Two years’ experience as a trainee solicitor before qualifying will continue under new ‘super exam’, SRA confirms
updated on 15 November 2017
The requirement that prospective solicitors gain two years’ practising experience in order to qualify will remain when the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) comes into force, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has confirmed.
The SQE is a new ‘super exam’ that all prospective solicitors will have to pass in order to qualify, replacing the Legal Practice Course (LPC). The assessment is expected to be in place by 2020. The SRA has now confirmed the four elements needed to qualify as a solicitor under the new system, three of which are being carried over from the current requirements. The four elements are:
- an undergraduate degree or equivalent;
- stages one and two of the SQE (this replaces the LPC);
- two years’ qualifying experience (ie, a training contract); and
- a character and suitability assessment.
Although 2020 is not far away, the SRA is understood to support a lengthy transition period where students will still be able to qualify through the old route of completing a law degree or Graduate Diploma in Law, followed by the LPC and a training contract. The exact length of the transition is yet to be confirmed, but the SRA has said that it will be “a number of years”.
Paul Philip, the SRA’s chief executive, commented: “Our focus is on consistent, high standards. The new SQE will help boost trust that those who join the profession are safe to practise. We have listened to the feedback from the profession on the importance of qualifying work experience and made changes to how that is supervised. Our new approach to qualifying work experience will give candidates real flexibility, address the current training contract bottleneck and give the profession confidence that new solicitors have benefitted from the training that only the workplace can provide.”
