;
4. To provide leadership and direction in the legal community on behalf of in-house professional development;
5. To provide a voice for the PDC membership and its goals;
6. To guide outside providers to ensure the development of training materials useful to in-house training and education.

Membership Information

The following individuals are eligible for membership in the  PDC:

• Law firm, government, and in-house professionals devoting the majority of their time to developing and managing various professional development functions, including the following responsibilities and activities: 

• Curriculum design, orientation programming, lateral integration, workflow management and utilization processes, performance management processes, mentoring and coaching, strategic talent management and development, career development planning, career path design, CLE, retention strategies and programs, outplacement management, leadership development and succession planning, secondment management, knowledge management, and other programming or activities that support lawyer education, development, and advancement

• Law school professionals devoting the majority of their time to developing the professional and practice-oriented skills of future lawyers (e.g., through externships, career development, “bridge the gap” programs, curriculum reform and other similar programs as defined by the membership committee).  This does not include general career placement professionals.

• Practicing attorneys and C-level officers (e.g., Partners in charge of Professional Development, Chief Talent Officers, Chief Human Resources Officers, Chief Learning Officers, and the like) who have oversight of and devote a significant amount of their time to attorneys’ professional development.

• Former core members who leave or have left their qualifying role or position, do not take on another role or position that would qualify them for core membership, do not work as a consultant or vendor to law firms, and who wish to remain connected with the professional development community.  These alumni will not be permitted to vote or serve on the Board of Directors.

Membership is associated with the individual member and not with the member's firm. The only exceptions to this rule are the ABA Center for CLE, the Practising Law Institute, ALI-ABA and its affiliate AILTO, where membership is associated with the organization and not the individual member. Except as noted above, members may attend meetings, vote, nominate officers and members of the Board, and serve as an officer or member of the Board.

Effective March 2007, individuals who derive their primary source of income from a consulting practice will not be eligible for membership. 

PDC members who leave their positions to become a consultant or other non-PDC-eligible positions are not eligible to retain their PDC membership.

Membership Dues

Membership dues are the following:

• Core members:  $200
• Members employed by the government:  $75
• Alumni: $100
• For private law firms with four or more members, the fourth and additional members will carry a $50 per member annual fee

Membership dues are collected annually and due by May 15th of each year, payable by check or online by credit card.  Any member who has not paid dues by June 1st will be removed from both website access and the listserve.

Application for Membership

Membership applications will be reviewed by the PDC Membership Committee which is comprised of two Board members and one member at large. The PDC Membership Committee receives, reviews, and makes membership recommendations to the PDC Board. The PDC Board makes all final decisions regarding membership applications.

Prospective new members are asked to complete a new member form describing their training and development responsibilities within their organization (attached). Membership applications are reviewed at specific times during the year and the timing of these review cycles is as follows:

* Review Cycle 2 and 4 are intended to precede the semi-annual conferences, which are typically held in the January/February and July/August timeframes. Cycle 2 and 4 application review dates may change depending on timing of conferences. Applications received after the application deadlines specified above will be held for the next application review cycle.

Participation in PDC Meetings

As noted above, participation in PDC conferences is open to all members. If a member is not able to attend a PDC conference, the member may not have a non-member firm representative attend the meeting in his or her stead.