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BPP University Law School is looking to recruit five ‘qualifying work experience trainees’ to work within its busy pro bono centre.

QWE trainees will undertake paid legal work in either consumer, enterprise, family, housing or welfare rights, under the supervision of qualified solicitors. They will be based in either Birmingham, Leeds, London (Holborn) or Manchester but will be expected to travel to other BPP centres from time to time.

The pro bono roles are six months (a quarter of the 24 months QWE needed to qualify as solicitor in England and Wales) and come with a salary of £24,500 in London and £22,400 elsewhere, according to the job listing.

To be eligible to apply, you will need to be a current or former BPP student, passed either SQE1 or the Legal Practice Course and possess volunteer experience in the pro bono sector. Applications close on 30 June.

The new opportunity comes after Legal Cheek revealed last summer BPP was set to offer QWE placements for the first time — a move made possible thanks to a series of changes brought in following the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). Among these tweaks is the option for aspiring lawyers to circumvent the training contract process and complete two years QWE with up to four different “employers” — including, in this case, a pro bono clinic.

To be ‘qualifying’, the experience must be grounded in legal work and allow an individual to develop at least two of the regulator’s prescribed competencies for solicitors.

The vast majority of law schools offer similar pro bono opportunities, with The University of Law and Nottingham Law School (NLS) among the first to do so back in 2015. NLS, like BPP, offers full-time paid placements through its legal advice clinic.

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In this article, we speak to Emma Blackstone, Joint Head of Pro Bono at BPP University Law School, to find out the benefits for students of undertaking free legal work.

Blackstone co-runs the university’s Pro Bono Centre and talks about some of its interesting projects, the skills student volunteers gain from taking part in such endeavours and how the SQE and changes to QWE “raise the profile” of pro bono work, more of which she’ll discuss at tomorrow’s event.

Could you tell us about the Pro Bono Centre at BPP and its mission? How did you continue to provide services in the wake of the pandemic?

The BPP Pro Bono Centre delivers pro bono and volunteering opportunities that make a difference to people in need of advice across the country, as well as supporting the personal and professional development of our students and learners.

The Pro Bono Centre has three key aims:

1. To deliver legal and other professional services that directly support individuals and communities who cannot access paid-for legal advice or education services,
2. To provide practical opportunities and experiences that ensure BPP students and learners possess the skills that are in demand,
3. To deliver programmes and facilitate pathways for individuals from diverse and/or lower socio-economic backgrounds to access professional careers.

The pandemic fundamentally changed the way in which BPP now delivers pro bono services, for the better. Within weeks of lockdown, our key services moved to online delivery. Service disruption was minimal and client demand, as well as volunteer engagement, soared. At the peak of the pandemic in 2021, BPP had nearly 3,000 students registered with the Pro Bono Centre, a 42.9% increase in volunteer engagement on the previous year.

That’s impressive. Is there a pro bono project BPP is particularly proud to be involved in?

BPP is incredibly proud of the impact that our student and professional volunteers make across the country, year after year. It is impossible to single out a particular project, but what I am most proud of is the reach of what we do.

In the last academic year, 477 student volunteers supported our Legal Advice Clinics, which handled 2,302 client enquiries. Our public legal education project, Streetlaw, was supported by 239 student volunteers, who delivered 195 hours of public legal education to 4,700 members of the public, across the UK. These are just two of more than 20 projects delivered by the BPP Pro Bono Centre. In total, last year, our volunteers undertook more than 4,000 hours of pro bono work. That’s something that makes me incredibly proud.

It’s great to hear about their collective impact. What are some of the benefits to students undertaking pro bono work?

Pro bono helps students to develop the skills employers want. Our volunteers learn how to communicate effectively, how to manage a case or project, how to work as a team and to handle clients with professionalism. Working alongside practitioners, pro bono work also provides an opportunity for students to grow their professional network and gain a real insight into life in practice.

What I enjoy most in my role is seeing how much pro bono work increases a student’s confidence. Year on year we see our volunteers thrive, as learners and as individuals, ready for their professional career.

And, of course, there is no better feeling than knowing you have helped someone through a difficult time in their life. Students get a real buzz from their pro bono work, from being able to give back and from being part of a service that truly supports its community.

Do you think the changes to QWE (students can now complete their legal training with up to four different organisations) will encourage more aspiring solicitors to undertake pro bono work?

I certainly think it raises the profile of pro bono work, particularly in a law school setting. We have always promoted pro bono work as an opportunity that puts our students closer to practice and the fact that experience in a pro bono advice service can constitute QWE supports that.

At BPP, there is further motivation as students who have undertaken pro bono work during their studies are now eligible to apply to join the team as a QWE trainee for a paid six-month placement with our Legal Advice Clinic.

Students should be mindful that not all pro bono work will constitute QWE. At BPP, we have mapped the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) solicitor competencies to our pro bono projects so that students can clearly identify what will count and what won’t.

Whether or not it is relied upon as QWE, a pro bono volunteer gains experience, new skills and demonstrates to employers that they used their time at law school to do more than pass exams. Pro bono experience can be an absolute game changer for a student’s career and that’s why all aspiring solicitors should want to get involved.

Could you briefly tell us about your background and your role at BPP?

I qualified in 2001 and was in practice in Leeds as a family solicitor for 13 years before joining BPP in 2012. I retain my practice certificate as a supervising solicitor in the Pro Bono Centre’s Family Clinic. As joint head of pro bono at BPP, I co-lead the social impact work undertaken by students and learners across BPP, including initiatives that support social mobility and widen participation within the profession. As part of the Employability Service at BPP, the Pro Bono Centre works closely with our Careers service to support student development and provide work-based learning opportunities that enhance our students’ CVs, build confidence and help our students stand out from the crowd.

What has been a career highlight for you so far?

There have been many highlights, from both my time in practice and in my current role. Most recently, I would say that winning the LawWorks and Attorney General Student Pro Bono Award for Best Contribution by a Law School in 2022 was a wonderful moment for myself and the team at BPP. Receiving the Award at the House of Commons was a real honour, particularly the recognition, at the highest level, of the quality and the impact of the work that we do in the BPP Pro Bono Centre.

Emma Blackstone will be speaking at ‘QWE: the truth, the myths and the plan — with BPP and TLT’, a virtual student event taking place tomorrow (Thursday 4 May). You can apply to attend the event, which is free, now.

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One of the newer names to the solicitor training scene has launched a law course which enables students to gain qualifying work experience (QWE) at the same time.

Launched by the Law Training Centre (LTC), the Foundations to Law Clinic Practice course sees aspiring solicitors tackle a range of modules on the background and practical workings of a law clinic while also gaining pro bono work experience in areas including employment, debt, personal injury, wills & probate and housing.

The legal work, undertaken remotely through the Access Law Clinic, the centre’s pro bono arm, is recorded and signed off by a supervising solicitor, meaning the work counts towards students’ two years’ qualifying experience.

The opportunity has been made possible thanks to a number of tweaks brought in following the introduction of Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). Among these changes is the option for would-be lawyers to circumvent the training contract process and complete two years QWE with up to four different “employers” — including, in this case, a pro bono clinic.

As well as course notes covering the core content, students will have access to a “personal academic coach”, multiple choice question assessments and access to ongoing training and development. Students have access the course materials for up to 12 months, but can continue to work at the clinic for as long as they like.

To be eligible a student will have completed either an undergraduate law degree or SQE1 (or equivalent). Fees start from £250.

Eve Dullabh, director of education, LTC, told Legal Cheek:

“We know that for many students, accessing the required qualifying work experience can be challenging. Whilst QWE is more flexible to get than the old training contracts which required aspiring solicitors to be employed in a law firm for two years under a specific training contract, most QWE opportunities are still likely to be standard Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm roles.”

