10 minute read
Your SQE Questions Answered
Part 1 (the SQE assessments)
• What is the new SQE route to qualification as a solicitor?
The route to qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales is changing, with the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (‘SQE’). After a transitional period, SQE will replace the LPC as the main route to qualification.
Unlike the LPC, the SQE is not a prescribed programme of study; instead it is two sets of centralised assessments, set by the SRA and its appointed assessment body, Kaplan. SQE 1 is two days of single best answer multiple choice tests, designed to test candidates’ functioning legal knowledge in a broad range of practice areas. Candidates who pass SQE1 can then register for SQE2, which are practical legal skills tests.
SQE is open to graduates of any discipline, law or non-law. It also replaces the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTT) as the means by which overseas qualified lawyers can gain a licence to practice in this jurisdiction. In theory, aspiring solicitors can prepare for the SQE assessments with self-study alone; however there is now a general assumption, even seemingly on the part of the SRA itself, that almost all candidates will want to undertake some form of preparation course, and a wide variety of such courses are becoming available. These are not regulated by the SRA, although institutions must register with the SRA in order to be able to use the descriptor ‘SQE’.
In order to complete their qualification, aspiring solicitors must also demonstrate two years’ Qualifying Work Experience, (‘QWE’). This will be the subject of part 2 of this article.
The SRA’s character and suitability requirements for solicitors continue to apply.
Comment: The breadth of the SQE assessment specification is not dissimilar to the LPC. The practice areas tested in the SQE1 assessment incorporate the core modules of a traditional undergraduate law degree or GDL, together with topics traditionally studied on the LPC [(see Box 1)].
BOX 1 - Areas tested in SQE1:
Business Law and Practice; Dispute Resolution; Contract; Tort; Legal System of England and Wales; Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law; Legal Services; Property Practice; Wills and the Administration of Estates; Solicitors Accounts; Land Law; Trusts; Criminal Law and Practice.
Ethics and professional conduct is pervasive throughout and taxation examined within certain practice areas.
The skills assessed in SQE2 are again similar to the skills assessed in the LPC (Client Interviewing, Advocacy, Drafting, Legal Research and Legal Writing), with the addition of a new skill, Case and Matter Analysis. These are tested on SQE 2 assessment days, in various legal contexts: Business, Property, Criminal, Dispute Resolution, and Wills. Interestingly, and unlike the LPC, in the SQE2 skills assessments candidates are marked on not only the skill demonstrated, but also on their understanding of the relevant law.
In terms of rigour, the SQE1 assessments are closed book, in contrast to the LPC assessments where institutions could choose between open- and closed- book assessment methods. The timing of the SQE1 assessments is challenging, with 100 seconds allowed to candidates per question (excluding those with extra time under reasonable adjustments). The SQE 2 skills assessment days sound like a kind of legal bootcamp, with candidates assessed on up to four different legal skills each day over more than a week of tests (each skill is assessed more than once, in differing contexts). According to the SRA, the pass standard for both SQE1 and SQE2 is the level of a Day 1 Solicitor, whereas the LPC pass standard was that of a Day 1 Trainee.
Concerns have been expressed over the depth of understanding it is possible to demonstrate in the SQE1, multiple choice style assessment, in contrast to the longer written answers required in the core LPC assessments. Whilst it is emphasised that the SQE 1 assessment questions are (i) designed to test functioning legal knowledge (i.e. legal knowledge applied to hypothetical client scenarios) and (ii) are ‘single best answer’ questions (i.e. more than one option might be technically correct, but candidates are required to select the ‘best’ option for their hypothetical client), nonetheless it is undeniably difficult, if not impossible, to give a nuanced answer to this type of question, or to demonstrate an understanding of counterargument. It is hard to respond to these concerns; to an extent we will have to wait and see what type of candidates the new regime produces. It is however worth remembering that SQE candidates must have an undergraduate degree (or equivalent), which hopefully will have given them the opportunity to explore and develop these important critical and analytical skills before undertaking the SQE. This might be an area to explore with potential employees during the recruitment process.
Timing and transitional arrangements
The first SQE1 assessments took place in November 2021. If you are interested in the SRA’s analysis of the results of these, we would recommend listening to the highly informative SRA Webinar, ‘SQE1 – How the first assessment went.’ The first SQE 2 assessments are to follow in April 2022.
Some aspiring solicitors can still qualify under the established LPC / training contract route, under the SRA’s transitional arrangements. In order to do so, a candidate must generally have begun studying a qualifying law degree (broadly, a LLB from a university in this jurisdiction), or GDL, in 2021 or earlier. Note that it is not the date of completion of studies which counts, but the date of commencement. There is a useful eligibility checker, for determining whether a candidate may still qualify via the LPC route, here: https: //www.lawcabs.ac.uk/eligibility-checker .
Comment: Again, when interviewing potential employees who may wish to qualify in the future, their options and plans could be explored.
Importantly, an aspiring solicitor whose undergraduate studies are in a subject other than law (or in the law of another jurisdiction), cannot now qualify under the old GDL / LPC / training contract route, unless they have already begun their GDL studies (e.g. in September 2021). Firms which traditionally recruit non-law students in the 3rd year of their degree, should now prepare to support them through qualification via the SQE route.
