Contents
- Introduction
- The Different UK Legal Systems
- The SQE Qualification Framework
- 4 Main Pathways To Qualify as a Solicitor in England & Wales
- A Quick Guide for School Leavers
Introduction
When you start to consider becoming a solicitor in the UK, things can quickly get confusing.
There’s a lot of information out there, and much of it’s overly detailed and complicated.
In this post, I’ll give you a simple guide on how to become a solicitor in the UK and outline the main pathways to qualification.
This guide is aimed at students and graduates in the UK or overseas, as well as foreign lawyers seeking to dual-qualify in the UK.
So, let’s dive in…
The Different UK Legal Systems
The first thing to know is that there are three different legal systems in the UK into which you can qualify as a solicitor.
These are:
- England & Wales
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
The majority of practising solicitors in the UK are England & Wales qualified solicitors (around 13 times more than in Scotland and 63 times more than in Northern Ireland).
What most people have in mind when they’re considering becoming a solicitor in the UK is usually a solicitor in England and Wales. This post will therefore focus on the most popular pathways for becoming an England and Wales qualified solicitor.
For more information about qualifying in Scotland, see: https://www.lawscot.org.uk/qualifying-and-education/qualifying-as-a-scottish-solicitor/
For more information about qualifying in Northern Ireland, see: https://lawsoc-ni.org/becoming-a-solicitor/routes-to-the-profession
To qualify in England & Wales, the main route to qualification is via the Solicitor Qualification Examination (SQE) route.
There’s also another route to qualification that still uses the previous academic option of the Legal Practice Course (LPC). This is being phased out over a transitional period and is used much less than it was previously.
To find out more about the LPC option, see: https://www.sra.org.uk/become-solicitor/legal-practice-course-route/becoming-solicitor-legal-practice-course-transitional-requirements/
For this post, I will focus solely on the main SQE route.
The SQE Qualification Framework
To qualify as a solicitor via the SQE route, you need to meet the following requirements detailed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) (unless you can utilise an exemption):
- A university degree or equivalent qualification, or equivalent work experience.
- SQE 1 assessment
- SQE 2 assessment
- Qualifying Work Experience (QWE)
- Character & Suitability requirements
For those who study a non-law degree in the UK, you’re also advised to take a law conversion course. This isn’t a mandatory requirement, but it’s incredibly hard to pass the SQE assessments without a solid foundation in legal studies.
Let’s take a look at each requirement in turn.
1. Degree or equivalent qualifications or work experience
Every solicitor is required to have a UK degree or an equivalent level 6 qualification.
Level 6 qualifications include:
- Undergraduate degree
- Degree apprenticeship
- Graduate certificate
- Graduate diploma
The degree doesn’t have to be in law, it can be in any subject. It often surprises people that trainee solicitors are split roughly 50/50 between law and non-law graduates.
If you have, or intend to get, an international degree, you can find out if it’s equivalent to a UK level 6 degree by doing a comparability check with the UK national information centre for international qualifications and skills here: UK ENIC comparability check.
For further information about what qualifies as a degree or equivalent qualifications or work experience, see: https://www.sra.org.uk/become-solicitor/sqe/check-validate-qualification/degree-equivalent/
For completeness, it’s also worth mentioning a less common route to qualification as a solicitor via the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) qualification route. This is a work-based learning route for those who don’t want to study a degree.
You can find out more about the CILEX route here: https://www.cilex.org.uk/membership/getting_qualified/
2. Law conversion courses
In addition to the formal requirements of the SRA, it’s advisable for non-law graduates to consider doing a law conversion course before studying for the SQE.
The main law conversion course is called the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) and is typically a full-time course taken over one academic year.
Whilst not a mandatory requirement, there are a couple of important reasons why a conversion course is advisable:
- The level of knowledge and skills needed to pass the SQE is high, and the conversion course gives you a solid foundation, which is designed to put you on a par with those who have obtained a law degree.
- Law firms may prefer candidates who have a law degree or the GDL, which is what they have traditionally sought. Some firms have this as an express requirement.
So, it’s best to assume you will need to do it if you choose to study a non-law degree.
3. SQE Assessments
The SQE is taken in two parts:
- Part 1 – legal knowledge assessments across a range of core practice areas.
- Part 2 – legal knowledge and practical oral and written legal skills assessments across a range of core practice areas.
The SRA doesn’t formally require you to take an SQE preparation course to take the assessments. However, it’s widely accepted that aspiring solicitors should undertake such a course, given how challenging the SQE assessments are.
There are various SQE course providers, offering a range of different courses. Some SQE preparation courses can be blended with other qualifications, such as an LLM, and some providers offer things like guaranteed qualifying work experience in their legal advice clinics.
It pays to research the options well before making a choice.