She continued: “Like studying at Law Training Centre, students can take an Access Law Clinic case home, work on it in the evening or weekend when they are free, gain the QWE hours they need, and be able to fit this in around their work life. What’s even more beneficial is that by allowing our students to work within Access Law Clinic on a pro bono basis, we’re also enabling access to justice for those who cannot afford traditional legal fees.”

The LTC was co-founded by Dullabh, a lawyer, and her partner Dino in 2015, and is perhaps best known for its range of courses geared towards paralegals, chartered legal executives and licensed conveyancers. Following the introduction of the SQE, the centre launched a range of online prep courses priced at £1,950 for part one and £2,500 for part two.

This isn’t first time students have been offered QWE alongside their studies. From spring 2023, solicitor hopefuls at BPP will have the opportunity to apply for a six-month, full-time paid placement with the law school’s pro bono centre. Elsewhere, Nottingham Law School offers similar paid experiences, while The University of Law runs a large number of pro bono initiatives.

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The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) was introduced in September 2021, promising to shake up the route to professional qualification and open more doors into it to aspiring solicitors.

One year on, Legal Cheek partnered with BPP University Law School earlier this month for a virtual student event. Attended by over 360 national and international students, asking how the latest route to qualification was going.

In the hot seats were speakers from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) policy managers Carol Cook and Richard Williams, and BPP head of outreach and student recruitment Jonny Hurst.

Hurst, a qualified solicitor, chaired the event, identifying all the important issues and fielding questions from the attendees.

Also discussed was the introduction of Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) and the potential it offers budding solicitors to take their career journey into their own hands, as well as considering the range of providers in the space and the different courses on offer.

Until last year then, the only way you could become a qualified solicitor or barrister was to take a law degree, or a year law conversion course, and then either the Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Course. In addition, those wishing to get a practising certificate needed a much sought-after two-year training contract with a law firm or authorised organisation, adding up to six or seven years of studying and training before qualification.

That has all dramatically changed. The old traditional way to qualify is no longer the only way. It’s now possible to become a solicitor apprentice for example, which enables school leavers to qualify in six years by combining study with paid on-the-job training. The route, dubbed Qualifying Work Experience, can be undertaken before, during and/or after completing SQE1 and SQE2, at up to four organisations such as law firms, law centres and university pro bono clinics.

Williams acknowledged the impact of the SRA administered SQE route: “It’s a fundamental change — the biggest change in how you qualify as a solicitor for 30 years — for candidates and even for us at the SRA. So, against that backdrop we are really pleased with how it’s been implemented so far.”

The SQE is the final, centralised assessment at the end of all these different pathways to ensure that all qualifying solicitors are tested consistently, regardless of which route they’ve taken.

So, how’s it going so far? “We are really pleased on how it’s being implemented,” Williams told the audience. “There have been just over a thousand SQE1 candidates already, assessed in over 100 test centres around the world — in 25 countries. Over 700 individuals took the recent SQE2.”

The overall pass rate for the first SQE1 delivered in November 2021 — two exams with 180 multiple choice questions in each, and taken at the assessment centres — was 53%.

Cook said: “Candidates need to show us what they know about the key areas of law and demonstrate that they can apply that knowledge. It’s also practical — how to prosecute / defend someone charged with a criminal offence for example.”

SQE2 is, said Cook, “an assessment of competence across property, probate, business, dispute resolution and criminal”. There are sixteen individual tasks but is ultimately one assessment. You either pass or fail. Twelve of the assessments are written assessments done online at a test centre. The others are oral assessments in advocacy and interviewing in person at centres across England and Wales. International students have to attend those in the UK at the moment.

The first SQE2 results are out tomorrow (25 August). Williams pointed out that individuals taking the first round of assessments were perhaps not typical sitters: “The first set of exams were sat by experienced paralegals — older and more experienced we think. Apprentices too. Not so many of the ‘just out of uni’ candidates.”

A focus at the SRA is on removing barriers for individuals and making access to qualification more accessible. You no longer need a training contract for example — QWE has replaced that. “We’ve not prescribed what legal services is,” Williams said. “Candidates can look at Section 12 of the Legal Services Act to help work out if the work they are doing is QWE. If you broadly fit within that definition, then it’s probably QWE.”

It’s early days. The transitional period still allows those who prefer to take the LPC route until 31 December 2032.

‘Will it be cheaper?’ prospective lawyers wanted to know. Williams hopes so: “Lots of providers are responding well and proactively. The preparation courses appear to be (at the moment at least) competitively priced. This is a real bonus. We’ve issued guidance on funding.”

Ultimately then — what have the SRA learned over the last twelve months? Cook said: “There’s room for improvement. This was a long time in the making. We score really highly on the systems we have in place that are sufficiently agile and focussed enough to pick up issues where we need to do better going forward.”

Williams: “We are not resting on our laurels. We are focussing on how we can make sure the assessments run smoothly with higher numbers of candidates and how best we can support aspiring solicitors to make good choices about how they qualify. That’s not available in the previous pathway.”

Early days then. Watch this space.

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Shortly after the deregulation of the legal market came into force, Susan Cooper, founder of Accutrainee, spotted an opportunity to revolutionise the legal training model.

Susan Cooper, a former banking lawyer at Hogan Lovells, founded flexible training contract provider Accutrainee in 2012. The idea came to Cooper while reading the comment section of an online blog about legal processing outsourcing. It was there she came across a string of comments left by despondent students struggling to secure a training contract. She noted the traditional training model, while solid in principle, can be inflexible and costly in practice.

“We’ve consistently lost a lot of great talent through the selection process and lack of training contract opportunities and so that made me look into the traditional training contract model in a lot more detail,” she says. “I started to speak to more and more people in the industry and discovered that a more flexible model was a really attractive prospect.”

Consequently, in 2012, Cooper launched Accutrainee based on the concept of flexible resourcing. She says: “It took a couple of years to get off the ground as lawyers are often resistant to change, but the model proved itself when it first launched. We help exceptional candidates qualify, placing them in teams where there is a genuine need for a trainee, which is an attractive prospect for both our clients and our trainees.”

For those interested in training with Accutrainee, the application process, which is open all year round, begins with an online application form followed by an HR interview. “The interview is designed to get to know you — your interests, your background and, importantly, your key strengths and drivers.” If successful, this is followed by an assessment centre which involves a presentation and an interview to assess key competencies such as commercial awareness and analytical thinking.

Cooper highlights the emphasis Accutrainee places on understanding each person’s journey, noting that law firms’ selection processes can often favour a certain sector — namely, those who graduate with a 2:1 from a Russell Group university. Cooper explains the importance of understanding an individual’s story, for example, one candidate from a single parent family chose to attend a non-Russell Group university so they could stay close to home. She passionately believes no-one should be precluded by their background from pursuing their chosen career.

Inevitably, not everyone can be successful at interview. “We’ve really focused on the volume and the level of feedback we provide to candidates,” she says, explaining that those who are unsuccessful at interview receive detailed feedback to help them improve as they continue their search for a training contract.

Successful candidates can then embark on their training placements. Trainees can complete their training with up to four organisations which means they can have the opportunity to compare in-house to private practice, and experience different cultures and work with different teams. Placements are offered with a variety of organisations including CMS, Sullivan & Worcester, IBM and Pulse Films, to name a few.

When placing candidates, Cooper explains that a good match is the most important thing — Accutrainee listens to what the client is asking for and what the candidate is looking for, enabling trainees to create their own “bespoke training contract”. When it comes to qualification, trainees are snapped up, with over 95% of the Accutrainee cohort offered positions at one or more of the organisations at which they trained.

Ensuring trainees are supported and well-integrated into their trainee cohort is of great importance, Cooper says, with trainees receiving support from an Accutrainee mentor (mostly current and ex-partners or GCs) as well as from both HR and the supervisor they are paired with at their placement organisation. Cooper says: “The organisations we work with are committed to trainee development, trainees are very much treated as their own which we feel is really important for a good training experience.”

