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Legal Cheek Careers sits down with US law firm trainee Ellen Swarbrick to talk SQE, career change and TCs

Vinson & Elkins trainee Ellen Swarbrick decided to pursue a career in law after having worked in energy consulting for a few years post-university. She completed the SQE1&2 with BARBRI and has recently joined the student voice advisory committee for the Board of BARBRI, alongside starting her training contract this September.

Legal Cheek Careers sat down with Swarbrick ahead of her appearance at this month’s virtual student event with BARBRI discussing diverse journeys to qualification through the SQE.

You’ve only just recently started your training contract, so you completed the Solicitors Qualifying Exams (SQE) not too long ago. Can you tell us about your experience of studying for the SQE with BARBRI, especially as someone with a non-law background?

I studied international business with German at university, so aside from a business law module in my second year, I had never studied law before. Because of this, the thought of doing it all online was quite daunting. Now that I have finished, I can honestly say I would prefer it to completing a law course at a university.

You don’t have to worry about missing any content because it’s all online. Not only do you have lectures that are filmed for the purpose of being online (no microphone or video issues), you also have huge banks of practice questions. The personal study plan tells you exactly what you need to do each day and you can even input days you do not wish to study and it will arrange the workload around this. You are also assigned a personal tutor, so there is definitely support there.

You previously worked in energy consulting — what prompted you to explore a legal career?

It’s a funny story, but I first considered a career in law during university after having a tenancy deposit dispute with my landlord. Researching my rights and collecting evidence, I was able to reduce the deductions by 80%. Really quite excited about this result, I started to look into doing a law conversion, but I didn’t want to commit to the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) and Legal Practice Course (LPC) and study for another two years (both financially and time-wise).

Find out more about SQE Prep with BARBRI

After a few years as an energy consultant, my passion for the energy sector grew, but I knew my skills were better suited to a career in law. This prompted me to finally make the career change and luckily, I could do this much quicker with the SQE.

Building on that, what drew you to Vinson & Elkins?

There were three main reasons I wanted to work for V&E. Firstly, I knew I loved working with energy companies. Because of this, my training contract applications targeted law firms which were strong in this sector, so applying for V&E was a no-brainer. Secondly, V&E has a relatively smaller London office. Lean team sizes meant I would get more responsibility earlier on and that I would get the opportunity to work closely with associates and partners.

Finally, V&E offer a non-rotational training contract structure in your second year. This means that you can start specialising early on and see cases and transactions through to completion. This flexibility and the opportunity to create your own unique training contract experience drew me to the firm.

What skills do you find transferrable to a legal career from your consulting experience, and what skills have you had to focus on developing further?

Consulting allowed me to develop really good commercial awareness. Not only did I have to keep up to date with industry news daily, but I also gained an insight into how businesses run and what their key strategic drivers are. This is important when you are advising a company on a multi-million-dollar acquisition for example, as these key strategic drivers can influence how you conduct due diligence or even how you draft the Sale & Purchase Agreement.

Find out more about SQE Prep with BARBRI

Because I am currently working with the Energy Transactions and Projects team, I would say the main skill I am focused on developing at the moment is understanding transaction and financing structures. These can be quite complex and technically challenging. You definitely aren’t expected to know everything from day one, and I have had a good deal of support so far.

What advice do you have for those looking to make a career change into law and needing to get back into studying to complete the SQE?

It can be quite daunting going back to studying after working full-time. My main piece of advice would be not to worry! The BARBRI personal study plan sets out exactly what you have to do and even how to revise the content (they call it the BARBRI method). I actually didn’t create any revision notes while studying, so the method definitely worked for me.

You are now over a month into your training contract! How are you finding it so far?

I’m really enjoying it so far. I’ve already had the opportunity to do substantive work, participate in client calls, and learn more about the transactions and cases V&E is working on. What I enjoy about V&E is that you are given as much responsibility and work as you are willing to take on, while also receiving good support and feedback from your supervisor and other associates and partners and the firm.

I have also participated in activities outside of the office, going for lunch with the Energy Transactions and Projects team and even playing in a tag rugby tournament!

Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) under the SQE introduces a lot of flexibility into the training process, as aspiring lawyers can now complete their training at up to four different organisations. What prompted you to want to train under the more traditional training contract route?

Coming from a non-law background, I decided a more structured period of training would be the best option for me. However, I have friends who have gone down different routes and are doing really well, so I definitely would recommend looking into all options.

Ellen Swarbrick will be speaking at ‘Making QWE work for you — with BARBRI’, a virtual student event taking place on 25 October. Apply now to attend.

Find out more about SQE Prep with BARBRI

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BPP University Law School is looking to recruit five ‘qualifying work experience trainees’ to work within its busy pro bono centre.

QWE trainees will undertake paid legal work in either consumer, enterprise, family, housing or welfare rights, under the supervision of qualified solicitors. They will be based in either Birmingham, Leeds, London (Holborn) or Manchester but will be expected to travel to other BPP centres from time to time.

The pro bono roles are six months (a quarter of the 24 months QWE needed to qualify as solicitor in England and Wales) and come with a salary of £24,500 in London and £22,400 elsewhere, according to the job listing.

To be eligible to apply, you will need to be a current or former BPP student, passed either SQE1 or the Legal Practice Course and possess volunteer experience in the pro bono sector. Applications close on 30 June.

The new opportunity comes after Legal Cheek revealed last summer BPP was set to offer QWE placements for the first time — a move made possible thanks to a series of changes brought in following the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). Among these tweaks is the option for aspiring lawyers to circumvent the training contract process and complete two years QWE with up to four different “employers” — including, in this case, a pro bono clinic.

To be ‘qualifying’, the experience must be grounded in legal work and allow an individual to develop at least two of the regulator’s prescribed competencies for solicitors.

The vast majority of law schools offer similar pro bono opportunities, with The University of Law and Nottingham Law School (NLS) among the first to do so back in 2015. NLS, like BPP, offers full-time paid placements through its legal advice clinic.

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In the latest instalment in our Career Conundrums series, a paralegal is struggling to get their Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) confirmed.

“I’ve been working as a paralegal at a small firm of solicitors for eight months now. I need to get my QWE signed off so it can count towards the 24 months I need to qualify, but my firm seems reluctant to do so (one solicitor at the firm hadn’t even heard of it!). Instead they’ve said I should do a training contract with them. They’ve hinted a TC could be available in a year’s time, but I suspect they might just be saying that because they want to keep me on as a paralegal on a paralegal salary.

It’s a difficult situation and I am not sure whether to wait it out and hope they eventually sign it off, try and find someone else who can confirm the QWE (is that possible?!), or simply leave and start the QWE again somewhere else.

