Solicitors Qualifying Exam

This is a hub of all our SQE Information Series. 

YLAL is often contacted by our members to ask what will SQE mean for them, how will it work, how much will it cost, and how might it change their potential route to qualification.

This hub of our SQE Information Series, which launched in September 2021, aims to give you all that information, and more!

Social Welfare Solicitors Qualification Fund

On Monday 6 December 2021, YLAL, along with City of London Law Society and Barbri were pleased to announce the launch of the Social Welfare Solicitors Qualification Fund.

Find out more:

What is SQE?  

The first in the series is a Fact Sheet on SQE.

Want to know more about what SQE, how it will work, and what it covers? This is the place to be!

Will SQE impact workers’ rights?

Our next piece is a guest blog; an article on the impact of the SQE on workers’ rights by LSWU’s James Cunningham.

An Academic’s Perspective

The third piece in our series is an interview with Dr Guth, an academic working on the SQE, conducted by our committee member,  Aneela Samrai.

YLAL’s Aneela Samrai sat down with Dr Jess Guth for a Q&A on all things SQE. Dr Guth is a Legal Academic with a particular interest in legal education. Until recently she was a Reader in Law at Leeds Beckett University and prior to that was Head of Law at the University of Bradford. Dr Guth is an experienced academic and has developed and taught a variety of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She has published widely on legal education, including the SQE, and in feminist and queer approaches to law and legal study. She is a former Chair of the Association of Law Teachers and the Deputy Editor of the Law Teacher: The International Journal of Legal Education. She has also been a member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association Executive Committee and the Society of Legal Scholars’ (SLS) Legal Education Sub-Committee.

What do potential candidates think?

Our fourth piece is an insight into what candidates think of SQE in comparison to the LPC.

How does the cost compare to the LPC?
Since SQE was first suggested, YLAL has been concerned about the financial impediment it will cause to prospective solicitors. We have created a table to help to show a comparison between the different routes to qualification before and after SQE, which sets out the cost of the courses and the length of each stage.

SQE: (Un)Reasonable Adjustments?

Our fifth piece is another guest blog: an article on the lack of assistive technologies in the SQE exam.

SQE Survey Report

On 12 May 2021, YLAL created a survey to inquiry about our members’ interest in the Social Welfare Lawyers’ Qualification Fund. Click here for the report.

Q&A with Katy Robinson on Solicitor Apprenticeships and the SQE

The sixth piece is an interview with Katy Robinson on the Solicitor Apprenticeships and the SQE, conducted by our committee member,  Aneela Samrai. Note, an apprenticeship is an entirely different route to the SQE and LPC.

Creating a diverse profession with lawyers equipped for the modern legal market

Our seventh piece is a guest article written by Craig Tickner, the President of CILEX (the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives), discussing the notably differences between the SQE route and the CILEX route, for qualification.

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Consultation responses

YLAL has engaged in the development of the SQE proposals over many years. You can find our previous SQE consultation responses here.