One key driver of Accutrainee is improving diversity within the legal profession and supporting exceptional candidates on their journey to qualification. In line with this commitment to diversity, the company launched its first scholarship programme in March 2021. Given the statistical evidence gathered, the programme was initially designed to support those of black heritage by sponsoring their solicitor examinations and prep courses and identifying opportunities to gain the two years’ legal experience they need to qualify as a solicitor. “The goal was to get four people started in 2021 — by the end of 2021 we had five trainees on the scholarship programme thereby exceeding our target,” Cooper says.

This year the scholarship programme has expanded and Accutrainee has broadened its focus. The programme is now looking to further increase social mobility and diversity within the legal profession, supporting those from low socio-economic backgrounds, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

For those that know about the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE), Accutrainee’s flexible training model will sound familiar. Under the SQE, instead of completing a traditional training contract with one law firm, aspiring solicitors can complete qualifying work experience (QWE) with up to four different organisations, which must amount to two years’ full-time work. This is the model of training that Accutrainee has pioneered since 2012.

With 10 years’ experience of QWE under its belt already, Accutrainee recently launched Pathways, a new tool to assist aspiring solicitors on their journey to qualification. “The SQE certainly has a lot of positives” says Cooper, “but if you don’t have a training contract with a law firm or organisation it can be hard as you don’t get the same level of support as you previously would and it can be quite difficult to navigate.”

Pathways has harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to map out each individual’s journey to qualification. Aspiring solicitors can create their own portfolio where they can record the QWE they have completed. The tool maps out the number of outstanding days of QWE they need to complete as well as the skills and competencies they should focus on building to successfully qualify. Cooper explains: “We recognise that everyone starts at different points, and so we are using our years of experience to help aspiring solicitors understand how their exposure to the legal profession translates to developing the competencies they need to qualify.”

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The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) came into force on 1 September 2021. Though in its infancy, it has masses of potential for the legal profession. At Legal Cheek’s latest virtual event, ‘How to use QWE to qualify as a solicitor’, members from Flex Legal, Accutrainee and Reed Smith joined a legal education expert from BARBRI to discuss the changes brought by qualifying work experience (QWE), and the opportunities it brings for aspiring lawyers and the wider legal profession.

The speakers

• Robert Dudley, Vice President of Strategy & Marketing at BARBRI
• Will Long, Flex Legal’s Head of Client Partnerships and Flex trainee
• Meera Ferguson, solicitor and Accutrainee’s Director of Operations
• Rebecca Schrod, Graduate Recruitment Manager at Reed Smith

1. Gain QWE at multiple firms

Aspiring lawyers can acquire their two years of QWE at up to four different organisations. And they don’t necessarily need to be law firms, with in-house teams, law clinics and unregulated providers of legal services, all now available to offer work that makes the grade. This is cause for celebration according to Meera Ferguson, solicitor and Accutrainee’s Director of Operations. At Accutrainee, which employs trainees who are then seconded out to in-house teams and law firms, “the building blocks had already been set and relationships had been built” for trainees and its client businesses and law firms, she explained.

Will Long, Flex Legal’s Head of Client Partnerships, also shared the same sentiment. Though newer in its inception and with a unique social mobility angle, Flex Legal has been able to capitalise on this shake-up by offering its Flex trainees experiences in a wide range of organisations, including Vodafone, ASOS, BMW and even the Church of England.

But the speakers all emphasised that QWE should not simply be viewed by aspiring lawyers as a tick-box exercise. Rather, “the combined total of QWE should be of a quality that helps you with the most opportunities for your future”, stressed Robert Dudley, Vice President of Strategy & Marketing at BARBRI. When it comes to applying for positions as a newly qualified (NQ) lawyer, it is that quality of experience obtained that will “make you a well-rounded lawyer able to move into organisations and be a manager, a leader or even a CEO”, Ferguson added.

It can be entirely possible for a newbie associate to enter the world of private practice with only paralegal experience under their belt, according to Rebecca Schrod, Graduate Recruitment Manager at Reed Smith. From the international firm’s perspective, it is “very much about telling a story with your QWE, explaining why you’ve approached it in the way you have and why this will add value to the firm”, Schrod explained. The work experience obtained by students must also look to develop skills beyond just technical ability: “it’s the transferable competencies, emotional intelligence and human aspects of being a lawyer that tend to drive people forward in their careers”, Long said. Wider business attributes like stakeholder management, sales knowledge, as well as “softer skills” like punctuality and being present in a meeting “is an accelerant to someone’s legal career”, he added.

When it comes to selecting opportunities for QWE, Dudley told the virtual audience of over 250 students: “Ask yourself, ‘Does this combine well with other experiences for what you ultimately want to achieve in the end?’”

2. QWE: before, during or after the SQE?

Whether you choose to start QWE before, during or after SQE1 or 2 prep — or even during your undergraduate degree — this can all count towards the two-year requirement. But when is the best time to do this?

Some students will prefer to undertake QWE during the SQE. Subjects can be “conceptual and abstract when you’re just studying them in isolation, so being able to apply it in work can be useful”, said Long. The speakers agreed that studying while learning presents an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to deal with competing priorities and balancing them — an important skill for junior lawyers.

However, this approach is not necessarily right for everyone and ultimately comes down to personal preference and experience, the panellists stressed. “At the end of every stage in your career, you need to be able to tell a good story about what you have learnt and how this will contribute to the next stage of your career”, Long told the audience.

3. Death to the traditional training contract?

As Dudley put it, QWE has the potential to “change the entrenched system” whereby after completion of the Legal Practice Course, trainees undertake a series of seats before qualifying into their desired practice area. Following the introduction of the SQE, Reed Smith made the decision to evolve its training contract model.

The firm’s future rookies will first take part in a ‘professional SQE year’, which Schrod described as “a year-long blend of study and practical work experience”. While trainees complete their SQE1 and 2 prep, as well as advanced electives, they will undertake two placements across the firm’s professional services and pro bono teams. After completing this year, trainees will then undertake their QWE across different practice areas in the firm. The aim of this, said Schrod, is to give their trainees “a broader sense of life at a law firm”. It was important to the international outfit that trainees learn about these different functions, “to develop new skills and really make the most of the opportunities the SQE has to offer”, she expanded.

Schrod concluded by explaining that the firm’s logic is largely underpinned by a question all firms and organisations should be asking themselves: “What are the good bits of the old system that we should keep, but also what opportunities could the SQE present us with?”

4. New opportunities for aspiring lawyers

The opportunities created by QWE “could have a really profound effect on the entry points”, according to Long. Pointing to a statistic that showed last year there were some 35,000 applicants for roughly 5,000 training contracts, Long went on to explain that widening access to the profession through new and innovative training opportunities can only have a positive effect.

But equally as important is the recognition that private practice is not necessarily suited for every individual. Dudley emphasised that “we are now in a situation where new opportunities are opening up as a result of this new regime and we need to embrace it”. It’s no longer just “barrister or solicitor, City or high street”, Ferguson added, with new opportunities for students to seek out QWE in exciting new areas such as legal operations, legal technology and legal project management. “Don’t try and fit yourself into a box you think you ought to be in; the SQE can help you if you play to your strengths”, she said.

Rounding off the informative discussion, the panellists were in agreement that there needs to be more awareness and engagement — from all parts of the legal profession. There are practical concerns but for Long, and the rest of the speakers, “the SQE and QWE is a valid and worthwhile path to a long-term career in law”.

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BPP University is set to offer paid qualifying work experience (QWE) placements for the first time.

From spring 2023, current and former students will have the opportunity to apply for a six-month, full-time placement with the law school’s pro bono centre.

Students selected for the new programme will have either already worked at BPP’s clinic or can demonstrate a “pro bono ethic”. BPP will initially offer five placements with a view to doubling its intake over the proceeding 12 months.