Has anyone else found themselves in this position? What should I do?”

If you have a career conundrum, email us at team@legalcheek.com.

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Aspiring lawyers looking to qualify through the SQE can choose to complete their mandatory two-year ‘on the job training’ at up to four different employers.

In the video (above) of our recent virtual student event, representatives from BPP University Law School, law firm TLT and flexible training contract provider Accutrainee discuss what qualifies as Qualifying Work Experience (QWE), and how students can leverage the flexibility of the SQE to their advantage.

The event featured:

• Shazia Bashir, partner in the housing and regeneration team and trainee principal at TLT
• Andrea Gallo, HR manager at Accutrainee
• Jonny Hurst, BPP’s head of outreach and former City law firm partner
• Emma Blackstone, joint head of pro bono at BPP and former solicitor

The speakers started off by discussing which roles in organisations like law firms, charities and legal clinics would qualify as QWE. They highlighted that while work experience is assessed on a ‘case by case’ basis, the key elements to look out for include: the role having real-life provision of legal services, advice or assistance, as well as it meeting at least two SRA competencies. The panel then touched on other questions from students such as the time commitments required during the two-year work experience, differences between a traditional training contract and the QWE, as well as the recording and signing off process.

Legal Cheek is running ‘The SQE series’ with BPP University Law School over the next few months. The video of each session will be made available one month after each virtual event together with further FAQs arising from each session which experts from BPP are answering.

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In this article, we speak to Emma Blackstone, Joint Head of Pro Bono at BPP University Law School, to find out the benefits for students of undertaking free legal work.

Blackstone co-runs the university’s Pro Bono Centre and talks about some of its interesting projects, the skills student volunteers gain from taking part in such endeavours and how the SQE and changes to QWE “raise the profile” of pro bono work, more of which she’ll discuss at tomorrow’s event.

Could you tell us about the Pro Bono Centre at BPP and its mission? How did you continue to provide services in the wake of the pandemic?

The BPP Pro Bono Centre delivers pro bono and volunteering opportunities that make a difference to people in need of advice across the country, as well as supporting the personal and professional development of our students and learners.

The Pro Bono Centre has three key aims:

1. To deliver legal and other professional services that directly support individuals and communities who cannot access paid-for legal advice or education services,
2. To provide practical opportunities and experiences that ensure BPP students and learners possess the skills that are in demand,
3. To deliver programmes and facilitate pathways for individuals from diverse and/or lower socio-economic backgrounds to access professional careers.

The pandemic fundamentally changed the way in which BPP now delivers pro bono services, for the better. Within weeks of lockdown, our key services moved to online delivery. Service disruption was minimal and client demand, as well as volunteer engagement, soared. At the peak of the pandemic in 2021, BPP had nearly 3,000 students registered with the Pro Bono Centre, a 42.9% increase in volunteer engagement on the previous year.

That’s impressive. Is there a pro bono project BPP is particularly proud to be involved in?

BPP is incredibly proud of the impact that our student and professional volunteers make across the country, year after year. It is impossible to single out a particular project, but what I am most proud of is the reach of what we do.

In the last academic year, 477 student volunteers supported our Legal Advice Clinics, which handled 2,302 client enquiries. Our public legal education project, Streetlaw, was supported by 239 student volunteers, who delivered 195 hours of public legal education to 4,700 members of the public, across the UK. These are just two of more than 20 projects delivered by the BPP Pro Bono Centre. In total, last year, our volunteers undertook more than 4,000 hours of pro bono work. That’s something that makes me incredibly proud.

It’s great to hear about their collective impact. What are some of the benefits to students undertaking pro bono work?

Pro bono helps students to develop the skills employers want. Our volunteers learn how to communicate effectively, how to manage a case or project, how to work as a team and to handle clients with professionalism. Working alongside practitioners, pro bono work also provides an opportunity for students to grow their professional network and gain a real insight into life in practice.

What I enjoy most in my role is seeing how much pro bono work increases a student’s confidence. Year on year we see our volunteers thrive, as learners and as individuals, ready for their professional career.

And, of course, there is no better feeling than knowing you have helped someone through a difficult time in their life. Students get a real buzz from their pro bono work, from being able to give back and from being part of a service that truly supports its community.

Do you think the changes to QWE (students can now complete their legal training with up to four different organisations) will encourage more aspiring solicitors to undertake pro bono work?

I certainly think it raises the profile of pro bono work, particularly in a law school setting. We have always promoted pro bono work as an opportunity that puts our students closer to practice and the fact that experience in a pro bono advice service can constitute QWE supports that.

At BPP, there is further motivation as students who have undertaken pro bono work during their studies are now eligible to apply to join the team as a QWE trainee for a paid six-month placement with our Legal Advice Clinic.

Students should be mindful that not all pro bono work will constitute QWE. At BPP, we have mapped the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) solicitor competencies to our pro bono projects so that students can clearly identify what will count and what won’t.

Whether or not it is relied upon as QWE, a pro bono volunteer gains experience, new skills and demonstrates to employers that they used their time at law school to do more than pass exams. Pro bono experience can be an absolute game changer for a student’s career and that’s why all aspiring solicitors should want to get involved.

Could you briefly tell us about your background and your role at BPP?

I qualified in 2001 and was in practice in Leeds as a family solicitor for 13 years before joining BPP in 2012. I retain my practice certificate as a supervising solicitor in the Pro Bono Centre’s Family Clinic. As joint head of pro bono at BPP, I co-lead the social impact work undertaken by students and learners across BPP, including initiatives that support social mobility and widen participation within the profession. As part of the Employability Service at BPP, the Pro Bono Centre works closely with our Careers service to support student development and provide work-based learning opportunities that enhance our students’ CVs, build confidence and help our students stand out from the crowd.

What has been a career highlight for you so far?

There have been many highlights, from both my time in practice and in my current role. Most recently, I would say that winning the LawWorks and Attorney General Student Pro Bono Award for Best Contribution by a Law School in 2022 was a wonderful moment for myself and the team at BPP. Receiving the Award at the House of Commons was a real honour, particularly the recognition, at the highest level, of the quality and the impact of the work that we do in the BPP Pro Bono Centre.

Emma Blackstone will be speaking at ‘QWE: the truth, the myths and the plan — with BPP and TLT’, a virtual student event taking place tomorrow (Thursday 4 May). You can apply to attend the event, which is free, now.

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Aspiring solicitors seeking qualifying work experience (QWE) can now browse the various opportunities up for grabs thanks to a new online “marketplace”.

