Mandatory Anti-Bullying CPD Helps Sole Practitioner Stop Negative Thoughts

23rd June 2026

ADELAIDE — A solicitor who has worked entirely alone since 1984 has completed his mandatory annual workplace anti-bullying training, a requirement applied to him on the basis that he might one day bully a colleague he does not have. 

Geoffrey Pyle, 67, principal and sole employee of Pyle Legal, attended the one-hour seminar last Tuesday as required to retain his practising certificate. The module, understood to address workplace bullying across all firm sizes, was completed at a cost of $180 and a morning he had set aside for a probate matter. 

The seminar covered identifying a bully, supporting a colleague, and escalating concerns to a manager or HR representative. Pyle, who has no colleagues, no manager, and no HR representative, sat through all three. 

“There’s a part where you’re meant to report it to someone more senior,” Pyle said. “I’m the most senior. I’m also the least senior. I went around the room, and it was just me.” 

By the third role-play scenario, Pyle is understood to have begun examining the only working relationship in his practice. He recalled the voice that tells him he should have returned that call, should have settled that matter in 2019, should have retired before the trust account audits got harder. The facilitator confirmed this voice was, technically, in scope. 

Pyle completed the post-seminar self-assessment and identified himself as the perpetrator, the victim, and the witness. He ticked all three boxes. 

The CPD provider noted completion rates among sole practitioners were strong, though it could not point to any reduction in incidents, “as there were no incidents to begin with.” A senior practitioner added that the profession “had always taken solo wellbeing seriously,” a position no one present could recall ever holding. 

The regulator has rejected suggestions that the module is poorly suited to practitioners who work alone, describing it as “scalable across all firm sizes.” A follow-up module, Building a Respectful Team Culture, will be mandatory next year. 

Pyle has resolved to be kinder to himself. He has not changed his ways. 

This article is a parody. No solicitors were bullied in its making, except internally, and on a billable basis.