A spokesperson for the law school confirmed it will provide a “competitive” salary in line with the Law Society’s recommended minimum for candidates completing the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). This recommendation currently sits at £22,794 in London and £20,217 elsewhere.

The opportunity for students complete a chunk of their on the job training with BPP is possible thanks to a series of changes brought in following the introduction of SQE. Among these tweaks is the option for aspiring lawyers to circumvent the training contract process and complete two years QWE with up to four different “employers” — including, in this case, a pro bono clinic.

To be ‘qualifying’, the experience must be grounded in legal work and allow an individual to develop at least two of the regulator’s prescribed competencies for solicitors.

Emma Blackstone and Lucy Wildig, joint heads of pro bono at BPP, said:

“With such an established, extensive legal advice provision, BPP Pro Bono Centre is in the ideal position to be able to offer QWE placements. We wanted these placements to be accessible and to be meaningful, which is why they are paid and why each placement is for six months.”

The vast majority of law schools offer similar pro bono opportunities, with The University of Law and Nottingham Law School (NLS) among the first to do so back in 2015. NLS, like BPP, offers full-time paid placements through its legal advice clinic.

Applications for the new QWE placements will open early spring 2023.

In addition to this, BPP is also offering a ‘Career Guarantee’ as part of their SQE offering. This means if aspiring lawyers fail to secure a “relevant legal role” within six months of passing their SQE2 assessments, they receive access to the law school’s ‘Career Boost’ package featuring a range of employability courses.

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The first ever cohort of students to sit the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) are currently in that state of limbo familiar to all students as they await the results of their SQE2. It’s not only the students who are in suspense, of course, BARBRI’s vice president of strategy and marketing, Robert Dudley, is equally keen to hear how they all got on. The course provider was one of the first in the market to run preparation courses for the new exams and accounted for about one third of all those who sat the inaugural SQE1 in November, with excellent results published in January. The results of SQE2, which students sat in April, are not yet out.

“We were delighted, as a provider, to publish our SQE1 pass rate because we felt it was important to do so, and our students reported a 77% pass rate compared to the average rate of 53% recorded by the Solicitors Regulation Authority,” Dudley explains. “While SQE1 tests the application of functioning legal knowledge, SQE2 presents different challenges, covering aspects such as legal research, drafting and advocacy, and we made sure the students were well prepared to sit this new style of exam.”

Work experience

Future solicitors qualifying via the SQE route must also complete two years of qualifying work experience (QWE), which can be undertaken at up to four different workplaces at a time and in a way convenient to the student, for example, through full-time or part-time paralegal work. The onus of arranging this is on the student and, as it’s all brand new, the process can be quite confusing. Dudley says students are given advice and help with choosing their work experience options and can also talk it over with the careers team and their mentors, all of whom are qualified solicitors or barristers.

“The aims of the SQE are to break down barriers, build a more inclusive profession and increase flexibility,” he says “QWE lends itself nicely to flexibility because it moves away from this very entrenched system where students were traditionally working towards very similar goals of LPC, training contract and predominantly into private practice, Dudley says. “QWE provides new opportunities, new career paths and it gives flexibility to people who might otherwise not have been able to secure a training contract in the past.”

Some of the students will be paralegals with years of experience under their belt. Others will be new to the job. Dudley points out that competency is addressed through the SQE1 and 2 exams. For students, therefore, “it’s about being clever with QWE, looking for the most valuable opportunities, and we encourage them to look for experience beyond private practice into other areas of the legal profession.”

In-house

One major (and growing) opportunity for SQE-qualifying students is the in-house market. According to the Law Society’s annual statistics report, there were about 31,000 in-house solicitors in 2019, nearly three times the amount there were 20 years prior.

“That’s a big number, and yet my concern is that a lot of students don’t understand they now have the opportunity to gain work experience in-house with the removal of the training contract requirement. In-house legal careers and opportunities are growing and can be more flexible and agile,” says Dudley. “In fact, they’re not always aware of the opportunities outside of private practice. In-house teams are committed to retaining their talent so being able to offer paralegals an opportunity to qualify through the SQE route is fantastic for them. Hiring talent from law firms isn’t always an option as it is often prohibitively expensive to do this.”

Stints of three months or six months at in-house legal department would therefore be a clever addition to the QWE portfolio ahead of qualification. Dudley is also keen to point out that careers in legal operations, legal tech and legal project management are challenging and rewarding pathways to explore.

“Where the goal of the old system was private practice, there is now more choice and accessibility,” he says. “We want to help our students understand their options and work with the wider legal profession to ensure opportunities open up for all. We want to be able to offer alternative pathways which is why we have formed partnerships with organisations such as Flex Legal and Lawyers on Demand. Improving diversity and inclusion is a core objective of BARBRI and of the SQE.”

Too early to say

One controversy is whether QWE will result in a two-tier system. Will law firms who put trainees through a more traditional style two-year training contract route value them more than someone applying to them who has completed four experiences in different firms, corporates or 3rd sector for their QWE? “It is too early to answer that question,” Dudley says, but he thinks ultimately that it is a consideration future practitioners should be conscious of.

Another area of discussion is the order in which stages are completed. The general expectation is that students do their QWE before sitting SQE2, because the exam tests your competences and you would expect to build on that through your work experience. However, there is no hard and fast rule so the industry is divided on this at present.

Dudley initially studied modern languages at university, followed by a GDL and LPC at the College of Law, and then to Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. His career includes a stint as head of international programmes at IE Law School in Madrid and 14 years in various roles at the College of Law before joining BARBRI in 2015.

Robert Dudley will be chairing a virtual event, How to use QWE to qualify as a solicitor — with Reed Smith, Flex Legal, Elevate, Accutrainee and BARBRI, on Thursday 23 June. Secure your place now.

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Mary Bonsor, founder and CEO of Flex Legal began her legal career working as a commercial property litigator at Winckworth Sherwood. The firm’s London premises were located next to a law school and so whilst at work Bonsor would see students passing by her window. She tells me how she wanted to help these students progress on their legal journeys and it was this desire that sparked the idea to create Flex, the “Uber of law”, Bonsor explains.

Flex is an online platform which connects paralegals and lawyers with law firms and in-house legal teams on a flexible basis, according to business needs. The team works with a variety of law firms, from magic circle to boutique firms. Bonsor explains that the workload in practice areas goes through peaks and troughs, with corporate, employment, real estate, commercial and litigation being the top five practice areas that benefit from the additional support that Flex can provide during busy periods.

The length of placements vary, Bonsor shares, noting that paralegals and lawyers can complete stints which last anywhere from one month, assisting on a short-term document review project, to twelve months working in the commercial team of a law firm on a fixed term contract.

“We have around 4,000 paralegals and lawyers on the books in total and around half of these are actively looking for work,” says Bonsor. When it comes to placing those seeking work, Bonsor explains that her team considers a candidate’s interests and balances this with their clients’ needs and the opportunities on offer. Culture is also a key consideration. “We really get to know our clients so that we can find people who will fit their culture very well,” adds Bonsor.

The Flex team consists of around 40 former lawyers and a tech team of 12. The company has also welcomed law students as part of its commercial development team, with the aim of helping students looking for training contracts to build their commercial awareness. “For me, the best part of it all is that we are really helping people”, Bonsor tells me, explaining that Flex not only helps law students get training contracts but also helps lawyers, who may otherwise have left the profession, work flexibly in a way that suits their lifestyle. “This has been the passion and mission of the company.”

Flex’s business model is thriving, particularly in light of the recent introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) which is opening doors for aspiring solicitors by creating new routes to qualification through Qualifying Work Experience (QWE).

To qualify under the SQE, aspiring solicitors must complete QWE equivalent to two years’ full-time work which can be completed in up to four organisations through various roles including working as a paralegal. This essentially allows aspiring solicitors to build their own training contract, and Flex’s experience means that the company is well-placed to support students looking to qualify via this route.

