After completing the first four years of your solicitor apprenticeship and obtaining your law degree, you will have to sit the Solicitor Qualifying Examination (SQE) to qualify.
What is the SQE and what should you expect?
SQE 1
SQE 1 is a best multiple choice question (MCQ) based exam, which takes place over two days. The practice areas are as follows:
Day one - functioning legal knowledge 1
- Business law and practice
- Dispute resolution
- Contract
- Tort
- Legal system of England and Wales
- Constitutional and administrative law
- EU Law
- Legal services
Day two - functioning legal knowledge 2
- Wills and the administration of estates
- Solicitor accounts
- Land law
- Property practice
- Trusts
- Criminal law and practice
Ethics and professional conduct will be tested throughout and tax law.
SQE 2
After successfully completing SQE 1, you will then sit SQE 2. This comprises of five half-day exams in the following skills and practice areas:
Skills
- Client interview and attendance
- Note/legal analysis
- Advocacy
- Case and matter analysis
- Legal research
- Legal writing
- Legal drafting
Practice areas
- Criminal litigation
- Disputes resolution
- Property practice
- Wills and intestacy
- Probate administration and practice
- Business organisation rules and procedures
As with the SQE 1, ethics and professional conduct will be tested throughout and tax law.
The SQE experience so far
At the time of writing, I have only completed SQE 1 and I am currently studying for SQE 2. So far, I have found the SQE exams and assessments challenging, with a different concept to the typical university assessments on the LLB.
However, I found that with the help and support of the course provider and my colleagues at Womble Bond Dickinson, they are just another, manageable hurdle to overcome on the route to qualifying as a solicitor.
For more information about qualifying as a solicitor through an apprenticeship, click here.
This blog was written by Ellie Gadsby, Trainee Solicitor at Womble Bond Dickinson.