4. Qualifying Work Experience (QWE)
Unless exempt, you must gain QWE either before or after passing the SQE assessments.
This must meet the following criteria:
- Two years full-time (or full-time equivalent).
- At no more than four different organisations (law firms or other organisations providing legal services).
QWE is commonly satisfied in the form of a two-year training contract with a law firm or an in-house legal department.
It can also come from legal work such as:
- Work placements and internships
- Paralegal roles
- Volunteering – for example, in law clinics, Citizens Advice Bureau or pro bono organisations
- Graduate apprenticeships – a work and study blended option, usually over two to three years, blending the QWE and the SQE.
There’s also a requirement to have any QWE signed off by a qualified solicitor or compliance officer.
They need to be able to confirm the nature and scope of your experience and that it demonstrates the development of the required solicitor competencies. It would usually be your QWE supervisor who signs it off, although you can have someone else do it.
It’s also worth noting that QWE can be undertaken overseas.
For overseas qualifying work experience, you would need to find someone in the UK to sign this off. They would need to review your QWE and review feedback from your supervisor for that role.
5. Character & Suitability
You will need to ensure you meet the SRA’s Assessment of Character & Suitability Rules. These set out the SRA’s requirements for every solicitor to be of “satisfactory character and suitability”.
These are issues related to the following:
- Criminal conduct
- Behaviour which has a bearing on your integrity and independence
- Education assessment offences
- Financial conduct and events
- Regulatory or disciplinary findings
- Health conditions.
Once you’ve met all of the other requirements to qualify as a solicitor, you then apply to the SRA to sign off on your character and suitability before you can finally qualify.
If you want to check your character and suitability status before starting along this path, see: https://www.sra.org.uk/become-solicitor/character-and-suitability/early-assessment-character-suitability/
4 Main Pathways To Qualify as a Solicitor
Within the SQE qualification route, there are several pathways people can take.
These include pathways for those attending university to obtain a degree, those not attending university and overseas lawyers who want to dual-qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales.
The majority of solicitors will choose between four main pathways to qualify:
- Degree + training contract (or graduate apprentice) pathway
- Degree + portfolio QWE pathway
- Solicitor apprenticeship pathway
- Overseas lawyer pathway
Let’s take a look at each of these in a bit more depth.
1. Degree + training contract (or graduate apprentice) pathway
Undertaking a training contract with a law firm or in-house legal department is the traditional pathway for the majority of solicitors in England & Wales.
It includes the following steps:
- Degree
- SQE 1 & SQE 2
- Training contract of two years (meeting the QWE requirement)
- Character and suitability sign-off.
Law firms have well-established recruitment processes for training contracts and usually have the most opportunities to train and qualify as a solicitor via this route.
There are usually around 5000 training contracts on offer across all law firms in England and Wales. This will include training contracts in the London offices of US law firms. There’s fierce competition for these training contracts from many high-calibre candidates, and it can take several years of applying before candidates are successful.
Law firms will require candidates to have completed a degree. This can be either a law degree or a non-law degree, plus the GDL.
The typical timelines for this pathway are:
- Law degree (3 years) + SQE + TC = 6 years
- Non-law degree (3 years) + Conversion Course + SQE + TC = 7 years
Graduate Legal Apprenticeship (Level 7)
There is also a newer alternative to the training contract, known as a graduate legal apprenticeship (sometimes referred to as a graduate solicitor apprenticeship).
This is a blend of work to satisfy the QWE requirement and part-time study of the SQE. These apprenticeships are open to law graduates or non-law graduates who’ve completed the GDL.
They’re typically between two and three years long.
They seem very similar to a training contract, with the main difference being the blended work and study. And for firms, some government funding is available for the SQE part of apprenticeships, so they benefit from that (which is not available for a training contract).
2. Degree + portfolio QWE pathway
This is an alternative to the traditional training contract pathway.
It includes the following steps:
- Degree
- SQE 1 & SQE 2
- A portfolio of QWE (at least two years full-time or its equivalent in part-time roles, and at a maximum of four employers).
- Character and suitability sign-off.
This gives more flexibility for those who are unable to secure a training contract or who choose not to follow that pathway.
The QWE requirement can be built up from different pieces of legal work (see the Qualifying Work Experience section above).
A key requirement of this QWE is that it must give the individual opportunities to provide legal services in a way that enables them to develop the competencies needed to practice as a solicitor. As previously mentioned, this must be signed off by a qualified solicitor or a compliance officer.
Essentially, it requires you to be more organised and self-directed in building a comprehensive and well-documented QWE portfolio.
The typical timelines for this pathway are:
- Law degree (3 year) + SQE + QWE = 6 years
- Non-law degree (3 year) + Conversion Course + SQE + QWE = 7 years
Although it can be quicker if you use QWE completed whilst studying for a degree or the SQE.