Not only does Flex assist students and paralegals in finding placements which constitute QWE, but Flex has recently launched a tool, the ‘Flex Legal Journal’, to help those completing QWE track their progress. “We’re doing more than just finding people placements”, says Bonsor, “this tool is totally free and available to everyone.”

The tool enables students to have a centralised digital record of the work they have completed and so they can easily manage their progress and log the competencies they developed during each placement in line with the requirements laid out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This is particularly useful for those completing a series of placements at different organisations.

The Flex Legal Journal already has over 2,350 users. From these users Flex has been able to gather key statistics to track which competencies trainees achieve easily and pinpoint those which may require further focus to reach. The data collected so far shows that trainees are highly successful at achieving competencies such as taking responsibility for personal learning and development, and reflecting on and learning from practice and learning from other people.

Bonsor highlights the advantages the tool offers law firms, allowing them to easily manage and monitor requests to supervise QWE. The supervisor will have a clear audit trail of what QWE the aspiring solicitor has completed. The tool is free of charge to use but Bonsor explains that for a fee, it can be tailored to a law firm’s specific needs to ensure it is as beneficial as possible for the firm.

Reflecting on the opportunities the SQE is creating, Bonsor emphasises the positive impact the new route to qualification will have on the profession. She notes that the SQE is likely to lead to an increase in newly qualified (NQ) solicitors as well as an uptick in various roles, such as legal operations, legal analyst, and quasi-legal roles. Bonsor highlights that there are a variety of ways that lawyers are now able to practise, whether in private practice at a law firm, in-house, or through a company operating as an alternative business structure (ABS). “It’s no bad thing to have more lawyers,” she remarks. “You would hope this will improve access to justice and lower the cost of legal services which will provide better access to lawyers for consumers.”

Mary Bonsor will be speaking at LegalEdCon 2022, Legal Cheek’s annual future of legal education and training conference, which takes place in-person on Thursday 12 May at Kings Place, London. Final release tickets are available to purchase.

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A flexible lawyer service has designed a new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) pathway for paralegals working at in-house legal departments.

LOD (Lawyers on Demand) has launched a programme which will enable its paralegals to work in-house at clients such as Adidas, Airbnb and Verizon, among others, whilst accruing the two years Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) necessary to become a solicitor in England and Wales.

LOD hopes to train up the “in-house stars of the future” by focusing on the skills they believe to be “crucial” to becoming a company lawyer. These include drafting, advocacy and collaboration, as well as exploring broader topics such as legal engineering and career planning.

“Being a leading alternative legal service provider means we can offer something quite different to the traditional route,” said LOD co-founder, Simon Harper. “Instead of the usual private practice expectations, we’re helping lawyers to develop future-looking in-house skills, including on-the-ground legal experience at some of the world’s leading companies. By designing-in practical commerciality, as well as technical skills, we’re equipping them to be the stars of tomorrow. We’re making it fun too.”

Crispin Passmore, consultant and former executive director at the SRA who helped create the SQE, added: “LOD’s training programme will not only help to nurture future in-house talent, it also provides a new way for people who might otherwise be overlooked to access the profession. This is good news for both the industry and budding in-house lawyers of tomorrow.”

The two-part SQE officially went live on 1 September 2021, becoming the new route to solicitor qualification in England and Wales.

LOD is partnering with BARBRI to offer its paralegals discounted fees to SQE prep courses before they fully commit to the exams. It’s also working on a funding structure for future participants in the programme so that they receive direct financial support for both the prep courses and exams.

Accutrainee operates a similar model to LOD under SQE, employing around 50 trainees who are seconded out to in-house teams and law firms. The flexible training contract provider recently partnered with the College of Legal Practice for the provision of training.

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With the launch of the new Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) and fierce competition for jobs, a career in the legal sector might at first appear a confusing and somewhat daunting prospect for non-law students.

Last month, Jonny Hurst, a former City law firm partner turned BPP’s head of outreach and student recruitment, Rachel Boyle, early careers officer at Bird & Bird, and Rosie Buckley, early careers recruitment lead at Dentons, came together to demystify the new pathway to qualification for non-law students and share their top tips for breaking into the legal sector.

1. Build a strong foundation of legal knowledge

“Students from law and non-law backgrounds are indistinguishable when they start at the firm,” said Bird & Bird’s Rachel Boyle when reflecting on the outgoing PGDL to LPC pathway, a sentiment echoed by Jonny Hurst in his experience of teaching at BPP Law School. The panel agreed that this has been because non-law students have, under the Legal Practice Course (“LPC”), been required to complete a law conversion course before embarking on the LPC.

Dentons’ Rosie Buckley explained, “we want our trainees to be well-prepared and therefore we would still encourage non-law graduates to do the PGDL or Law Foundations Course”. Boyle added, “we really value a law conversion course — it puts people on the best footing”. So, under the new SQE regime, any non-law graduate who completes a PGDL or Law Foundations Course, should then have confidence to embark upon the SQE, the new standardised assessment required in order to become a qualified solicitor, in a similar position to their LLB peers. Jonny Hurst said he believes that those who attempt the SQE without either a law degree or a law conversion course behind them are taking a huge risk.

The SQE falls into two parts, known as SQE 1 and SQE 2. For SQE 1, wannabe solicitors must grapple with 360 multiple choice questions which test candidates’ ‘functioning legal knowledge’ spread over two papers that lasts a total of ten hours and six minutes. Then, SQE 2 puts this knowledge into a practical setting, assessing oral skills, such as interviewing clients and advocacy, as well as written skills, which include legal writing, drafting and legal research.

The SQE assessments are set “at a higher level”, said Hurst, who explained that the standard expected is that of “a day-one qualified solicitor rather than a day-one trainee”. This makes the strong foundation of legal knowledge (obtained in most cases through a law degree or conversion course) not only essential to success on the SQE, but also to making a strong start at any law firm.

2. Develop transferable skills

The other step to qualification is obtaining a total of two years’ qualifying work experience (“QWE”). The flexibility of QWE is a key differentiator from the LPC route which requires students to undertake a two-year training contract in order to qualify. Now, there is a wider range of work experience opportunities that can count towards completing your QWE, opening up alternative paths to qualification beyond doing a conventional four-seat training contract.

Obtaining your QWE will involve applying to organisations in the legal sector. Boyle and Buckley, with a combined two decades of experience in the sector, shared what they are looking for in applicants to their respective firms. “We [Bird & Bird] want diverse cohorts of trainees, not just a ‘cookie-cutter trainee’,” said Boyle. Similarly, Buckley said, “we [Dentons] are looking for people who think differently”, emphasising the importance of “problem-solving and changing the status-quo”.

It is the breadth of experiences that non-law students have that can make them very attractive to firms like Bird & Bird, where around 50% of their trainees have a non-law background and Dentons where the figure is around 40%. The panellists cited examples of students from STEM backgrounds such as engineering and medicine as well as career changers with previous experience in other sectors. Equally prized are those who have done part-time student jobs, had experiences abroad or participated in volunteering and pro bono activities.

This is because these experiences develop skills that are essential to being a good lawyer, such as teamwork, dealing with clients, working under pressure and developing commercial or technical knowledge in a particular sector. So, when applying, both Boyle and Buckley recommend that non-law students “think about all the transferable skills and think of all the advantages that brings”.

3. Don’t worry that you haven’t studied law when applying

The panel were keen to address the sense of imposter syndrome that non-law students can sometimes feel when considering a career in law. In fact, assessment centres and vacation schemes are all intended to be open to everyone and usually do not assume much (if any) previous legal knowledge.

Buckley stressed that “when assessing law and non-law candidates, we are looking to see what their potential is, rather than what legal knowledge they have”. Boyle added: “we just want people to perform at their best and all our vac scheme activities are so broad that you don’t need any prior legal knowledge”.