The LawQWE portal features employers ranging from top 100 and national law firms and alternative business structures through to in-house legal teams and charities. It officially went live today with more employers expected to join over the coming months.

The brainchild of legal consultancy Hook Tangaza, the portal aims to open up a wider range of QWE opportunities across the country for those who may struggle to secure training contracts. This, the consultancy says, includes aspiring solicitors from low-income households, career switchers or later-life trainees.

The launch follows the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) and changes to the rules around how solicitors can qualify, namely the option for rookies to circumvent the traditional TC process and complete two years’ QWE with up to four different employers.

But this added flexility appears to have created some confusion, with a recent LawQWE survey finding that the overwhelming majority of wannabe lawyers — over 90% of the 192 respondents — were unable to say how they were going to obtain the necessary QWE needed to qualify.

LawQWE says it is designed to meet the needs of both candidates and employers and hopes to become the “go-to marketplace” for all-things QWE.

LawQWE and Hook Tangaza co-founder Alison Hook commented:

“The SQE has opened up a lot of opportunities for both aspiring solicitors and employers but it is early days and there is still a lot of uncertainty about how things will evolve. Our ambition is to demystify the new training regime and create a marketplace which supports a profession of more diverse individuals in a wider range of careers.”

Those signed up so far include Macfarlanes, Sintons, Scott-Moncrieff & Associates, Sherrards, Virtuoso, Law by Design, Cambridge University Press, Needle & Partners and Citizens Advice (Bath and North-East Somerset).

The portal also provides users with a range of support and career planning tools as well as access to low cost courses to support skills development, mentoring and a tool that enables candidates to record their QWE.

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Pinsent Masons and LexisNexis have launched a “unique” new training partnership that sees the businesses temporarily swap paralegals.

The tie-up will see LexisNexis paralegals gain qualifying work experience (QWE) at Pinsents as they work towards completing the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) on a part-time basis with legal education provider BARBRI.

The SQE is a new route to qualification that aims to improve accessibility to the legal profession. It includes a two-part exam (the SQE1 and the SQE2) and two years of QWE.

This differs from the previous system which only allowed those who had completed a two-year training contract to qualify, leaving wannabe solicitors, who had paralegalled for the two years or more but could not secure a TC, unable to gain their stripes.

The launch of the partnership will enable LexisNexis’ paralegals to receive practical, supervised legal training that counts towards their QWE requirements. At the same time, Pinsents paralegals will be seconded to LexisNexis in order to hone their research and knowledge skills.

Head of LexisPSL Hub, Josh Giddens, said: “The legal market is rapidly evolving and, as a leading LegalTech supplier, it is really exciting for LexisNexis to work with Pinsent Masons and BARBRI in offering new, innovative routes to qualification.”

Meanwhile, Richard Coffey, head of managed legal services delivery at Pinsent Masons, said the deal is “an exciting next step for us and our paralegals.”

The news comes in the same week the Law Training Centre launched a law course which enables students to gain QWE alongside their studies. BPP University Law School, The University of Law and Nottingham Law School offer similar opportunities through their pro bono centres.

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One of the newer names to the solicitor training scene has launched a law course which enables students to gain qualifying work experience (QWE) at the same time.

Launched by the Law Training Centre (LTC), the Foundations to Law Clinic Practice course sees aspiring solicitors tackle a range of modules on the background and practical workings of a law clinic while also gaining pro bono work experience in areas including employment, debt, personal injury, wills & probate and housing.

The legal work, undertaken remotely through the Access Law Clinic, the centre’s pro bono arm, is recorded and signed off by a supervising solicitor, meaning the work counts towards students’ two years’ qualifying experience.

The opportunity has been made possible thanks to a number of tweaks brought in following the introduction of Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). Among these changes is the option for would-be lawyers to circumvent the training contract process and complete two years QWE with up to four different “employers” — including, in this case, a pro bono clinic.

As well as course notes covering the core content, students will have access to a “personal academic coach”, multiple choice question assessments and access to ongoing training and development. Students have access the course materials for up to 12 months, but can continue to work at the clinic for as long as they like.

To be eligible a student will have completed either an undergraduate law degree or SQE1 (or equivalent). Fees start from £250.

Eve Dullabh, director of education, LTC, told Legal Cheek:

“We know that for many students, accessing the required qualifying work experience can be challenging. Whilst QWE is more flexible to get than the old training contracts which required aspiring solicitors to be employed in a law firm for two years under a specific training contract, most QWE opportunities are still likely to be standard Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm roles.”

She continued: “Like studying at Law Training Centre, students can take an Access Law Clinic case home, work on it in the evening or weekend when they are free, gain the QWE hours they need, and be able to fit this in around their work life. What’s even more beneficial is that by allowing our students to work within Access Law Clinic on a pro bono basis, we’re also enabling access to justice for those who cannot afford traditional legal fees.”

The LTC was co-founded by Dullabh, a lawyer, and her partner Dino in 2015, and is perhaps best known for its range of courses geared towards paralegals, chartered legal executives and licensed conveyancers. Following the introduction of the SQE, the centre launched a range of online prep courses priced at £1,950 for part one and £2,500 for part two.

This isn’t first time students have been offered QWE alongside their studies. From spring 2023, solicitor hopefuls at BPP will have the opportunity to apply for a six-month, full-time paid placement with the law school’s pro bono centre. Elsewhere, Nottingham Law School offers similar paid experiences, while The University of Law runs a large number of pro bono initiatives.

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The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) was introduced in September 2021, promising to shake up the route to professional qualification and open more doors into it to aspiring solicitors.

One year on, Legal Cheek partnered with BPP University Law School earlier this month for a virtual student event. Attended by over 360 national and international students, asking how the latest route to qualification was going.

In the hot seats were speakers from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) policy managers Carol Cook and Richard Williams, and BPP head of outreach and student recruitment Jonny Hurst.

Hurst, a qualified solicitor, chaired the event, identifying all the important issues and fielding questions from the attendees.

Also discussed was the introduction of Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) and the potential it offers budding solicitors to take their career journey into their own hands, as well as considering the range of providers in the space and the different courses on offer.

Until last year then, the only way you could become a qualified solicitor or barrister was to take a law degree, or a year law conversion course, and then either the Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Course. In addition, those wishing to get a practising certificate needed a much sought-after two-year training contract with a law firm or authorised organisation, adding up to six or seven years of studying and training before qualification.

That has all dramatically changed. The old traditional way to qualify is no longer the only way. It’s now possible to become a solicitor apprentice for example, which enables school leavers to qualify in six years by combining study with paid on-the-job training. The route, dubbed Qualifying Work Experience, can be undertaken before, during and/or after completing SQE1 and SQE2, at up to four organisations such as law firms, law centres and university pro bono clinics.

