Solicitors Qualifying Examination

Last updated

The Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) is the main process of qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales as of 2021. In order to be admitted to the roll of solicitors, a candidate must have tertiary education (level 6, not necessarily a degree) in any subject, pass two SQE assessments, complete qualifying work experience (QWE) for two years full-time (or part-time equivalent) and meet the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)'s requirements for character and suitability. [1] [2] It is the solicitors' equivalent of the Bar Professional Training Course.

Contents

The four required elements of the SQE route to qualification do not need to be completed in a prescribed order; for example, QWE can be undertaken before, during or after a candidate sits SQE1 or 2.

While the SQE refers specifically to the two exams which candidates must sit, in practice the term is often also used in reference to the current solicitors' training programme as a whole, including the transition from the traditional Training Contract to Qualifying Work Experience.

History

The Legal Services Board approved the SQE on 28 October 2020, [3] after nine years of consultation on solicitors' training. [4] It came into effect in Autumn 2021, with anyone starting to qualify as a solicitor in 2022 onwards having to take the SQE route. [5] A 10-year transition period to 2031 will allow the completion of qualifications commenced under the previous regime. [6] Candidate that have taken the LPC may be exempt from the SQE1 under transitional arrangements.

Previous routes

Articled clerkship

The historical route to qualification as a solicitor in England & Wales, introduced on 1 December 1730, [7] was articled clerkship. This term is still retained by some common law jurisdictions. Clerkship lasted for 5 years, which in 1843 was reduced to 3 years for some graduates. In 1728 a group of solicitors established the "Society of Gentlemen Practisers in the Courts of Law and Equity", the predecessor of the Law Society of England & Wales; this is the body is responsible for solicitor training in the jurisdiction. In 1877, the Law Society began administering a series of exams in order to allow admittance into the profession. The term and requirements of clerkship continued to evolve during the 20th century.

Qualifications immediately prior to the SQE

Established in 1993 to replace the Law Society's Final Examination (LSF), the LPC was one of four routes to qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales: for candidates with a law degree (Legal Practice Course), for those with a different degree (Common Professional Examination), for those qualifying in a different country (Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme), and for qualified legal executives. [8] The process is now simpler: any candidate with any background must undertake the SQE. [9] [10]

SQE1 & SQE2

SQE1

The SQE1 consists of two functioning legal knowledge (FLK) assessments, of 180 multiple-choice questions. Candidates must apply their knowledge of the law, the fundamental legal principles and rules, to demonstrate the competences required to the level of a newly qualified solicitor of England and Wales. [11]

  • Ethics
  • Business Law and Practice (including Tax)
  • Dispute Resolution
  • Contract Law
  • Tort Law
  • Constitutional and Administrative Law, and EU Law, and Legal Services
  • Ethics
  • Land Law
  • Property Practice (including Tax)
  • Wills and the Administration of Estates (including Tax)
  • Trust Law
  • Criminal Law and Practice
  • Solicitors' Accounts

SQE2

The SQE2 assessment is divided into two parts, although there is one pass mark for the assessment as a whole: [12]

Oral

The client interviewing skills and completion of an attendance note and advocacy skills are tested through four oral exams that take place over two half days.

  • Day 1: Advocacy (Dispute Resolution); interview and attendance note/legal analysis (Property Practice)
  • Day 2: Advocacy (Criminal Litigation); interview and attendance note/legal analysis (Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice)

Written

Legal research, legal writing, legal drafting and case and matter analysis are tested in the five areas of law taking place over three half days.

  • Day 1: Dispute Resolution and Criminal Litigation
  • Day 2: Property Practice and Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice
  • Day 3: Business Organisations, Rules and Procedures

SQE pass rates

The SRA has released a report detailing pass rates following reach sitting of the SQE1 and 2. As of January 2024 the pass rates are:

Cost of examinations

The cost of the SQE exams have increased in line with inflation. From September 2024, the cost of the exams are:

Student must pay full price to re-sit.