4. Be passionate

Passion seems to be an essential ingredient for getting your foot in the door at a law firm and making the most of your time there. “It’s all about passion and having an interest in working at Bird & Bird and being a lawyer,” said Boyle. This can be especially important on vacation schemes where students have an opportunity to explore their interests and network with lawyers and others on the scheme.

For applicants, however, it can be a struggle getting that passion across in a cover letter or application form. Boyle and Buckley agreed that students need to “do their research” and really understand the firm’s strengths.

Making an effort to get to know the firm is also important. Boyle explained: “if you can, do some in-person or virtual work experience, attend as many events as possible”. And it is clear that students should temper their passion with precision and clarity in their applications. Buckley reminded students “don’t forget to answer the question! You need to be able to clearly explain ‘why law?’ and ‘why Dentons?’”.

5. Be open-minded

Lastly, throughout your studies and when doing your QWE, the panel underlined the importance of being open-minded. “People don’t necessarily know where they want to qualify and where their skills best fit,” said Boyle. “We have lots of STEM students who think they are going to specialise in IP but then do something completely different!”. Accordingly, Buckley and Boyle recommend doing a mixture of contentious and non-contentious work, encouraging trainees to try something new. “The whole point of a TC [training contract] is to develop skills!” Buckley reminded the audience of over 200 students.

Being open-minded is even more important given the trend in the legal sector of broadening its training offerings. As Hurst pointed out, there is a growing variety of training contract/QWE programmes. These can include work in legal tech, and under the SQE regime, QWE can be in a single ‘seat’ which does not have to offer the trainee both contentious and non-contentious experience. Some of the new opportunities will be particularly attractive to students from non-law backgrounds who might have already developed skills in some of these areas.

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Here is the full video for the second in the series of Legal Cheek’s SQE events with BPP University Law School.

The recent virtual event featured:

• Nicholas Cole, head of resourcing at Dentons
• Susie Halliday, executive director of learning and development at Foot Anstey
• Samantha Cotter, HR projects manager at Knights plc
• Lucy Wildig, director of the pro bono centre at BPP University Law School
• Liz Ritter, former solicitor at Clifford Chance and head of business development at BPP
• The event was chaired by Legal Cheek editor, Tom Connelly

The speakers explored the varying approaches to qualifying work experience (QWE) as firms move towards the SQE and how students can start using QWE to help them become solicitors. Also up for discussion were the skills law firms value in future lawyers and the qualities that firms expect students to be developing before they join.

Legal Cheek will be running ‘The SQE series’ with BPP University Law School over the next few months. The video of each session will be made available one month after each virtual event.

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The route to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales is changing under the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). Future solicitors are no longer required to complete a training contract and will now need to acquire two years of qualifying work experience (QWE), in addition to passing two centralised exams.

It is important for students to understand what QWE means at an early stage of their professional journey. Here, BPP’s Head of Outreach and Student Recruitment, Jonny Hurst, explains the nuts and bolts of the new training regime.

1. The differences between training under the LPC/SQE

First, it is important to draw a distinction between training under the Legal Practice Course (LPC) regime and the SQE.

Under the LPC route to qualification, which will be phased out by 2032, future solicitors are required to complete “a period of recognised training” (often known as a training contract) at one legal employer (typically a law firm). They will then rotate through different practice areas, known as ‘seats’, with each lasting around six months and at least one of these involving contentious work.

However, under the SQE, candidates can accumulate QWE with up to four legal employers; which can be acquired at a law firm, an in-house team, law centre or other legal service provider. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) does not require any seat rotation and there is no minimum or maximum prescribed length for each placement. Further, the SRA does not require a trainee to undertake any contentious work.

Hurst notes that while most mid-tier to large law firms are likely, at least initially, to continue the traditional seat rotation system under the SQE pathway, others, like Kennedys, are taking the opportunity to innovate and allow trainees to complete their QWE in a single department, thereby enabling them to accelerate their expertise in the practice area they wish to specialise.

2. A more flexible route to solicitor qualification

The SQE route offers greater flexibility in that QWE can be acquired before, during or after the SQE assessments. It is “less structured and less linear” than the traditional route which typically requires professional exams to be completed prior to commencing a training contract.

As there is no prescribed order in which candidates need to undertake the SQE and their QWE, Hurst believes that a range of models will emerge and the one individual candidates prefer will depend on the opportunities they have and their personal preference. “Some may want to get their education out of the way, pass their professional examinations and then enter the world of work (as per the LPC), while others may wish to work as paralegals either before they start the SQE or alongside their studies. The latter two approaches may well prove popular as a way to finance their studies, as well as improving a candidate’s understanding of legal practice, thereby enhancing their prospects of securing further QWE and a better role on qualification.”

3. What counts as QWE?

The starting point for what counts as QWE is the SRA’s guidance. The SRA explains that QWE “must be in roles providing legal services that offer a candidate the opportunity to develop some (or all) of the competences needed to practise as a solicitor”.

So while a trainee may not always be doing the work of a ‘day one solicitor’, “for QWE to ‘count’, it’s important that the legal work is both substantive and substantial and is not reduced to a simple series of admin tasks”, explains Hurst. The SRA has said that a common sense approach needs to be applied when determining what a full-time QWE trainee’s workload looks like, so former City lawyer Hurst believes that around four to four and a half days per week spent fee-earning and training should suffice, which wouldn’t be dissimilar to what many trainees experience at present. After all, all practitioners undertake some basic housekeeping and admin tasks during a regular working week.

Ultimately, he says, it will be down to the SRA to assess whether what has been signed off by a supervising solicitor or compliance officer is sufficient to count as QWE.

4. Picking QWE placements

Before students go about selecting their QWE placement(s), they should ask themselves what type of lawyer they want to be and at which type of firm, advises Hurst.

An aspiring corporate lawyer’s QWE journey, for example, should look very different to that of a legal aid paralegal hoping to be retained at their specialist firm.

A trainee with a “breadth and depth” of QWE in one or two organisations is likely to be more attractive to future employers than one who has pieced together what Hurst coins a “QWE portfolio” at a more random set of three or four legal employers. He further advises candidates not to look for the “easiest” or “quickest” route to qualification. “Even if you have already acquired, say, six months QWE as a paralegal elsewhere, you should still expect to be required to complete a full two years of QWE at most leading law firms.”

What’s more, the help your law school’s careers service can offer is not to be underestimated. BPP’s, for example, is staffed with experienced, specialist law careers experts who guide and help students to become “as versatile and employable as possible”.

“If you have a specific goal in mind, our careers advisers should be able to guide you as to the best way(s) you can accrue your QWE to become the type of solicitor you wish to be,” adds Hurst.

5. How should candidates record their QWE?

Traditionally, a trainee’s development and training would be overseen by a senior member of the firm, and in larger firms, by a whole team across the whole of the two years. “However, when a trainee builds their own portfolio QWE at multiple employers, the only person who has oversight of your overall development is you, which is a weakness of the new regime,” comments Hurst.

There is no prescriptive way to record QWE, but it will be good practice, according to Hurst, for candidates to continually record and monitor the work they do by completing, as they go along, the SRA’s QWE template. This should mean the job is mostly done by the time candidates request internal sign-off and seek to register their QWE with the SRA. Keeping track of your experience like this will also help when applying for newly qualified (NQ) solicitor roles.

6. All work and no pay?

Whilst the SQE route has sought to promote an ‘earn whilst you learn’ route to qualification, there are salary implications to consider. In mid-tier to large law firms, there is no reason to expect trainee salaries to change simply because of the introduction of QWE. However, there is no requirement for employers to pay trainees for QWE, leading some groups to claim this could lead to ‘exploitation’ in other parts of the profession. Hurst fears that “some trainees are tempted to work for little or no reward, just to get qualified, particularly if they have, say, already accrued QWE by way of a QWE portfolio at three employers and only have a few more months to complete in order to qualify”.

