The introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) is a drastic change in the training of lawyers that is set to widen access to the profession and vastly reduce the costs of solicitor training. The SQE is available to both non-Law graduates and those with a Law degree.
Within ten years, the SQE will have phased out the traditional routes of the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL). In the interim, students will still be able to follow either route as the industry adjusts to the transition.
Law firms have always played an important role in the training of future solicitors and the LPC has historically been followed by a two year training contract with a registered firm. However, the SQE is set to change that, as the new route also offers a broader range of official training opportunities.
Here, we are going to look at how the introduction of the SQE will affect law firms and what changes, if any, they will have to make.
How will the SQE affect law firms?
The SQE was primarily introduced to standardise legal training and to ensure that no course or qualification is more prestigious than another. Law firms can thus be sure their trainees are trained to the same standard.
Law firms can also take advantage of a wider selection of candidates, as the introduction of the SQE is predicted to see a rise in the number of people training to be lawyers. Moreover, graduates will also have wider options for training after gaining the SQE qualification.
The SQE and training contracts
Traditionally, once they had completed their LPC, the route for trainee solicitors was to find a training contract with a legal firm and spend two years as a paid trainee whilst completing their learning on the job.
Whilst this option is still available, the traditional two-year training contract route has now become known as Qualifying Work Experience (QWE). Trainees must still complete two years of QWE, but there are many different options for them to take instead of, or as well as, a traditional training contract.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates firms that offer training contracts and provide approved training for trainees to develop into fully-fledged solicitors. Each year, there are around 5,500 such contracts available at SRA approved firms across the country. There are, however, usually many more graduating lawyers than there are training contracts and so the competition is fierce.
With the introduction of the SQE, there will likely be even more graduating lawyers than before. So law firms will have more graduates to choose from to offer training contracts and competition for the contracts will be even tougher. However, there will also be many more alternative options under QWE for the students who do not secure training contracts.
What is Qualifying Work Experience (QWE)?
QWE has been introduced alongside the SQE as part of the SRA’s move to simplify and open up routes into the legal profession to a broader range of students. QWE is equivalent to the two-year training contracts undertaken at law firms and must also come to a total of two years.
The SRA states that QWE must be in roles that provide legal services that offer the candidate the opportunity to develop the competencies needed to practise as a solicitor. This marks a change from before when the SRA required qualifying solicitors to have completed an official two-year training contract.
Another key change is that trainees can complete their two years of QWE at up to four different organisations, as opposed to a two-year training contract at one law firm only. QWE can also be paid or voluntary work, whereas training contracts are always paid positions.
QWE can also be completed at different times and the placements do not need to be undertaken in succession. QWE can be done before, during, or after a student has finished their SQE.
QWE can be completed anywhere in the world and does not need to cover English and Welsh law, but it must be signed off by a regulated solicitor or compliance officer who can confirm your work to the SRA.
However, all QWE must be in legal work. So working in a non-legal role at a law firm would not count.
QWE may include:
- A placement at a law firm or organisation during your studies.
- Any legal work at a law clinic.
- Voluntary work at a charitable organisation or law centre.
- Work in a paralegal role.
- A traditional training contract at an SRA registered law firm.
Will all law firms accept the SQE?
Not all law firms offer training contracts, but the firms that do will accept the SQE as a qualification sufficient for a trainee position. Most large law firms offer a number of training contracts each year, and many smaller law firms also offer contracts, although some simply don’t have the capacity to do so.
Over the next ten years, the traditional LPC route to becoming a solicitor will be phased out and replaced entirely by the SQE. As the SQE is currently new and untested, it remains to be seen if law firms will prefer SQE graduates or LPC graduates.
However, within a decade, they will no longer have a choice and many firms will want to make any changes needed for the transition to training SQE graduates in the time between. Some firms have even already set an earlier date at which they will no longer accept candidates with an LPC qualification.
Will law firms sponsor students of the SQE?
Many of the medium-sized and larger law firms have historically offered financial support, to varying degrees, for students of the GDL and the LPC. This support can range from a simple maintenance grant to assist with living costs during the programme to paying for the full fees of the course along with a stipend for living costs.
To be eligible for such support, students must have a training contract lined up with the firm in question and then complete the LPC or GDL at their preferred law schools.
Of course, with the SQE, there are no preferred institutions. But many law firms are still already offering funding support for SQE students, provided they have arranged a training contract with the firm already. A number of law firms have also already set the year in which they will cease funding LPC and GDL students and focus only on those taking the SQE.
Receiving financial support during your legal studies will of course benefit you greatly, as it allows you to focus solely on your learning. However, it is important that you don’t choose a firm based entirely on the support they offer. It is better to train at an office and in an environment that excites or intrigues you, rather than accepting a contract merely because of financial support.
For example, many of the large commercial firms in London offer substantial support, but a training contract with these firms is very demanding and you will be expected to work long hours. While this type of work suits many people, there is nothing wrong with accepting that you would not fit into that culture, no matter the support or money on offer.
How will the SQE affect pay for trainee solicitors?
For training contracts undertaken at law firms, the Law Society of England and Wales recommends a minimum salary of £22,794 in London and £20,217 outside London. However, there is no longer a legal minimum pay grade for trainees other than the national minimum wage, which is set to be £9.50 per hour for over 23s by April 2022.
With the introduction of the SQE and QWE, some trainees doing QWE outside of training contracts may undertake voluntary or unpaid work. The SRA has recommended that those doing QWE be paid the same as solicitors on training contracts, but there is no legal obligation to do so and many trainees may add to their QWE with pro-bono work, which is unpaid.
So it is unlikely that the SQE will affect salaries paid by law firms for training contracts, but there will be many more legal organisations that can offer unpaid training opportunities.
Salaries for solicitors on training contracts will vary depending on where their firm is located and the field of law in which they are training. Trainees at a top London law firm can expect salaries upwards of £45,000. Trainees at smaller firms outside London will usually be paid between £18,000 and £35,000. Trainee solicitors at top US law firms based in the UK can expect to earn around £60,000 per year by the second year of their contract.
The UK government publishes annual guidelines on hourly rates for solicitors at different stages in their careers and in different locations across the country. Trainee solicitors in London are recommended to charge between £129 to £186 per hour, and trainees outside the capital should charge around £126 per hour.
The SQE and the Professional Skills Course (PSC)
All trainee solicitors previously completed a Professional Skills Course (PSC) as part of their training contract.
The PSC is a combination of learning and assessments designed to ensure trainees have experience in all the necessary legal practices. Trainees were required to complete the PSC whilst on a training contract at a law firm.
However, with the SQE, the PSC is no longer a required part of the training process. This is because the content and key skills learning that comprised the PSC are now covered in the second part of the SQE – the SQE2.
The PSC is made up of three core modules and a number of electives. The core modules are:
- Finance and business skills.
- Advocacy and communication skills.
- Client care and professional standards.
The SQE2 covers:
- Client interview and attendance notes.
- Legal analysis.
- Advocacy.
- Case and matter analysis.
- Legal research.
- Legal writing.
- Legal drafting.
Some law firms will also offer booster courses for any trainees they take on.