It can also be longer, as there are often gaps between the different roles which make up the QWE.
3. Solicitor apprenticeship pathway
For those who prefer to study while working rather than pursuing a degree full-time at university, the solicitor apprenticeship pathway is a great option.
It’s a level 7 apprenticeship and is mostly pursued by school leavers as an alternative to going to university. It gives the apprentice an alternative way to obtain a law degree, studying the SQE and getting the necessary QWE, all while in paid employment.
This pathway typically takes six years and looks like this:
- Years 1 to 4 = either spend all the time in one team or rotate between teams in a law firm. Working four days per week, and studying for a law degree on the fifth day each week.
- Years 5 and 6 = often joining the trainee solicitor cohort and rotating between training contract seats (with a different structure of four days’ work and one day studying for the SQE).
Most law firms have minimum academic requirements to accept candidates onto their solicitor apprenticeship programmes (usually minimum grades at GCSE and A-Level or their equivalents).
Solicitor apprenticeships are also only open to those who already have the right to work in the UK.
Advocates for this pathway argue it has these benefits:
- It gives aspiring solicitors more extensive work opportunities and exposure.
- It gives more opportunity for the development of certain professional and soft skills needed by modern lawyers that universities and law schools are less equipped to develop.
Solicitor apprenticeships at the largest City law firms in London can have starting salaries around £28,000.
While this is a long way off the £50,000+ starting salaries for those doing a training contract, this pathway doesn’t require any personal investment in studying for a university degree or the SQE. These costs are covered by the firm. When you add up university fees and living costs over three years, this represents a saving in the tens of thousands of pounds.
Apprentices will, of course, need to assess these savings against the cost of living in often expensive cities over the six-year period of the apprenticeship.
Another factor to consider is that student loans are available to fund the university pathway, but are unlikely to be available for solicitor apprentices.
4. Overseas lawyer pathway
There has long been an opportunity for overseas-qualified lawyers to dual-qualify as solicitors in England and Wales.
The old Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) has been replaced by the SQE qualification route. The SQE is open to candidates from all jurisdictions, unlike the QLTS.
The SQE route requirements are slightly different for qualified overseas lawyers:
- Professionally qualified as a lawyer in a different jurisdiction.
- A degree in any subject or an equivalent qualification or work experience.
- SQE 1 & SQE assessments (unless exempt)
- Character and suitability requirements
For the vast majority of fully qualified overseas lawyers, there’s no requirement for QWE, as this is usually satisfied by a professional legal qualification from a different jurisdiction.
The foundational academic requirement (usually a degree) can be satisfied with equivalent qualifications or experience.
Find out more about equivalent qualifications and experience here: https://www.sra.org.uk/become-solicitor/sqe/check-validate-qualification/degree-equivalent/
SQE Exemptions
It’s possible to seek an exemption for some or all of the SQE 1 and SQE 2 assessments. You do this by demonstrating that the professional qualification from another jurisdiction is equivalent to the whole of each part of the assessments.
Exemptions from SQE 1 assessments are extremely rare, whereas exemptions from SQE 2 assessments are much more common for lawyers from a wide variety of jurisdictions. Irish solicitors are in the minority in being fully exempt from all parts of the SQE.
The quickest way to find out whether you can benefit from SQE exemptions is to use the SRA’s SQE Exemption Finder search tool.
If you’re exempt from the SQE 2, you will still need to prove your English or Welsh language competence. You can do this if:
- Your professional legal qualification or degree was assessed in English or Welsh, or
- You have passed a language assessment, such as obtaining a Secure English Language Test (SELT) certificate.
If you do have to sit the SQE, you can do so at a test centre overseas. However, due to the oral nature of part of the SQE 2 assessments, you’ll need to visit the UK to complete these in person.
A Quick Guide for School Leavers
For school leavers, you have the first three main pathways open to you.
If you’re a school leaver or working in the careers service at a school, I’ve put together a handy quick guide on these main pathways to become a solicitor.
Preparation is Key
So, you can see there are a number of pathways to becoming a solicitor, designed to suit a variety of people with different circumstances and needs.
Whichever path you choose, you’ll find that progressing to the point where you qualify as a solicitor and thereafter getting a job as a solicitor is extremely competitive.
To compete, you will need to be prepared.
And the main part of being prepared is doing your research into the pathway you choose and learning what’s needed to succeed.
There’s a wealth of information available online that will help you as you do your desk research.
However, a big difference I see between those who are successful in becoming a solicitor and others is that they also do what I call “field research”. Essentially, this means getting out from behind the desk (or screen), attending events, and meeting people in the real world.
You’ll get so much more from having meaningful conversations with those already in the profession and those recruiting for those seeking to enter it.
If you’re prepared to consistently put in the work to do this, you’ll have a good chance of making your dream of becoming a solicitor come true.
Good luck!
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