The Junior Lawyers Division, which represents the interests of current and future junior lawyers, is calling on the SRA to build in a mandatory minimum salary for trainees.

7. New emerging roles

There is no doubt that QWE will be easier to acquire than a traditional training contract, and so if candidates pass the SQE, it will be easier for them to qualify as a solicitor. However, there are concerns that the new training regime will create a larger pool of qualified solicitors, and a number of them may find it difficult to progress their careers into the NQ roles they aspire to after completing their QWE.

Whilst Hurst recognises that there are likely to be more qualified solicitors as a result of the changes, he expects the market will evolve and that some of them will progress into new and emerging roles, such as that of the legal technologist, who can “be an important interface between fee-earning and IT teams leveraging legal tech to design new processes and systems of work to make firms more efficient and profitable”.

Want to find out more about QWE and what it means for students hoping to secure training contracts under the new SQE regime? Legal Cheek is partnering with BPP, Dentons, Foot Anstey and Knights plc for a virtual student event tomorrow (Thursday 9 December). You can apply to attend the event, which is free, now.

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From tomorrow (1 September 2021), aspiring solicitors seeking to qualify in England and Wales must meet four requirements: have a degree or equivalent qualification, pass the two-part Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE), complete two years of qualifying work experience (QWE), and meet the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) character and suitability requirements.

In a recent webinar (embedded below), Law Training Centre tutor Shane Robson explains what students should expect from each of the elements comprising the new route to qualification, whilst responding to some frequently asked questions. Here are the key takeaways:

1. Do you need a degree?

The SQE is open to students with a degree or degree equivalent qualification from any academic background. It does away with the requirement for non-law graduates to complete a law conversion course. Robson outlines that to enrol on the SQE, “any degree, in any subject” will do. You don’t even need a degree at all — a Level 6 qualification, or equivalent, is sufficient.

2. If you did a law degree, do you have to do an SQE prep course?

Completing a prep course for the SQE is not compulsory. However, talking particularly to law grads, Robson says it’s important to remember that a law degree is unlikely to be enough to pass the first stage of the assessment, known as SQE 1, which requires candidates “to be competent to the level of a solicitor”. Therefore, it is advised students invest in completing an SQE prep course. There are several available on the market, including Law Training Centre’s new online offering, and so students are able to choose the one that best suits them.

3. What counts as qualifying work experience?

To qualify as a solicitor, SQE candidates must complete two years of full-time (or equivalent) qualifying work experience, or QWE. This doesn’t need to be paid work experience, and the choice of when, where, or how you do this is almost entirely up to you. Robson outlines that QWE can be completed in stages “before, alongside, or after a candidate’s SQE studies” and with “up to four different organisations” including, for example, law firms and not-for-profit organisations.

4. Is the SQE suitable if you already have experience working in the legal industry?

The answer is yes, according to Robson. Your prior experience may even mean that you are already a step ahead for SQE 2, which tests an individual’s ability to apply their legal skills. However, even for those with prior legal experience, Robson reminds students that they will still need to demonstrate they have the requisite functioning legal knowledge tested by SQE 1. He recommends aspiring solicitors in this position enrol on a prep course to get up to speed.

5. How long will it take to become qualified?

There is no set time to qualify through the SQE route; it will all depend on how much time you can dedicate to learn the course content and take the exams, says Robson. He goes on to suggest students do a practice SQE 1 exam, which can be downloaded from the SRA’s website, to get a feel for the kind of questions that will be asked. From here, Robson explains that students will be able to discover any gaps in their knowledge, decide how much of a prep course they will need to cover, and calculate how long this will take.

6. Can you specialise under the SQE and skip areas of law you don’t like?

Unfortunately, no. To pass SQE 1, you must cover all areas of law included in Functioning Legal Knowledge 1 and 2. This doesn’t mean you have to sit through hours of content you don’t find interesting, Robson says though. Instead, he suggests students seek out their tutors as they will be able to help you find ways to make learning more engaging.

7. Can you swap from the LPC to the SQE?

Yes, but before you make the switch, Robson advises individuals to consider why they are not enjoying the Legal Practice Course (LPC), the costs involved, and their personal circumstances at the time. If the conclusion is still that the SQE better matches an individual’s aspirations, Robson explains that training providers, including Law Training Centre, have their SQE 1 prep course applications open all year round so you can apply whenever suits you.

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From 1 September 2021, the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) will be phased in, becoming the new standardised assessment to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales. Here are some key points for students going forward:

1. The SQE is one of four new requirements to qualify as a solicitor

Passing the two-part assessment is one of four requirements set by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to qualify as a solicitor. The other three being: a degree or equivalent qualification; two years’ qualifying work experience (QWE); and to pass the SRA’s character and suitability requirements.

2. No law degree needed

Unlike the Legal Practice Course (LPC), the SQE is open to students with a degree or equivalent qualification from any academic background. Thus, the SQE could appeal to those who aren’t sure if they want to complete a law degree and allows more flexibility as non-LLB holders would have to complete a law conversion course under the LPC route.

3. The SQE does away with the requirement for a training contract

Candidates will be required to complete two years of QWE to qualify as a solicitor. Whereas the traditional training contract requires students to train for two years at one law firm, the QWE is much more flexible and allows individuals to work in up to four different organisations, including law firms, in-house teams and law centres.

4. The SQE is more flexible in terms of timing

The SQE pathway is designed to be more flexible and can be completed in stages. Moreover, individuals do not need to complete the four requirements in a specific order, they are free to choose when suits them. For example, the QWE can be arranged before, alongside, or after a candidate’s SQE studies and examinations.

5. The SQE is structured into two assessments

The first part, helpfully named SQE1, tests Functioning Legal Knowledge in a variety of “real-life” scenarios across different practice areas. It comprises of two exams spanning ten hours and consisting of 180 single best answer multiple choice questions per assessment. The second stage of the assessment, known as SQE2, assesses practical skills required for legal practice, including interviewing, advocacy, legal research etc. It consists of oral and a total of 12 written legal skills assessments which take place over five days.

6. Introduction of standardised testing

The SQE has come about to ensure solicitors are examined through a single, standardised assessment. The LPC, while it is ensured the exams are similar, are not run by a single governing body. Every candidate must pass these exams, regulated by the SRA and set by the provider Kaplan.

7. Do you need a prep course?

Although not compulsory, it is highly recommended that candidates undertake an SQE prep course, and these are offered by various training providers. These can vary from light refresher courses aimed at law graduates to in-depth courses for non-law grads. Law Training Centre, for example, offers a self-paced 15-month SQE1 prep course that provides students with access to online libraries (including Thomson Reuters Practical Law), extensive learning materials, mock exam papers and a personal academic coach.

8. Cost — is the SQE cheaper?

The SQE is predicted to be a lot cheaper than the LPC. The total fee to take both assessments will be £3,980. This sum does not include prep course fees which will be an additional cost set by different training providers. Law Training Centre offers SQE 1 and 2 prep courses for just over £6,000, which takes the total cost to just above £10,000 — almost half as much as the most expensive LPC on the market.

9. Already started your legal training?

If you’ve started a degree or training for LPC before 1 September 2021, you can continue to qualify. Furthermore, for a CILEx fellow, practitioner or chartered legal executive, to qualify as a solicitor you need only two of the four requirements: the SQE and the character and suitability assessment.

10. Requirements to sit the SQE?

There are no entry requirements for you to sit the SQE1 assessment. However, to sit SQE2 you must have passed SQE1. Individuals are limited to three attempts for each exam in a six-year period and thus, a prep course wouldn’t go amiss considering the costs and high stakes.

To find out more about the SQE and the changes ahead, view Law Training Centre’s complete guide:

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The post 10 things students should know about the SQE appeared first on Legal Cheek.