Williams acknowledged the impact of the SRA administered SQE route: “It’s a fundamental change — the biggest change in how you qualify as a solicitor for 30 years — for candidates and even for us at the SRA. So, against that backdrop we are really pleased with how it’s been implemented so far.”

The SQE is the final, centralised assessment at the end of all these different pathways to ensure that all qualifying solicitors are tested consistently, regardless of which route they’ve taken.

So, how’s it going so far? “We are really pleased on how it’s being implemented,” Williams told the audience. “There have been just over a thousand SQE1 candidates already, assessed in over 100 test centres around the world — in 25 countries. Over 700 individuals took the recent SQE2.”

The overall pass rate for the first SQE1 delivered in November 2021 — two exams with 180 multiple choice questions in each, and taken at the assessment centres — was 53%.

Cook said: “Candidates need to show us what they know about the key areas of law and demonstrate that they can apply that knowledge. It’s also practical — how to prosecute / defend someone charged with a criminal offence for example.”

SQE2 is, said Cook, “an assessment of competence across property, probate, business, dispute resolution and criminal”. There are sixteen individual tasks but is ultimately one assessment. You either pass or fail. Twelve of the assessments are written assessments done online at a test centre. The others are oral assessments in advocacy and interviewing in person at centres across England and Wales. International students have to attend those in the UK at the moment.

The first SQE2 results are out tomorrow (25 August). Williams pointed out that individuals taking the first round of assessments were perhaps not typical sitters: “The first set of exams were sat by experienced paralegals — older and more experienced we think. Apprentices too. Not so many of the ‘just out of uni’ candidates.”

A focus at the SRA is on removing barriers for individuals and making access to qualification more accessible. You no longer need a training contract for example — QWE has replaced that. “We’ve not prescribed what legal services is,” Williams said. “Candidates can look at Section 12 of the Legal Services Act to help work out if the work they are doing is QWE. If you broadly fit within that definition, then it’s probably QWE.”

It’s early days. The transitional period still allows those who prefer to take the LPC route until 31 December 2032.

‘Will it be cheaper?’ prospective lawyers wanted to know. Williams hopes so: “Lots of providers are responding well and proactively. The preparation courses appear to be (at the moment at least) competitively priced. This is a real bonus. We’ve issued guidance on funding.”

Ultimately then — what have the SRA learned over the last twelve months? Cook said: “There’s room for improvement. This was a long time in the making. We score really highly on the systems we have in place that are sufficiently agile and focussed enough to pick up issues where we need to do better going forward.”

Williams: “We are not resting on our laurels. We are focussing on how we can make sure the assessments run smoothly with higher numbers of candidates and how best we can support aspiring solicitors to make good choices about how they qualify. That’s not available in the previous pathway.”

Early days then. Watch this space.

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Shortly after the deregulation of the legal market came into force, Susan Cooper, founder of Accutrainee, spotted an opportunity to revolutionise the legal training model.

Susan Cooper, a former banking lawyer at Hogan Lovells, founded flexible training contract provider Accutrainee in 2012. The idea came to Cooper while reading the comment section of an online blog about legal processing outsourcing. It was there she came across a string of comments left by despondent students struggling to secure a training contract. She noted the traditional training model, while solid in principle, can be inflexible and costly in practice.

“We’ve consistently lost a lot of great talent through the selection process and lack of training contract opportunities and so that made me look into the traditional training contract model in a lot more detail,” she says. “I started to speak to more and more people in the industry and discovered that a more flexible model was a really attractive prospect.”

Consequently, in 2012, Cooper launched Accutrainee based on the concept of flexible resourcing. She says: “It took a couple of years to get off the ground as lawyers are often resistant to change, but the model proved itself when it first launched. We help exceptional candidates qualify, placing them in teams where there is a genuine need for a trainee, which is an attractive prospect for both our clients and our trainees.”

For those interested in training with Accutrainee, the application process, which is open all year round, begins with an online application form followed by an HR interview. “The interview is designed to get to know you — your interests, your background and, importantly, your key strengths and drivers.” If successful, this is followed by an assessment centre which involves a presentation and an interview to assess key competencies such as commercial awareness and analytical thinking.

Cooper highlights the emphasis Accutrainee places on understanding each person’s journey, noting that law firms’ selection processes can often favour a certain sector — namely, those who graduate with a 2:1 from a Russell Group university. Cooper explains the importance of understanding an individual’s story, for example, one candidate from a single parent family chose to attend a non-Russell Group university so they could stay close to home. She passionately believes no-one should be precluded by their background from pursuing their chosen career.

Inevitably, not everyone can be successful at interview. “We’ve really focused on the volume and the level of feedback we provide to candidates,” she says, explaining that those who are unsuccessful at interview receive detailed feedback to help them improve as they continue their search for a training contract.

Successful candidates can then embark on their training placements. Trainees can complete their training with up to four organisations which means they can have the opportunity to compare in-house to private practice, and experience different cultures and work with different teams. Placements are offered with a variety of organisations including CMS, Sullivan & Worcester, IBM and Pulse Films, to name a few.

When placing candidates, Cooper explains that a good match is the most important thing — Accutrainee listens to what the client is asking for and what the candidate is looking for, enabling trainees to create their own “bespoke training contract”. When it comes to qualification, trainees are snapped up, with over 95% of the Accutrainee cohort offered positions at one or more of the organisations at which they trained.

Ensuring trainees are supported and well-integrated into their trainee cohort is of great importance, Cooper says, with trainees receiving support from an Accutrainee mentor (mostly current and ex-partners or GCs) as well as from both HR and the supervisor they are paired with at their placement organisation. Cooper says: “The organisations we work with are committed to trainee development, trainees are very much treated as their own which we feel is really important for a good training experience.”

One key driver of Accutrainee is improving diversity within the legal profession and supporting exceptional candidates on their journey to qualification. In line with this commitment to diversity, the company launched its first scholarship programme in March 2021. Given the statistical evidence gathered, the programme was initially designed to support those of black heritage by sponsoring their solicitor examinations and prep courses and identifying opportunities to gain the two years’ legal experience they need to qualify as a solicitor. “The goal was to get four people started in 2021 — by the end of 2021 we had five trainees on the scholarship programme thereby exceeding our target,” Cooper says.

This year the scholarship programme has expanded and Accutrainee has broadened its focus. The programme is now looking to further increase social mobility and diversity within the legal profession, supporting those from low socio-economic backgrounds, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

For those that know about the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE), Accutrainee’s flexible training model will sound familiar. Under the SQE, instead of completing a traditional training contract with one law firm, aspiring solicitors can complete qualifying work experience (QWE) with up to four different organisations, which must amount to two years’ full-time work. This is the model of training that Accutrainee has pioneered since 2012.

