The Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) is the professional body representing around 22,000 qualified and trainee legal executive lawyers. Changes in legislation mean that legal executive lawyers are increasingly on a level playing field with solicitors or barristers, as they can now become judges, advocates and partners in law firms. Deborah McDonald, head of communications and marketing at ILEX, explains the way the qualification works and describes why it could be just the path to law that you're looking for.

ILEX is recognised as one of the three main regulators of the legal profession alongside the Bar Council and the Law Society. The role of a legal executive lawyer is so similar to that of a solicitor that the average client is unlikely to be able to distinguish between them. In fact, many legal executive lawyers supervise solicitors. The difference is that a legal executive is a qualified lawyer who is trained to specialise as an expert in a particular area of law, whereas solicitors have a broader, more general legal training.

There are two routes to becoming a legal executive lawyer, depending on whether you hold a qualifying law degree or not. If you don’t have a qualifying law degree then you will need to take the full ILEX route, which is comprised of the level 3 ILEX qualification (set at A-level standard) and the level 6 ILEX qualification (studied to same standard as an honours degree). This full ILEX route costs up to around £6,000, depending on where you choose to study. This will typically take four years to complete part-time, although time scales can be flexible according to your personal and professional needs.

However, if you already have a qualifying law degree gained within the last seven years, ILEX also offers a cost-effective alternative to the LPC or BPTC through its new Graduate Fast-Track Diploma, which takes just nine months to complete part-time and costs under £2,000.

And there’s no need to secure a training contract or pupilage, whether you do the full ILEX route or the fast-track. Instead you will need to complete a five-year qualifying period of employment (working as a paralegal while studying counts towards this). If you already hold an LPC, BVC or BPTC, then you will be exempt from all the ILEX qualifications and will just need to complete your qualifying employment. At least two years’ of your qualifying employment needs to fall after you’ve completed your ILEX qualification (or LPC/BVC/BPTC). Then you can become a Fellow of the Institute and have the right to call yourself a legal executive lawyer.

Studying
ILEX has a network of over 90 accredited study centres that are approved to deliver ILEX courses. These are quality assured to ILEX standards, giving students the confidence that they will meet your needs and fulfill your full potential in the field of law. All ILEX Level 3 examinations, and the majority of ILEX Level 6 examinations, are set twice a year in January and June, and all examinations may be taken at separate examination sittings to suit your plans and study needs.

If distance learning is something that would be better suited to an individual’s circumstances, then ILEX can offer this through the ILEX Tutorial College (ITC). There are a wide range of courses and options available from the college for the prospective law student to choose from and the college offers enrolment at any time of year. To get more information on the range of distance learning options available through ITC, visit the website.

Training to be a solicitor
A career as a legal executive lawyer is a worthwhile, rewarding and fulfilling career its own right, but ILEX does recognise that there are those who have ambitions that are more traditional. That is why ILEX qualifications can be used to count towards qualifying as a solicitor.

If you are a Fellow of the Institute before you complete the LPC, you may be exempt from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) training contract. It is important that you contact the SRA to get full details, as this exemption is at the discretion of the SRA.

Salaries
Salaries will vary according to location and area of law. Starting salaries are usually £14,000-£28,000 per year while qualifying. Many trainee legal executives report that they are on higher salaries than the trainee solicitors they are working alongside, even though they themselves are not yet fully qualified either.

After completion of the ILEX qualifications, aspiring legal executives can expect to earn up to £38,000. They then need five years’ relevant work experience to be a fully qualified legal executive lawyer. They can then expect to earn £35,000-£55,000 and can earn much higher, particularly if they work in a big city or become a partner in a firm.

If you already hold the relevant postgraduate legal qualifications, you do not have to take the ILEX qualifications, and can immediately apply to become a Graduate Member of ILEX and use the designatory letters “G.Inst.L.Ex”.

ILEX qualifications are highly valued by employers, as trainee legal executives can be valuable fee earners for their firms once they have gained their level 3 qualification. As such, an October 2010 survey found that over 77% of ILEX students have their membership fees paid for by their employers, and 60% of ILEX students have all their course and exam fees paid for by their employers.

What legal executive lawyers do
Professional responsibilities increase with experience. Fully qualified and experienced legal executive lawyers are able to undertake many of the legal activities that solicitors do, and often supervise solicitors and other legal staff. They will have their own clients (with full conduct of cases) and they can undertake representation in court. Although legal executives can be involved in many areas of law, the most common areas of specialism are:

• conveyancing - the legal side of buying and selling property;
• family issues - advising on divorces and matters affecting children;
• crime - defending and prosecuting people accused of crimes;
• company and business law - advising clients on legislation that affects their business such as tax, contract and employment law;
• litigation - where a client is in dispute with someone else;
• probate - dealing with wills, trusts and inheritance tax; and
• personal injury - handling accident claims.

All ILEX members are independently regulated and must adhere to a code of conduct. Like solicitors, they are required to continue training, known as continued professional development (CPD), throughout their careers in order to keep themselves abreast of the latest developments in the law.

Where legal executive lawyers work
Partnership is the aspiration of most solicitors in private practice, and now it can be shared by legal executive lawyers. The introduction of legal disciplinary practices (LDPs) – partnerships of potentially all the different types of lawyer and also some non-lawyers – marks a hugely significant change in the legal world.

LDPs are just the first stage in a massive shake-up of the legal market brought about by the 2007 Legal Services Act, which formally recognised legal executives as fully fledged 'lawyers'. A year on from their introduction, there were 186 LDPs across England and Wales, which between them had 209 non-solicitor partners. Of these, the largest single group was legal executive lawyers.

Of course, it is not just legal firms that employ legal executives. Legal executive lawyers fill key legal roles in a wide variety of government bodies, local authorities and business organisations. For example, legal executives are employed by The Co-op, Caterpillar, Rentokil Initial, HSBC Insurance, AXA, Disney Corporation, ABC International Television, the Ministry of Defence, the NHS, County Councils, and charities such as the RSPCA and The Peabody Trust.

The future
The growing recognition of the quality of legal executive lawyers as specialist lawyers is being seen in other parts of the legal world. The move to allow ILEX Fellows to apply for certain judicial appointments is a major step, as has been the growing number of legal executive lawyers acquiring their own advocacy rights.

Further, ILEX has applied for the right to grant members independent rights to conduct civil litigation and provide probate services (currently such rights have to be exercised under the supervision of a solicitor), and has also applied for independent rights to conduct conveyancing and conduct criminal litigation.

Combined these will essentially give legal executives all the rights they need to practise on their own. As it is, it is not unknown for legal executive lawyers to run their own businesses, but they are not permitted to provide these so-called reserved services.

The final stage of the Legal Services Act revolution is alternative business structures (ABS). Due to come in from October 2011, these represent a radical relaxation of the ownership restrictions around law firms and will allow non-lawyers to invest in or own law firms. Already major brand names such as the Co-op and the AA have signalled their intention to start offering legal services to the general public once allowed, and over 10% of the current Co-op staff are legal executive lawyers.

So if you are looking for an affordable and flexible career in law, ILEX is worth serious consideration.

Deborah MacDonald is head of communications and marketing at ILEX. For all the latest information, visit www.ilex.org.uk or www.ilexcareers.org.uk.