The much talked of Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) is, finally, a reality. Assessment dates have been set and graduates who wish to become solicitors can now apply to legal education providers, including Nottingham Law School, to undertake SQE preparation courses.

Under the new rules, from September 2021, students who have not yet started to study or train to become a solicitor must pass both SQE1 and 2, and the Legal Practice Course (LPC) will no longer be an option (if you are not sure whether this applies to you, check the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s transitional training arrangements).

As more information emerges about the wide range of SQE preparation courses on offer, it is becoming easier for students to make informed decisions about their study choices. But making decisions about study choices is only part of the picture: it is not just the LPC that is disappearing, but also the requirement for future solicitors to complete an SRA-regulated training contract. Instead of securing a training contract, students who have not started by September 2021 will now need to complete two years’ Qualifying Work Experience (QWE).

It is immensely important for students to understand what might count as QWE at an early stage of their professional journey. Whilst QWE is likely to provide an element of flexibility for students, students will need to look carefully at the QWE on offer and understand how it may be regarded by employers at the point of qualification. Specifically (and with apologies to George Orwell), students need to consider whether all QWE will be equal, or whether some QWE will be more equal than others.

When can I do my QWE?

But before we go on to examine QWE in detail (including what it means for LPC students), it is worth reminding ourselves how the new qualification process works and to see where QWE fits in. From September 2021, there will be four parts to qualification: you must have a degree (or equivalent); pass both SQE1 and 2; complete two years’ QWE; and satisfy the SRA’s character and suitability requirements.

One of the differences between the LPC route and the SQE route is that the LPC route is linear: students complete the LPC, then the two-year training contract, then they qualify. Under the SQE route, QWE is non-linear: you do not have to complete SQE1 and 2 before you do your QWE. The SRA has said that you can even start collecting QWE now, and “bank it” ahead of sitting the SQE in the next academic year.

For many students, the flexibility of QWE and the knowledge that they no longer need worry about applying for a training contract, will come as a great relief. However, as with all the changes to qualification introduced by the SRA, students should dig a bit deeper to make sure that they are fully informed.

The reality is that there will be a range of opportunities available to students. Some law firms will require their students to complete SQE1 and 2 before joining the firm for QWE, while other firms may offer junior positions which can count towards QWE and enable the junior to study for the SQE while they work.

At Nottingham Law School, we recommend that students take as much advice as they can from the employers and firms that they want to apply to, and ask them what is required to make a successful application. This is important, because many firms are in the process of re-thinking their approach to training. As Alex Smith, partner and managing director at Shakespeare Martineau, says: “The introduction of QWE gives us another opportunity at Shakespeare Martineau to reflect upon our current qualifying work experience programme, what it looks like, how it can be improved and how creative we can be with it.”

What is QWE?

The SRA website explains that QWE “must be in roles providing legal services that offer a candidate the opportunity to develop some (or all) of the competences needed to practise as a solicitor”.

The point about developing the competences is important: your QWE will need to be meaningful. There is no point taking on work experience that will just involve you making tea or photocopying, because you will be doing yourself a disservice. Although the experience may give you a sense of a law firm’s ambience, it will not help you to develop the competences needed to practise as a solicitor.

This means that you need to look carefully at any potential QWE opportunities and see how they map to the SRA’s Statement of Solicitor Competence. You will need to do your homework to make sure that anything that you take on will give you the opportunities you need to develop as a professional.

LPC students and QWE

QWE is not just for SQE candidates. If you are an LPC student who has been unsuccessful in obtaining a training contract, you could qualify by completing QWE, provided that you pass SQE2 or, at least for the present, you could compile a substantial portfolio and seek an exemption from the training contract by “equivalent means”.

What counts as QWE?

The good news is that a wide variety of opportunities can count as QWE, and that you can collect QWE from up to four different providers. QWE can be paid or voluntary, and can include placement opportunities, pro bono clinic work, work undertaken at a Citizens Advice Centre, paralegal work or a training contract.

Nottingham Law School’s Professor Jane Jarman is clear that the flexibility of the QWE means that opportunities for students may arise in unlikely places and will not be limited to the traditional law firms. Jarman thinks that the growth of in-house legal departments supervised by solicitors, especially in the financial services and local government sector, could lead to an increase in qualification in that sector and the number of specialist, in-house counsel. The new arrangements may also provide a useful route to those seeking a career change later in life as the ability to bank QWE gained beyond the traditional law firm could open the door to greater diversity in the profession at all levels.

Who can sign off your QWE?

Your QWE can be confirmed by a practising or non-practising solicitor who has direct knowledge of your work, or a firm’s compliance officer for legal practice (commonly referred to as a COLP). It is important to understand what is being signed off: a solicitor who confirms your QWE is not confirming that you have met the competence threshold, as that is for the SRA to assess through the SQE. Rather, the signatory is confirming that you undertook the QWE, that you were given the opportunity to develop some or all of the solicitor competences, and that there are no questions as to your character and suitability as a solicitor.

What happens when you finish your QWE?

Because QWE is deregulated, the SRA does not require seat rotation. This means that you could become an expert in the area in which you want to specialise. The downside is that you end up so specialised that you do not develop an awareness or understanding of how different departments operate and your exposure to differing career paths may be restricted. You should bear this in mind when choosing your QWE because it may have an implication for your future employability.

Under the new rules, when you have satisfied the SRA that you have completed the four necessary components for qualification as a solicitor, you can apply to the SRA to join the roll. Although this will be a joyous moment, it is important to recognise that simply because you can call yourself a solicitor, it does not mean that your firm will recognise you as such. You may find that because you were employed as a paralegal as part of the firm’s business model, they do not have a role for you as a solicitor and are not inclined to pay you as one — even though you will have to have a practising certificate if you are providing legal services and want to stay on the roll.

Similarly, even if you are technically qualified as a solicitor and apply to another law firm for a solicitor post, it is possible that they will take the view that you are not properly trained for the kind of work that you are seeking to do. Some law firms have indicated that they would expect new joiners to do the equivalent of a further two years of QWE in order to be satisfied that they are at the necessary level.

Understanding the firm’s expectations and how they map to your own is therefore a crucial part of planning your future as a professional, including the period beyond the QWE. Smith explains that Shakespeare Martineau are considering the impact that QWE will have on their ongoing post qualification development programmes. “We have to take into account the fact that we will not only have candidates who have successfully come through our own QWE programme, but will recruit candidates who will have undertaken some or all of their QWE in other organisations. This has also led us to looking at the ways in which we can ensure, through our own competency assessments, that the technical expertise obtained through QWE reflects our needs and expectations.”

The need for good advice

There are some real positives to be taken from the new route to qualification, including the flexibility of what can count as QWE. Many of you who have already undertaken pro bono work will concur with Laura Pinkney, head of the Nottingham Law School Legal Advice Centre (a teaching law firm) who thinks that QWE is a significant step in recognising the important, and often complex and challenging, work that is undertaken by law students.

But crucially, you need to embark upon your professional career with your eyes open. You need to talk to firms, your tutors and employability advisors. And most importantly, you need to follow the advice of Nottingham Law School’s Professor Jane Ching, who emphasises the need for prospective solicitors to understand the SRA’s competence requirements. As she observes, “the SRA only requires QWE to provide you with opportunities to develop at least some of the competences. So you do need to be familiar with the statement of solicitor competence and identify the competences that you know you need to develop, or, if you have yet to take SQE2, will help you prepare for that assessment.”

In other words, if your work placement has only amounted to making cups of tea for the boss, that isn’t going to cut it for professional life!

Professor Paula Moffatt is director of external engagement at Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University. Professors Jane Ching and Jane Jarman from Nottingham Law School will both be speaking at LegalEdCon 2021, a two-day virtual conference, taking place on Wednesday 19 May and Thursday 20 May, along with Alex Smith, partner and managing director at Shakespeare Martineau. Third release tickets are available to purchase.

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