For law undergraduates on a traditional, three-year degree programme, the last cohort of students who can be expected to have the choice to qualify via the LPC route, is likely to graduate in summer 2024. Students of this cohort will then presumably begin their LPC in September 2024 and their training contract in summer 2025. Where a firm traditionally recruits law undergraduates in the 2nd year of their law degree, this recruitment will be in academic year 2022/23. In the not-to-distant future, law graduates too will be expected to qualify via the SQE route.
Although the SRA’s transitional arrangements give a a long runout period for the LPC, bear in mind that commercially, institutions
BOX 2 Transitional arrangements: final cohort of law graduates eligible for LPC 1 LLB
Must have begun LLB by end of
2021
Graduation 2024
LPC
2ndyear recruitment: academic year 2022/23
Qualifies 2027
Training Contract
Qualification
Joins firm Sept 2025
may decide to stop offering it in a few years’ time, as the number of eligible candidates reduces.
• How can we adapt to the new SQE regime?
Comment: If not already doing so, firms need to begin adapting their recruitment and training processes to the new SQE regime. Consider sponsoring your trainees through an SQE preparation course, in place of the LPC. This will give them an introduction to the skills they will need in the workplace, and practice areas (including property conveyancing, wills and the administration of estates, and business law) which may not have been covered in their undergraduate degree. Some such courses also include training in more specialist areas, such as family law or employment law, which would traditionally been covered as electives on the LPC, but which are not assessed under the SQE regime.
For further information about the issues discussed in this article please contact Diana Kirsch, Associate Dean for Enterprise (D.Kirsch@ herts.ac.uk) or Kate Marriott, SQE Lead (k.marriott3@herts.ac.uk) at University of Hertfordshire. There is also a wealth of information about the SQE on the SRA’s SQE website, here: https://sqe.sra.org.uk/
Part 2: QWE
In part 1 of this article, we looked at the SQE 1 and SQE 2 assessments which aspiring solicitors must pass in order to qualify under the new SQE route. In order to complete their qualification, such aspiring solicitors must also demonstrate two years’ Qualifying Work Experience, (‘QWE’).
• What is QWE?
This is a more flexible concept than the traditional ‘training contract,’ overseen by the SRA. QWE can be paid work or voluntary, undertaken before or after taking the SQE assessments; candidates can even rely on QWE undertaken prior to the introduction of the SQE regime. In order to be QWE, a placement must involve providing legal services and give the individual an opportunity to develop at least two of the competencies listed in the SRA’s Statement of Solicitor Competence, here https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/resources/ continuing-competence/cpd/competence-statement/ . Importantly, QWE hours must be signed off by a Solicitor, or Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP), in England and Wales. SQE candidates can submit a portfolio of up to four placements as their QWE, totalling the equivalent of two years’ full-time experience.
• How is this likely to impact recruitment of trainee solicitors, NQ’s and paralegals?
Comment: Some possible impacts of the new QWE regime for law firms and other employers in the legal sector are as follows.
• Your firm may still decide that all aspiring solicitors seeking to qualify with them should complete a two-year ‘training contract’ with them before being employed in a Solicitor role, even though this is not required for candidates seeking to qualify under the SQE regime. There is nothing to prevent this in the new regime (see the SRA’s guidance, here: https://www.sra.org.uk/become-solicitor/ sqe/qualifying-work-experience-employers/ ). Indeed, this could count as the two year period of QWE for such individuals.
• Remember that QWE can take place before or after undertaking the
SQE assessments; due to the level of ‘Day 1 Solicitor’ in the SQE assessments, one school of thought is that the assessments should be undertaken at the end of the period of QWE, as the final step to qualification. Consider an arrangement whereby trainees work part-time in the workplace alongside studying an SQE preparation course. Alternatively, consider requiring candidates to undertake the SQE 1 assessments before joining the firm, then complete their 2-year QWE ‘training contract’ with the firm, then undertake the
SQE 2 skills assessments in order to qualify.
• Your firm may be asked to sign-off QWE, by current and past employees seeking qualification. There is a lot of discussion going on as to the obligation of a solicitor or COLP in this position.
By signing off, you are not guaranteeing the competence of the individual to practise; you are merely confirming the time (hours, period) over which they worked for your form, and that they had the opportunity to develop at least two of the solicitor competencies mentioned above – simply manning the phone on the reception desk will not count. The SRA has indicated that it expects solicitors and COLPs to be willing to sign off in most instances.
• When recruiting newly qualified solicitors who have qualified under the SQE route, examine carefully their QWE. The flexibility and de-regulation of QWE under the new regime means that there is the potential for wide variation in the quality of experience an NQ may have relied on in order to gain their qualification.
This issue is of course likely to become more prevalent over the next few years.
• Conversely, where you employ graduate paralegals within your organisation, be aware that under the new regime they may now undertake, and pass, the SQE 1 and SQE 2 assessments, ask you to sign off their current paralegal role as their QWE (or part of it), and thus qualify as a solicitor. (Note that a paralegal who already has the LPC is allowed to skip SQE 1 and would only need to take and pass SQE 2 to qualify in this way.) This may or may not fit in with the firm’s plans for them. Remember, again, there is no obligation to employ such an individual in a ‘Solicitor’ role, or to give them the job title ‘Solicitor’. The best advice of course is to have early and honest communication with employees as to their career plans and aspirations, and to manage expectations accordingly.
