Over 700 solicitors admitted through new SQE route
Five exams now taken place, SRA reveals
Over 700 solicitors have been admitted through the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) route, the regulator has revealed.
The SQE was introduced in September 2021, becoming the new route to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales. Since then the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said five assessments have taken place and 724 solicitors have been admitted through the new route.
To qualify through the SQE route candidates must meet four requirements: have a degree or equivalent qualification, pass the two-part SQE, complete two years of qualifying work experience (QWE), and meet the SRA’s character and suitability requirements.
The update comes as students prepare to sit the next SQE1 exam this month. SQE is comprised of two exams, SQE1 and 2, with the first assessing black letter law through a series of single-best answer questions, and the second examining legal skills through 16 tasks or ‘stations’. It costs £4,115 to sit both exams, following a recent price increase.
The SQE replaced the Legal Practice Course (LPC) as the route to solicitor qualification. Both courses are available until the LPC is phased out by the end of 2032.
Unsure about which route is best for you? Legal Cheek is hosting a virtual event with BPP University Law School on Thursday 16 February to help students understand the differences between the two courses. Secure your place.
10 Comments
7 years PQE
Any stats on how many people sat the exams? Would be interesting to know what that pass rate is in relation to.
Sunday
From a quick Google search, the pass rate is between 55-65%. Given the SQE students are examined on everything from their undergraduate law degree and post-graduate law degree in two closed book exams, I’d argue it’s somewhat harder than the LPC exams. That said, I don’t think this will help students struggling to find TC’s. The same students will struggle to find NQ positions, if they haven’t bagged a TC through this new SQE route.
You thought I was feelin you?
And the bottleneck begins…..
DWF Trainee
“I just can’t seem to get an NQ role for love nor money…”.
Alan
The watering down of the profession by the virtue signalling regulators is well under way. Law firms as filters to those who don’t have any place being a lawyers will hold firm though and sense will prevail.
Matthew
What a silly comment. On what basis do you think its a watering down of the profession?
Tick Tock
So the woke brigade wanted to dumb down qualifying, and now you can bet they will want to impose discriminatory recruitment practices when the employment figures are out. Merit will be out and context will be in.
SQuEeze
As if thr LPC was any different? People waltz through the lpc in 6 months with no effort. At least the Sqe is closed book. I saw this as a trainee gone through the lpc route.
Lol
You decided to work there lol, L
Mum
It is laughable to see comments from a place of possible racial, religious or geopolitical hatred, or business interests, or slavish graduates trying to escape the printer by getting into technology, as they all seem to have decided that the SQE is going to dumb down the profession.
Qualified solicitors who cannot work independently can find jobs as long as they can fake it. There is no abatement to the average solicitor’s quality of service. How many PQE is assurance for correct quality advice? It’s hard to tell.
I am confused why junior lawyers and graduates alike should like to talk about standards these days, as if they already have a clue where they stand.
I certainly do not listen to any aristocratic or cockney marketing people talking about standards.
The law, for most solicitors, is just a utilitarian trade. Building bundles, drafting letters and getting the law right the first time do not require top minds, it requires dedication, which top mind graduates often do not have. They would rather work in the tech sector.
To keep your trainee profile on the website and secure the continued dominance by power over intelligence, firms have to put bonds into the training contract to entrap the carefully curated Russell group graduates to stay late in the office in the company of the printer, doing admin work endlessly and missing out, despite their youth, on valuable work experience for which they secretly envy the paralegal who had gone home on time, after spending another day of fruitful billable hours saved under their belt.
The market will do the natural selection. Qualified barristers are known to work as paralegals if they can’t find employment. The partner may work for his once paralegal one day.
SQE qualified solicitors will have gone through the better training by society, the centralised assessment board and the conventional legal training.
Also, at the moment, peasants and small businesses, these shareholders of Great Britain, need their own solicitors to work for Their justice.
Don’t be afraid of democracy or bringing justice to all.
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