With 10 years’ experience of QWE under its belt already, Accutrainee recently launched Pathways, a new tool to assist aspiring solicitors on their journey to qualification. “The SQE certainly has a lot of positives” says Cooper, “but if you don’t have a training contract with a law firm or organisation it can be hard as you don’t get the same level of support as you previously would and it can be quite difficult to navigate.”

Pathways has harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to map out each individual’s journey to qualification. Aspiring solicitors can create their own portfolio where they can record the QWE they have completed. The tool maps out the number of outstanding days of QWE they need to complete as well as the skills and competencies they should focus on building to successfully qualify. Cooper explains: “We recognise that everyone starts at different points, and so we are using our years of experience to help aspiring solicitors understand how their exposure to the legal profession translates to developing the competencies they need to qualify.”

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The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) came into force on 1 September 2021. Though in its infancy, it has masses of potential for the legal profession. At Legal Cheek’s latest virtual event, ‘How to use QWE to qualify as a solicitor’, members from Flex Legal, Accutrainee and Reed Smith joined a legal education expert from BARBRI to discuss the changes brought by qualifying work experience (QWE), and the opportunities it brings for aspiring lawyers and the wider legal profession.

The speakers

• Robert Dudley, Vice President of Strategy & Marketing at BARBRI
• Will Long, Flex Legal’s Head of Client Partnerships and Flex trainee
• Meera Ferguson, solicitor and Accutrainee’s Director of Operations
• Rebecca Schrod, Graduate Recruitment Manager at Reed Smith

1. Gain QWE at multiple firms

Aspiring lawyers can acquire their two years of QWE at up to four different organisations. And they don’t necessarily need to be law firms, with in-house teams, law clinics and unregulated providers of legal services, all now available to offer work that makes the grade. This is cause for celebration according to Meera Ferguson, solicitor and Accutrainee’s Director of Operations. At Accutrainee, which employs trainees who are then seconded out to in-house teams and law firms, “the building blocks had already been set and relationships had been built” for trainees and its client businesses and law firms, she explained.

Will Long, Flex Legal’s Head of Client Partnerships, also shared the same sentiment. Though newer in its inception and with a unique social mobility angle, Flex Legal has been able to capitalise on this shake-up by offering its Flex trainees experiences in a wide range of organisations, including Vodafone, ASOS, BMW and even the Church of England.

But the speakers all emphasised that QWE should not simply be viewed by aspiring lawyers as a tick-box exercise. Rather, “the combined total of QWE should be of a quality that helps you with the most opportunities for your future”, stressed Robert Dudley, Vice President of Strategy & Marketing at BARBRI. When it comes to applying for positions as a newly qualified (NQ) lawyer, it is that quality of experience obtained that will “make you a well-rounded lawyer able to move into organisations and be a manager, a leader or even a CEO”, Ferguson added.

It can be entirely possible for a newbie associate to enter the world of private practice with only paralegal experience under their belt, according to Rebecca Schrod, Graduate Recruitment Manager at Reed Smith. From the international firm’s perspective, it is “very much about telling a story with your QWE, explaining why you’ve approached it in the way you have and why this will add value to the firm”, Schrod explained. The work experience obtained by students must also look to develop skills beyond just technical ability: “it’s the transferable competencies, emotional intelligence and human aspects of being a lawyer that tend to drive people forward in their careers”, Long said. Wider business attributes like stakeholder management, sales knowledge, as well as “softer skills” like punctuality and being present in a meeting “is an accelerant to someone’s legal career”, he added.

When it comes to selecting opportunities for QWE, Dudley told the virtual audience of over 250 students: “Ask yourself, ‘Does this combine well with other experiences for what you ultimately want to achieve in the end?’”

2. QWE: before, during or after the SQE?

Whether you choose to start QWE before, during or after SQE1 or 2 prep — or even during your undergraduate degree — this can all count towards the two-year requirement. But when is the best time to do this?

Some students will prefer to undertake QWE during the SQE. Subjects can be “conceptual and abstract when you’re just studying them in isolation, so being able to apply it in work can be useful”, said Long. The speakers agreed that studying while learning presents an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to deal with competing priorities and balancing them — an important skill for junior lawyers.

However, this approach is not necessarily right for everyone and ultimately comes down to personal preference and experience, the panellists stressed. “At the end of every stage in your career, you need to be able to tell a good story about what you have learnt and how this will contribute to the next stage of your career”, Long told the audience.

3. Death to the traditional training contract?

As Dudley put it, QWE has the potential to “change the entrenched system” whereby after completion of the Legal Practice Course, trainees undertake a series of seats before qualifying into their desired practice area. Following the introduction of the SQE, Reed Smith made the decision to evolve its training contract model.

The firm’s future rookies will first take part in a ‘professional SQE year’, which Schrod described as “a year-long blend of study and practical work experience”. While trainees complete their SQE1 and 2 prep, as well as advanced electives, they will undertake two placements across the firm’s professional services and pro bono teams. After completing this year, trainees will then undertake their QWE across different practice areas in the firm. The aim of this, said Schrod, is to give their trainees “a broader sense of life at a law firm”. It was important to the international outfit that trainees learn about these different functions, “to develop new skills and really make the most of the opportunities the SQE has to offer”, she expanded.

Schrod concluded by explaining that the firm’s logic is largely underpinned by a question all firms and organisations should be asking themselves: “What are the good bits of the old system that we should keep, but also what opportunities could the SQE present us with?”

4. New opportunities for aspiring lawyers

The opportunities created by QWE “could have a really profound effect on the entry points”, according to Long. Pointing to a statistic that showed last year there were some 35,000 applicants for roughly 5,000 training contracts, Long went on to explain that widening access to the profession through new and innovative training opportunities can only have a positive effect.

But equally as important is the recognition that private practice is not necessarily suited for every individual. Dudley emphasised that “we are now in a situation where new opportunities are opening up as a result of this new regime and we need to embrace it”. It’s no longer just “barrister or solicitor, City or high street”, Ferguson added, with new opportunities for students to seek out QWE in exciting new areas such as legal operations, legal technology and legal project management. “Don’t try and fit yourself into a box you think you ought to be in; the SQE can help you if you play to your strengths”, she said.

Rounding off the informative discussion, the panellists were in agreement that there needs to be more awareness and engagement — from all parts of the legal profession. There are practical concerns but for Long, and the rest of the speakers, “the SQE and QWE is a valid and worthwhile path to a long-term career in law”.

