BY SARAH FELLOWS
The Solicitors Qualifying Examination route to qualification, and specifically the element of qualifying work experience, presents an ideal opportunity for organisations to grow new and existing legal talent and to address the demands of both their business and their clients. Sarah Fellows, education and training advisor of legal services advisory firm Hook Tangaza, sets out how the new route works and explains how it can benefit organisations specialising in immigration law.
Any organisation specialising in immigration law, be it asylum, human rights, nationality, or business immigration, needs a legal team trained to give high-quality legal advice tailored to the diverse needs of its clients. For this, it is crucial that the right staff are recruited and supported in the right roles to meet the demands of the business. However, finding such people can prove challenging, especially when a firm relies solely on traditional methods of recruitment to fill its legal positions.
An alternative – and highly effective – strategy is to assist paralegals and trainees to qualify as solicitors through the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) route. This approach can ensure a legal team is both capable and adaptable to the unique challenges of immigration law and to the needs of the business.
The SQE route: the basics
To qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales via the SQE route, individuals must:
- hold a UK degree level qualification in any subject, or equivalent
- successfully pass both SQE1 & 2 assessments, unless exemptions are approved
- complete a period of two years’ full-time or equivalent legal qualifying work experience (QWE),
appropriately supervised and signed off by a qualified SRA-registered solicitor or compliance officer
for legal practice (COLP) - develop at least two, ideally more, of the SRA solicitor competencies during work experience
- satisfy SRA character and suitability checks.
What constitutes ‘qualifying work experience’?
Qualifying work experience, or QWE, is an essential component of the SQE route. Although those seeking to qualify through this route need two years of QWE, it does not have to be completed over a continuous two-year period and so offers greater flexibility than an LPC-route training contract in terms of employer responsibilities, structure, and regulations.
Unlike the LPC route, employers providing QWE roles are not required to be regulated by the SRA as training providers. Any employer, regardless of size or SRA regulation, offering roles that involve delivery or provision of legal services can provide QWE-eligible positions.
To qualify, a role must facilitate the development of at least two SRA solicitor competencies, although the onus of confirming these competencies falls to the SQE assessments, not to the employers.
There is no requirement to offer seats or rotations, or both contentious and non-contentious placements. This allows smaller firms, charities, and similar organisations to offer roles that can satisfy either the full two-year QWE requirement or shorter contracts if needed.
Additionally, QWE does not have to be completed with a single employer. The required work experience can be accumulated from paralegal roles, pro bono work, university legal work placements, volunteer roles in law clinics or centres and other fixed-term or permanent paid legal positions in up to four separate organisations.
Practicalities of supporting and recording QWE
The onus is on the role holder rather than the employer to record QWE. That said, the organisation should maintain good records to support the individual when they request confirmation of their QWE, including details of contract types, duration, start and end dates, supervisor details, legal duties and services undertaken. Employers should also document any issues that might raise questions about an employee’s character and suitability for admission as a solicitor.
It is important to remember that as an employer, you are not being asked to confirm the competence of a candidate, but rather that they have completed the work they say they have done for the purpose of meeting the QWE requirement. Competence is assessed through the SQE assessments.
It is also good practice for the workplace supervisor and person confirming the QWE record (if not the supervisor) to:
- ensure that the employee engages with development opportunities in the role
- encourage the employee to reflect on their work, identify areas for improvement and determine
further learning needs - be able to demonstrate that the employee had the opportunity to develop some of the required
competencies.
Advantages of offering QWE
More opportunities and flexibility for employers
While some employers may be hesitant to adopt the relatively new SQE qualification route, preferring the familiarity of the LPC pathway, most new entrants to the profession will be coming through the SQE route, and therefore seeking QWE opportunities. The flexibility afforded by the SQE route is particularly advantageous for smaller or boutique immigration law firms and charities, allowing them to develop their own staff into qualified roles. This ability to ‘grow your own’ talent helps employers avoid the pitfalls of recruiting and upskilling newly qualified solicitors who lack experience in immigration law.
