Training partners: how firms and law schools could work together in the new SQE era

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has changed their training regulations. Of relevance here are the recognised steps to becoming licensed as a solicitor, together with the knowledge and skills. This means that the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) will start in Autumn 2021 and the SRA will no longer require students to study a Qualifying Law Degree (QLD) or Common Professional Examination (CPE). How will this impact the graduate route to qualification as a solicitor? The SRA has a statutory duty to ensure that those who are licensed as solicitors have the knowledge and skills necessary to be admitted to the roll. The SRA specifies the knowledge and skills required to become admitted, while also prescribing and regulating the academic programmes of learning for the development of these skills. Currently, the route to qualification taken by most students is to study for a qualifying law degree, before completing the LPC and training contract. Alternatively, a graduate can complete the CPE, also called the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), followed by the LPC and training contract. These routes are prescribed by the SRA, which also authorises the institutions that can provide a qualifying law degree or CPE. This will fundamentally change with the introduction of the SQE. The SQE will mean there will be only two routes to qualification as a solicitor. One, being a graduate, successfully passing the SQE and completing a period of work-based learning. The other, completing a solicitor apprenticeship and successfully passing the SQE at the end of that apprenticeship. As things stand, most solicitors are law graduates, or graduates from another discipline who have successfully completed the CPE. The SRA has prescribed large parts of the content in the QLD and the CPE, which are the foundations of legal knowledge. The subjects this covers are contract, tort, public law, crime, land, equity and trusts and the European Union. There are 120 providers of the QLD and 33 providers of the CPE who are recognised by the SRA, which provides a level of consistency in the knowledge content from those institutions. There are, of course, differences at each institution such as the length of the programme, ranging from a two-year accelerated degree to the traditional three-year full-time law degree. Additional content may range from joint honours in other subjects, to law or non-law knowledge.

MORE THAN LEGAL KNOWLEDGE

A significant element of the QLD content is dominated by knowledge that is prescribed by the SRA. But a law degree is more than that. The degree also develops legal skills, which includes how to use the law and how to practise the law. It’s about academic skills such as critical reading and research, persuasive writing and accurate citation, oral and written presentations. It’s also about the development of a learner, allowing them to change and grow through their studies on an academic and personal basis while aiding the development of autonomy, selfmanagement, and teamwork. Under the SQE regime, students will no longer need to study a QLD or CPE as the SRA will no longer specify the academic content of law degrees. To pass the SQE, students will need the knowledge set out in the Statement of Legal Knowledge. That Legal Knowledge includes all of the foundation subjects, but also a much broader range of legal knowledge that solicitors are required to demonstrate at the point of qualification such as ethics and taxation.