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BPP University is set to offer paid qualifying work experience (QWE) placements for the first time.

From spring 2023, current and former students will have the opportunity to apply for a six-month, full-time placement with the law school’s pro bono centre.

Students selected for the new programme will have either already worked at BPP’s clinic or can demonstrate a “pro bono ethic”. BPP will initially offer five placements with a view to doubling its intake over the proceeding 12 months.

A spokesperson for the law school confirmed it will provide a “competitive” salary in line with the Law Society’s recommended minimum for candidates completing the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). This recommendation currently sits at £22,794 in London and £20,217 elsewhere.

The opportunity for students complete a chunk of their on the job training with BPP is possible thanks to a series of changes brought in following the introduction of SQE. Among these tweaks is the option for aspiring lawyers to circumvent the training contract process and complete two years QWE with up to four different “employers” — including, in this case, a pro bono clinic.

To be ‘qualifying’, the experience must be grounded in legal work and allow an individual to develop at least two of the regulator’s prescribed competencies for solicitors.

Emma Blackstone and Lucy Wildig, joint heads of pro bono at BPP, said:

“With such an established, extensive legal advice provision, BPP Pro Bono Centre is in the ideal position to be able to offer QWE placements. We wanted these placements to be accessible and to be meaningful, which is why they are paid and why each placement is for six months.”

The vast majority of law schools offer similar pro bono opportunities, with The University of Law and Nottingham Law School (NLS) among the first to do so back in 2015. NLS, like BPP, offers full-time paid placements through its legal advice clinic.

Applications for the new QWE placements will open early spring 2023.

In addition to this, BPP is also offering a ‘Career Guarantee’ as part of their SQE offering. This means if aspiring lawyers fail to secure a “relevant legal role” within six months of passing their SQE2 assessments, they receive access to the law school’s ‘Career Boost’ package featuring a range of employability courses.

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The first ever cohort of students to sit the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) are currently in that state of limbo familiar to all students as they await the results of their SQE2. It’s not only the students who are in suspense, of course, BARBRI’s vice president of strategy and marketing, Robert Dudley, is equally keen to hear how they all got on. The course provider was one of the first in the market to run preparation courses for the new exams and accounted for about one third of all those who sat the inaugural SQE1 in November, with excellent results published in January. The results of SQE2, which students sat in April, are not yet out.

“We were delighted, as a provider, to publish our SQE1 pass rate because we felt it was important to do so, and our students reported a 77% pass rate compared to the average rate of 53% recorded by the Solicitors Regulation Authority,” Dudley explains. “While SQE1 tests the application of functioning legal knowledge, SQE2 presents different challenges, covering aspects such as legal research, drafting and advocacy, and we made sure the students were well prepared to sit this new style of exam.”

Work experience

Future solicitors qualifying via the SQE route must also complete two years of qualifying work experience (QWE), which can be undertaken at up to four different workplaces at a time and in a way convenient to the student, for example, through full-time or part-time paralegal work. The onus of arranging this is on the student and, as it’s all brand new, the process can be quite confusing. Dudley says students are given advice and help with choosing their work experience options and can also talk it over with the careers team and their mentors, all of whom are qualified solicitors or barristers.

“The aims of the SQE are to break down barriers, build a more inclusive profession and increase flexibility,” he says “QWE lends itself nicely to flexibility because it moves away from this very entrenched system where students were traditionally working towards very similar goals of LPC, training contract and predominantly into private practice, Dudley says. “QWE provides new opportunities, new career paths and it gives flexibility to people who might otherwise not have been able to secure a training contract in the past.”

Some of the students will be paralegals with years of experience under their belt. Others will be new to the job. Dudley points out that competency is addressed through the SQE1 and 2 exams. For students, therefore, “it’s about being clever with QWE, looking for the most valuable opportunities, and we encourage them to look for experience beyond private practice into other areas of the legal profession.”

In-house

One major (and growing) opportunity for SQE-qualifying students is the in-house market. According to the Law Society’s annual statistics report, there were about 31,000 in-house solicitors in 2019, nearly three times the amount there were 20 years prior.

“That’s a big number, and yet my concern is that a lot of students don’t understand they now have the opportunity to gain work experience in-house with the removal of the training contract requirement. In-house legal careers and opportunities are growing and can be more flexible and agile,” says Dudley. “In fact, they’re not always aware of the opportunities outside of private practice. In-house teams are committed to retaining their talent so being able to offer paralegals an opportunity to qualify through the SQE route is fantastic for them. Hiring talent from law firms isn’t always an option as it is often prohibitively expensive to do this.”

Stints of three months or six months at in-house legal department would therefore be a clever addition to the QWE portfolio ahead of qualification. Dudley is also keen to point out that careers in legal operations, legal tech and legal project management are challenging and rewarding pathways to explore.

“Where the goal of the old system was private practice, there is now more choice and accessibility,” he says. “We want to help our students understand their options and work with the wider legal profession to ensure opportunities open up for all. We want to be able to offer alternative pathways which is why we have formed partnerships with organisations such as Flex Legal and Lawyers on Demand. Improving diversity and inclusion is a core objective of BARBRI and of the SQE.”

Too early to say

One controversy is whether QWE will result in a two-tier system. Will law firms who put trainees through a more traditional style two-year training contract route value them more than someone applying to them who has completed four experiences in different firms, corporates or 3rd sector for their QWE? “It is too early to answer that question,” Dudley says, but he thinks ultimately that it is a consideration future practitioners should be conscious of.

Another area of discussion is the order in which stages are completed. The general expectation is that students do their QWE before sitting SQE2, because the exam tests your competences and you would expect to build on that through your work experience. However, there is no hard and fast rule so the industry is divided on this at present.

Dudley initially studied modern languages at university, followed by a GDL and LPC at the College of Law, and then to Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. His career includes a stint as head of international programmes at IE Law School in Madrid and 14 years in various roles at the College of Law before joining BARBRI in 2015.

Robert Dudley will be chairing a virtual event, How to use QWE to qualify as a solicitor — with Reed Smith, Flex Legal, Elevate, Accutrainee and BARBRI, on Thursday 23 June. Secure your place now.

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Mary Bonsor, founder and CEO of Flex Legal began her legal career working as a commercial property litigator at Winckworth Sherwood. The firm’s London premises were located next to a law school and so whilst at work Bonsor would see students passing by her window. She tells me how she wanted to help these students progress on their legal journeys and it was this desire that sparked the idea to create Flex, the “Uber of law”, Bonsor explains.