Supporting existing staff
In many immigration law practices, paralegals play a significant role but lack clear career progression pathways. While some career paralegals may not aspire to qualify as solicitors, those who do can be supported by their employer confirming their paralegal work as QWE.
Attracting new talent
Not everyone seeking work experience in immigration law will necessarily have had exposure to this area of law through undergraduate law degrees or postgraduate law courses, including their SQE preparation courses. Employers offering short-term, entry-level paralegal roles can help individuals with no or minimal work experience in the sector to decide if they are genuinely interested in and capable of handling the challenges of this field of work. Without such opportunities, many may overlook immigration law as a career choice, instead gravitating to the more highly publicised and highly remunerated areas of law practised by City and international firms.
Short-term roles can also help meet growing client and business needs, offering an efficient solution to an immediate staffing need while providing aspiring solicitors with QWE to add to their portfolio. Employers can also use these positions to evaluate new staff, with the option of offering longer-term employment with the firm if they prove a good fit.
Additionally, employers may choose to further incentivise retention by offering study leave or funding to those who have not yet passed one or both SQE assessments, or by funding further courses and qualifications in immigration law. For those with financial constraints, advertising roles as suitable for QWE for those who have passed SQE1, with or without a law degree or equivalent, can attract individuals who have already demonstrated the legal knowledge required of a newly qualified solicitor.
Practical tips for advertising roles
When advertising a paralegal or trainee solicitor role, in addition to the usual job description, employers should consider the following tips to encourage candidates to apply:
- Clearly state that the role is suitable for those seeking QWE through the SQE route, ensuring
that it meets the definition of providing legal services - Specify the specific SRA competencies the role can help develop, ensuring a minimum of two
- Include how the role will be supervised and supported
- Clarify who will confirm the role as QWE e.g. the supervisor if they are an SRA-regulated solicitor,
someone else in the organisation who meets that requirement, or whether the individual will need
to seek external confirmation - Indicate what support, if any, will be given for those yet to complete the SQE assessments (e.g. study
leave, prep course funding or loan, exam fee funding or loan)
Be open-minded about the different routes candidates may be taking to achieve their qualification. While it may be tempting to rely on traditional academic requirements when recruiting into these roles, particularly where recruiters’ own career paths followed traditional pathways, it is important to remember that the SQE is a flexible route to qualification enabling candidates to enter the profession through a wider variety of routes, with different academic qualifications and experience, all of which could be hugely beneficial to a prospective employer. When advertising roles, consider, for example, listing legal academic requirements as LLB, GDL or SQE1 and LPC or SQE2 to avoid disadvantaging those have come through the SQE route without a law degree or law conversion. Otherwise, this can perpetuate some of the inequalities that the SQE route to qualification is intended to remove.
Post-qualification as solicitors
As with the LPC route, employers are not obligated to offer permanent roles to trainee solicitors upon qualification. It is essential, however, to manage expectations by clearly communicating what happens after qualification as a solicitor, whether that involves continuing in an existing paralegal role, offering no further role at the end of a fixed-term contract, or encouraging staff to apply for a newly qualified role internally or elsewhere. Retaining high-quality staff who employers have taken the time to train, supervise and develop reaps rewards for the business and clients, but it is a decision for employers to take based on resourcing needs.
A final word
By following these guidelines, employers can use the SQE route and QWE roles within it, to build a competent and motivated legal team, ready to meet the unique challenges of immigration law.
Further reading from LawQWE: How SME firms can embrace qualifying work experience to support talent recruitment and retention
Sarah Fellows is the Education and Training Adviser at Hook Tangaza, a specialist advisory firm for the legal services sector.
As part of her role she supports the operations of LawQWE.
ILPA invites members and other leading experts to contribute articles to its monthly blog. The views expressed in all blog posts are the authors’ own and are not necessarily those of ILPA.
- Document Date
- Wednesday October 9, 2024