Solicitors’ ‘super exam’: Junior Lawyers Division fears that trainees will miss out on key work experience

The new Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) could mean that prospective solicitors miss out on key aspects of legal work experience, the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has warned.

The JLD is concerned that some legal work experience requirements set out under the current system do not appear to have been kept within the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA plans for the new ‘super exam’. For example, the SQE proposals as they stand do not require trainees to experience working in both contentious and non-contentious areas of law. Although the SQE will still test knowledge of both, this is arguably inferior to the current system where trainee solicitors have to gain real experience of both areas. The JLD’s concerns echo those of some City law firms, which have expressed fears that the SQE will not be as effective at preparing people for the challenges of practice as the Legal Practice Course, which law schools frequently tailor to the specialist needs of their partner firms. As the Law Gazette reports, the JLD is also not happy that consultation papers on the SQE have so far given no indication as to how much it will cost students.

Robert Bourns, president of the Law Society, the umbrella representative organisation of which the JLD is a part, commented: “It is clear that the SRA has a great deal of work to do before the SQE can be implemented. During this period there will inevitably be uncertainty for those entering the profession.”