Qualifying Work Experience (QWE)

All candidates who wish to qualify through the SQE route must complete two years' full-time (or equivalent) qualifying work experience (QWE). QWE is intended to take the place of the Training contract under the old regime.

In larger firms, it is common for QWE to be structured similarly to training contracts under the old system, with a structured rotation among departments. However, this is not a requirement of QWE. A candidate is required to develop at least two of the SRA's solicitors competences [16] [17] while providing legal services per the Legal Services Act 2007 (s.12). [18] QWE must be registered with the SRA and signed-off by a solicitor.

QWE is intended to be flexible: [19] candidates may undertake QWE in up to four different organizations; it does not have to be in England & Wales; [20] it can be paid or voluntary; and it could be spent:

Foreign Qualified Lawyers

The SQE replaced the previous route to qualification for foreign qualified lawyers, the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTS). Under the SQE regime, foreign qualified lawyers may be exempt from QWE and the SQE2. [21]

Criticism

Following consultations, [22] the SQE was introduced by the SRA to simplify the qualification process in England & Wales and reduce the financial burden upon students. [23] The following are the main criticisms of the SQE:

See also

Related Research Articles

A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to practise there as such. For example, in England and Wales a solicitor is admitted to practise under the provisions of the Solicitors Act 1974. With some exceptions, practising solicitors must possess a practising certificate. There are many more solicitors than barristers in England; they undertake the general aspects of giving legal advice and conducting legal proceedings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal education</span> Education in topics related to law

Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular jurisdiction, to provide a greater breadth of knowledge to those working in other professions such as politics or business, to provide current lawyers with advanced training or greater specialisation, or to update lawyers on recent developments in the law.

The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to the bar". "The bar" is now used as a collective noun for barristers, but literally referred to the wooden barrier in old courtrooms, which separated the often crowded public area at the rear from the space near the judges reserved for those having business with the court. Barristers would sit or stand immediately behind it, facing the judge, and could use it as a table for their briefs.

A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.

The Postgraduate Certificate in Laws is an intensive one-year, full-time professional legal qualification programme in Hong Kong. It allows graduates to proceed to legal training in order to qualify to practice as either a barrister or a solicitor in Hong Kong. The "LL." of the abbreviation for the certificate is from the genitive plural legum. The programme is similar to the Legal Practice Course or the Bar Professional Training Course in England and Wales, or the Certificate in Legal Practice (Malaysia) in Malaysia which focuses heavily on practical and procedural issues in legal practice, unlike a first degree in law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common Professional Examination</span>

The Common Professional Examination/Postgraduate Diploma in Law (CPE/PGDL) is a postgraduate law course in England and Wales taken by non-law graduates wishing to become either a solicitor or barrister in England and Wales. It is being replaced by the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) which was introduced on 1 September 2021.

The Legal Practice Course (LPC) – also known as the Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice – is a postgraduate course and the final educational stage for becoming a solicitor in England, Wales and Australia. The course is designed to provide a bridge between academic study and training in a law firm. It is a one-year, full-time course, and tuition fees range from £8,000-£17,300 a year. A small proportion of students may have their fees and some living expenses paid for by future employers under a training contract.

Legal executives are a kind of trained legal professional in certain jurisdictions. They often specialise in a particular area of law. A legal executive usually receives both vocational training and academic training.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trainee solicitor</span>

In the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland, and certain other English common law jurisdictions, a trainee solicitor is a prospective lawyer undergoing professional training at a law firm or an in-house legal team to qualify as a full-fledged solicitor. This period of training is known as a training contract and usually lasts for two years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Applications Board</span>

The Central Applications Board provides a single point of application for those wishing to undertake the Common Professional Examination/Graduate Diploma in Law, Legal Practice Course and courses preparing candidates for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) in England and Wales. Applicants are allowed to select up to three institutions based on order of preference. Once an application has been received it is then sent to the prospective institutions who judge each student by their own criteria and respond individually.