Flex is an online platform which connects paralegals and lawyers with law firms and in-house legal teams on a flexible basis, according to business needs. The team works with a variety of law firms, from magic circle to boutique firms. Bonsor explains that the workload in practice areas goes through peaks and troughs, with corporate, employment, real estate, commercial and litigation being the top five practice areas that benefit from the additional support that Flex can provide during busy periods.

The length of placements vary, Bonsor shares, noting that paralegals and lawyers can complete stints which last anywhere from one month, assisting on a short-term document review project, to twelve months working in the commercial team of a law firm on a fixed term contract.

“We have around 4,000 paralegals and lawyers on the books in total and around half of these are actively looking for work,” says Bonsor. When it comes to placing those seeking work, Bonsor explains that her team considers a candidate’s interests and balances this with their clients’ needs and the opportunities on offer. Culture is also a key consideration. “We really get to know our clients so that we can find people who will fit their culture very well,” adds Bonsor.

The Flex team consists of around 40 former lawyers and a tech team of 12. The company has also welcomed law students as part of its commercial development team, with the aim of helping students looking for training contracts to build their commercial awareness. “For me, the best part of it all is that we are really helping people”, Bonsor tells me, explaining that Flex not only helps law students get training contracts but also helps lawyers, who may otherwise have left the profession, work flexibly in a way that suits their lifestyle. “This has been the passion and mission of the company.”

Flex’s business model is thriving, particularly in light of the recent introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) which is opening doors for aspiring solicitors by creating new routes to qualification through Qualifying Work Experience (QWE).

To qualify under the SQE, aspiring solicitors must complete QWE equivalent to two years’ full-time work which can be completed in up to four organisations through various roles including working as a paralegal. This essentially allows aspiring solicitors to build their own training contract, and Flex’s experience means that the company is well-placed to support students looking to qualify via this route.

Not only does Flex assist students and paralegals in finding placements which constitute QWE, but Flex has recently launched a tool, the ‘Flex Legal Journal’, to help those completing QWE track their progress. “We’re doing more than just finding people placements”, says Bonsor, “this tool is totally free and available to everyone.”

The tool enables students to have a centralised digital record of the work they have completed and so they can easily manage their progress and log the competencies they developed during each placement in line with the requirements laid out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This is particularly useful for those completing a series of placements at different organisations.

The Flex Legal Journal already has over 2,350 users. From these users Flex has been able to gather key statistics to track which competencies trainees achieve easily and pinpoint those which may require further focus to reach. The data collected so far shows that trainees are highly successful at achieving competencies such as taking responsibility for personal learning and development, and reflecting on and learning from practice and learning from other people.

Bonsor highlights the advantages the tool offers law firms, allowing them to easily manage and monitor requests to supervise QWE. The supervisor will have a clear audit trail of what QWE the aspiring solicitor has completed. The tool is free of charge to use but Bonsor explains that for a fee, it can be tailored to a law firm’s specific needs to ensure it is as beneficial as possible for the firm.

Reflecting on the opportunities the SQE is creating, Bonsor emphasises the positive impact the new route to qualification will have on the profession. She notes that the SQE is likely to lead to an increase in newly qualified (NQ) solicitors as well as an uptick in various roles, such as legal operations, legal analyst, and quasi-legal roles. Bonsor highlights that there are a variety of ways that lawyers are now able to practise, whether in private practice at a law firm, in-house, or through a company operating as an alternative business structure (ABS). “It’s no bad thing to have more lawyers,” she remarks. “You would hope this will improve access to justice and lower the cost of legal services which will provide better access to lawyers for consumers.”

Mary Bonsor will be speaking at LegalEdCon 2022, Legal Cheek’s annual future of legal education and training conference, which takes place in-person on Thursday 12 May at Kings Place, London. Final release tickets are available to purchase.

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Law firms should not use the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) as an opportunity to pay trainees less, the Law Society has warned.

Th Chancery Lane body stressed that providers of training contracts and qualifying work experience (QWE) should pay lawyer hopefuls at least £20,217 outside London and £22,794 in the capital.

While most readers will be familiar with the traditional TC, many will perhaps be less familiar with QWE. This is part of the changes brought in under the SQE and offers a more flexible approach to on-the-job training, with trainees able to complete their two-year work experience requirement with up to four different legal employers.

Ahead of the introduction of the SQE on 1 September, Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce warned that trainees “doing the QWE must be paid the same as those completing a training contract”.

She continued:

“As both schemes will run in parallel in the coming years, due to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) transitional arrangements, this update will ensure parity across both routes. The solicitors’ profession offers an incredibly fulfilling career. With the implementation of the SQE, firms should be clear that employees, no matter which route they take, will be treated fairly.”

Unfortunately, the Society’s recommendations are completely unenforceable after the SRA scrapped minimum pay requirements for young lawyers in 2014. This means firms can choose to simply ignore them, with the latest stats showing that around a fifth of London rookies are being paid less than the Law Society’s recommended minimum wage.

Manda Banerji, chair of the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD), added: “Entry to the solicitors’ profession should be on merit only and an individual’s financial means should not pose a barrier for them to enter the profession; such barriers result in the profession losing talent and representation from diverse communities.”

She continued: “The JLD believes that the implementation of a recommended minimum salary for those completing training will have a positive impact on social mobility, equality and diversity within the legal profession.”

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The much talked of Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) is, finally, a reality. Assessment dates have been set and graduates who wish to become solicitors can now apply to legal education providers, including Nottingham Law School, to undertake SQE preparation courses.

Under the new rules, from September 2021, students who have not yet started to study or train to become a solicitor must pass both SQE1 and 2, and the Legal Practice Course (LPC) will no longer be an option (if you are not sure whether this applies to you, check the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s transitional training arrangements).

As more information emerges about the wide range of SQE preparation courses on offer, it is becoming easier for students to make informed decisions about their study choices. But making decisions about study choices is only part of the picture: it is not just the LPC that is disappearing, but also the requirement for future solicitors to complete an SRA-regulated training contract. Instead of securing a training contract, students who have not started by September 2021 will now need to complete two years’ Qualifying Work Experience (QWE).

It is immensely important for students to understand what might count as QWE at an early stage of their professional journey. Whilst QWE is likely to provide an element of flexibility for students, students will need to look carefully at the QWE on offer and understand how it may be regarded by employers at the point of qualification. Specifically (and with apologies to George Orwell), students need to consider whether all QWE will be equal, or whether some QWE will be more equal than others.

When can I do my QWE?