The Graduate Diploma in Law/Postgraduate Diploma in Law/Common Professional Examination (GDL/PGDL/CPE) is a postgraduate law course in England and Wales that is taken by non-law graduates wishing to become either a solicitor or barrister in England and Wales. The course allows non-law students to convert to law after university ; it is commonly known as a "law conversion course". Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the course is designed as an intense programme covering roughly the same content as a law degree LL.B (Hons) and the main goal is to allow people with a greater variety of educational backgrounds into the legal profession.

Legal education in the United Kingdom is divided between the common law system of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and that of Scotland, which uses a hybrid of common law and civil law.

An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are distinct practising certificates.

A training contract is a compulsory period of practical training in a law firm for law graduates before they can qualify as a solicitor in the United Kingdom (UK), the Republic of Ireland, Australia or Hong Kong, or as an advocate and solicitor in Singapore. During the training period, the participant is known as a trainee solicitor or trainee lawyer. Since 2021 this has been replaced by Qualifying Work Experience in the UK.

BPP University Law School is a private, for-profit provider of professional and academic legal education in the United Kingdom and one of the founding schools of BPP University.

Legal education in Hong Kong generally refers to the education of lawyers before entry into practice.

BPP University is a private university in the United Kingdom.

The Legal profession in England and Wales is divided into two distinct branches under the legal system, those of solicitors and barristers. Other legal professions in England and Wales include acting as a judge, as the Attorney-General, as the Solicitor-General, or as the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) is a series of two examinations for the license to practice as a solicitor in England and Wales designed for foreign-licensed lawyers. The QLTS supplanted the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTT) on 1 September 2010. The QLTS assessment was designed to increase the number of recognised foreign jurisdictions for the examinations. These changes have opened up the English legal market to qualified lawyers from places as diverse as Korea, Japan and Russia.

Legal education in England is the practice of teaching and learning English Law, whether to become a practicing lawyer or as an academic pursuit. Legal education has undergone significant changes over the last two thousand years, transforming from an exclusively apprenticeship-based process to one split across secondary education, the university, and the profession. Currently, university law degrees are regulated by the legal profession, which controls the core subjects a law degree must contain before graduates can pursue further professional qualification.

References

  1. ↑ "Solicitor | Explore careers | National Careers Service". preview-staging.nationalcareers.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  2. ↑ "Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) route". www.sra.org.uk. 2020-05-18. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  3. ↑ "Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE)". www.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  4. ↑ "Green light for new solicitor exam". www.sra.org.uk. 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  5. ↑ "The SQE Explained". The University of Law. 2022.
  6. ↑ "Becoming a partner". www.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  7. ↑ "History of the Solicitors' Training Contract". English Legal History. 2014-02-10. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  8. ↑ "Education and Training: A report on authorisation and monitoring activity for the period 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014". Solicitors Regulatory Authority. 22 May 2015.
  9. ↑ "Qualifying from abroad to work in England and Wales". www.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  10. ↑ "Apprenticeships". www.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  11. ↑ "SQE1 Assessment specification | SQE | Solicitors Regulation Authority". SQEWebsite. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  12. ↑ "SQE2 assessment specification | SQE | Solicitors Regulation Authority". SQEWebsite. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  13. ↑ "SQE 1 pass rate".
  14. ↑ "SQE 2 pass rate". 20 February 2024.
  15. ↑ "Costs and fees".
  16. ↑ "Statement of solicitor competence". www.sra.org.uk. 2022-08-09. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  17. ↑ "Qualifying work experience". www.sra.org.uk. 2024-01-26. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  18. ↑ "Legal Services Act".
  19. ↑ "What's the difference between training contracts and qualifying work experience?".
  20. ↑ "Qualifying work experience (QWE)". www.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  21. ↑ "SQE exemptions". 13 June 2024.
  22. ↑ "Background to the SQE". www.sra.org.uk. 2019-04-25. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  23. ↑ "Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE)". www.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  24. ↑ "ULaw fees".
  25. ↑ "SQE results fiasco: £250 'goodwill payment' on its way".
  26. ↑ "Exam chaos: Kaplan issues apology after 175 students wrongly told they'd failed SQE". 15 April 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.