But before we go on to examine QWE in detail (including what it means for LPC students), it is worth reminding ourselves how the new qualification process works and to see where QWE fits in. From September 2021, there will be four parts to qualification: you must have a degree (or equivalent); pass both SQE1 and 2; complete two years’ QWE; and satisfy the SRA’s character and suitability requirements.

One of the differences between the LPC route and the SQE route is that the LPC route is linear: students complete the LPC, then the two-year training contract, then they qualify. Under the SQE route, QWE is non-linear: you do not have to complete SQE1 and 2 before you do your QWE. The SRA has said that you can even start collecting QWE now, and “bank it” ahead of sitting the SQE in the next academic year.

For many students, the flexibility of QWE and the knowledge that they no longer need worry about applying for a training contract, will come as a great relief. However, as with all the changes to qualification introduced by the SRA, students should dig a bit deeper to make sure that they are fully informed.

The reality is that there will be a range of opportunities available to students. Some law firms will require their students to complete SQE1 and 2 before joining the firm for QWE, while other firms may offer junior positions which can count towards QWE and enable the junior to study for the SQE while they work.

At Nottingham Law School, we recommend that students take as much advice as they can from the employers and firms that they want to apply to, and ask them what is required to make a successful application. This is important, because many firms are in the process of re-thinking their approach to training. As Alex Smith, partner and managing director at Shakespeare Martineau, says: “The introduction of QWE gives us another opportunity at Shakespeare Martineau to reflect upon our current qualifying work experience programme, what it looks like, how it can be improved and how creative we can be with it.”

What is QWE?

The SRA website explains that QWE “must be in roles providing legal services that offer a candidate the opportunity to develop some (or all) of the competences needed to practise as a solicitor”.

The point about developing the competences is important: your QWE will need to be meaningful. There is no point taking on work experience that will just involve you making tea or photocopying, because you will be doing yourself a disservice. Although the experience may give you a sense of a law firm’s ambience, it will not help you to develop the competences needed to practise as a solicitor.

This means that you need to look carefully at any potential QWE opportunities and see how they map to the SRA’s Statement of Solicitor Competence. You will need to do your homework to make sure that anything that you take on will give you the opportunities you need to develop as a professional.

LPC students and QWE

QWE is not just for SQE candidates. If you are an LPC student who has been unsuccessful in obtaining a training contract, you could qualify by completing QWE, provided that you pass SQE2 or, at least for the present, you could compile a substantial portfolio and seek an exemption from the training contract by “equivalent means”.

What counts as QWE?

The good news is that a wide variety of opportunities can count as QWE, and that you can collect QWE from up to four different providers. QWE can be paid or voluntary, and can include placement opportunities, pro bono clinic work, work undertaken at a Citizens Advice Centre, paralegal work or a training contract.

Nottingham Law School’s Professor Jane Jarman is clear that the flexibility of the QWE means that opportunities for students may arise in unlikely places and will not be limited to the traditional law firms. Jarman thinks that the growth of in-house legal departments supervised by solicitors, especially in the financial services and local government sector, could lead to an increase in qualification in that sector and the number of specialist, in-house counsel. The new arrangements may also provide a useful route to those seeking a career change later in life as the ability to bank QWE gained beyond the traditional law firm could open the door to greater diversity in the profession at all levels.

Who can sign off your QWE?

Your QWE can be confirmed by a practising or non-practising solicitor who has direct knowledge of your work, or a firm’s compliance officer for legal practice (commonly referred to as a COLP). It is important to understand what is being signed off: a solicitor who confirms your QWE is not confirming that you have met the competence threshold, as that is for the SRA to assess through the SQE. Rather, the signatory is confirming that you undertook the QWE, that you were given the opportunity to develop some or all of the solicitor competences, and that there are no questions as to your character and suitability as a solicitor.

What happens when you finish your QWE?

Because QWE is deregulated, the SRA does not require seat rotation. This means that you could become an expert in the area in which you want to specialise. The downside is that you end up so specialised that you do not develop an awareness or understanding of how different departments operate and your exposure to differing career paths may be restricted. You should bear this in mind when choosing your QWE because it may have an implication for your future employability.

Under the new rules, when you have satisfied the SRA that you have completed the four necessary components for qualification as a solicitor, you can apply to the SRA to join the roll. Although this will be a joyous moment, it is important to recognise that simply because you can call yourself a solicitor, it does not mean that your firm will recognise you as such. You may find that because you were employed as a paralegal as part of the firm’s business model, they do not have a role for you as a solicitor and are not inclined to pay you as one — even though you will have to have a practising certificate if you are providing legal services and want to stay on the roll.

Similarly, even if you are technically qualified as a solicitor and apply to another law firm for a solicitor post, it is possible that they will take the view that you are not properly trained for the kind of work that you are seeking to do. Some law firms have indicated that they would expect new joiners to do the equivalent of a further two years of QWE in order to be satisfied that they are at the necessary level.

Understanding the firm’s expectations and how they map to your own is therefore a crucial part of planning your future as a professional, including the period beyond the QWE. Smith explains that Shakespeare Martineau are considering the impact that QWE will have on their ongoing post qualification development programmes. “We have to take into account the fact that we will not only have candidates who have successfully come through our own QWE programme, but will recruit candidates who will have undertaken some or all of their QWE in other organisations. This has also led us to looking at the ways in which we can ensure, through our own competency assessments, that the technical expertise obtained through QWE reflects our needs and expectations.”

The need for good advice

There are some real positives to be taken from the new route to qualification, including the flexibility of what can count as QWE. Many of you who have already undertaken pro bono work will concur with Laura Pinkney, head of the Nottingham Law School Legal Advice Centre (a teaching law firm) who thinks that QWE is a significant step in recognising the important, and often complex and challenging, work that is undertaken by law students.

But crucially, you need to embark upon your professional career with your eyes open. You need to talk to firms, your tutors and employability advisors. And most importantly, you need to follow the advice of Nottingham Law School’s Professor Jane Ching, who emphasises the need for prospective solicitors to understand the SRA’s competence requirements. As she observes, “the SRA only requires QWE to provide you with opportunities to develop at least some of the competences. So you do need to be familiar with the statement of solicitor competence and identify the competences that you know you need to develop, or, if you have yet to take SQE2, will help you prepare for that assessment.”

In other words, if your work placement has only amounted to making cups of tea for the boss, that isn’t going to cut it for professional life!

Professor Paula Moffatt is director of external engagement at Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University. Professors Jane Ching and Jane Jarman from Nottingham Law School will both be speaking at LegalEdCon 2021, a two-day virtual conference, taking place on Wednesday 19 May and Thursday 20 May, along with Alex Smith, partner and managing director at Shakespeare Martineau. Third release tickets are available to purchase.

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