The Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) - August 2020

Law Firm Software

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The Thought Leadership Series – White Paper

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The Solicitors Qualifying Examination

(SQE) - August 2020

The Thought Leadership Series

The Solicitors Qualifying Exam CONTENTS

The Thought Leadership Series – White Paper 2

Fresh Professional Development Ltd

www.freshpd.com

Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) Briefing August 2020

This briefing document gives an overview of the aims and requirements of SQE which is due to be introduced by the SRA in September 2021 (subject to the approval of the Legal Services Board (LSB))

The Solicitors Qualifying Exam CONTENTS


Contents Foreword

• Executive Summary • About the Author

Chapter 1 – Background to SQE

• Introduction • Solicitor Competence • So, What is the SQE and the New Approach to

Qualification • The Benefits of the SQE • SQE Costs

Chapter 2 – The Design and Delivery of the SQE

• Introduction • The SQE1 – Multiple Choice Single Best Answers • The SQE 2 – Skills Assessment

Chapter 3 – Qualifying Work Experience (QWE)

• What is QWE? • Supervision and Sign-off

Chapter 4 – Implementation

• SRA Next Steps • The SQE Transitional Arrangements • SQE Evaluation


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The Solicitors Qualifying Exam

INTRODUCTION

Foreword I


The Solicitors Qualifying Exam The Solicitors Qualifying Exam

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Executive Summary This briefing document gives an overview of the aims and requirements of SQE which is due to be introduced by the SRA in September 2021 (subject to the approval of the Legal Services Board (LSB)). It explains the background to, and reasons why, SQE is being introduced; outlines the design and delivery of the SQE; defines Qualifying Work Experience and summarises the proposed next steps to its implementation.

Andrew Dines, TD, LLB, MBA August 2020

About the Author In early 2020 Andrew became the Learning and Development Director for Fresh Professional Development with the remit to redesign the Fresh L&D offering. This has required him to undertake extensive research, not only into the latest trends within the L&D sector, but also the pragmatic and supportive application of those trends, to the future needs of Fresh’s law firm clients. Andrew qualified as a solicitor with Simmons and Simmons following 8 years as an officer in the regular army. He practised as a solicitor for 18 years, the majority of which was as a partner in Hampshire firms and remains a non-practising solicitor. Since 2000, Andrew has worked in consultancy and training roles with both professional and non-professional firms including the role as Director of Training for Law South. He attained an MBA in Legal Practice from Nottingham Law School and focuses on the development of strategy, leadership and management skills as well as risk management. He is the co-author of Key Skills for Professionals, published by Kogan Page (2013).

Andrew Dines



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Andrew Dines

Background to SQE

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Introduction The SRA sets the standards for the solicitor’s profession in the public interest. It is critical from both the SRA’s and the profession’s standpoints that everyone i.e. the public as a whole can have confidence that those joining the profession all meet the same high standards. In order to do that, the SRA must be sure that entry into the profession is consistent, up to date and fit for purpose. The SRA first set out its intention to consult on changes to the way it regulates education and training in its 2013 Training for Tomorrow policy statement. This was published in response to the Legal Education and Training Review 2013 (a jointly commissioned report by the SRA, BSB and CILEx Regulation). It outlined a desire to move from: “…a system where we prescribe the pathways to qualification… to one in which we set out the day-one skills, knowledge and attributes that a new solicitor must possess and permit much greater flexibility as to how those competences are acquired.” In 2014, the LSB published its statutory guidance on education and training. Those recommendations gave a clear steer to the proposed SQE model and included:

• Education and training requirements focusing on what an individual must know, understand and be able to do at the point of authorisation;

• Providers of education and training having the flexibility to determine how to deliver training, education and experience that meets the outcomes required; and

• Regulators placing no inappropriate direct or indirect restrictions on the numbers entering the profession.

Solicitor Competence Following the above recommendations, the SRA codified the key concept of Solicitor Competence in April 2015 through the introduction of 3 key documents:

• The Statement of Solicitor Competence (SoSC) This was a new statement setting out the competencies the SRA expects of all solicitors (updated in 2019);

• The Statement of Legal Knowledge Which sets out the legal knowledge that solicitors are required to demonstrate at the point of admission (updated in July 2020); and

• The Threshold Standard Which prescribes the minimum standards to which the competences in the Competence Statement must be demonstrated.

All available from: www.freshpd.com/sqe



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Together, the above 3 documents define the standards for practice as a solicitor and the competences that aspiring solicitors need to demonstrate in order to qualify. It is those competencies that the SRA will be assessing through the SQE. It is important to bear in mind that the Legal Practice Course (LPC) only tested to the standard expected of trainees. Having defined the practice standards required of solicitors, the SRA then reviewed how best to assess those standards at the point of admission. That review found: • There were 6 different routes to qualification e.g. qualifying law degree,

other non-legal degree, chartered legal executive, QLTS, equivalent means and apprenticeships and each was assessed in different ways;

• There were more than 110 providers offering the professional legal assessments specified by the SRA i.e. the Common Professional Examination (CPE)/Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) and the LPC. Pass rates on those degrees varied from under 40% to 100% with providers setting and marking their own assessments; and

• At the end of the Period of Recognised Training (PRT) there was no benchmarking or standardisation to ensure that decisions to sign off trainees were/are being taken against a consistent standard (few trainees apparently get signed off formally).



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So, What is the SQE and the New Approach to Qualification?

The new Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) is designed to: • Deliver a single, rigorous assessment for all those who want to join the

profession; • Provide greater assurance of consistent, high standards at the point of

admission; and • Provide new and diverse pathways to qualification, which are responsive to

the changing legal services’ market and promote a diverse profession by removing artificial and unjustifiable barriers.

Figure 1: The SRA Jigsaw Model The 4 Elements to Qualification

The new approach to qualification consists of 4 elements. By the time candidates seek admission as a solicitor, they must:

1. Have been awarded a degree or an equivalent qualification, or have gained equivalent experience;

2. Have passed the SQE 1 and 2 - the 2 stages of the SQE assessment; 3. Have completed at least two years’ qualifying legal work experience (QWE);

and 4. Be of a satisfactory character and suitability, to be assessed at point of

admission.

The SQE will enable the SRA to be sure everyone admitted as a newly qualified solicitor can demonstrate they have the knowledge and skills that the SRA has specified in the Statement of Solicitor Competence. Realistically, the SRA expects that the profession may well continue to be a predominantly, but not exclusively, graduate profession but hopes to see candidates beginning to qualify through the new apprenticeship route.



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The new indicative routes to admission are set out in Annex 2 to the Solicitors Qualification Examination Briefing - August 2020. The diagram below illustrates the central role of the SQE as the single assessment vehicle.

Figure 2: Indicative Routes to Admission

(Source, Annex 2 to the SRA Solicitors Qualification Examination Briefing Document - August 2020)

The Benefits of the SQE In summary, the SRA confirms that the SQE will benefit:

• The public – who can trust that solicitors, no matter how they trained, are meeting the same high standards. In a survey the SRA conducted in August 2016, 79% members of the public said that everyone should pass the same final exam to become a solicitor and 76% said they would have more confidence in solicitors if they all passed the same final exam (ConRes survey of 1866 adults in England and Wales).

• Law firms – will have a better guarantee of standards and could benefit from

a potential widening of the talent pool. They will also have more flexibility to tailor their training in a way that best works for their trainees and meets their business needs.

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• Education providers – who can use their own expertise to train SQE candidates effectively and can respond nimbly to developments in legal services, such as legal tech, which do not fall within the SQE.

• Would-be solicitors – who can make choices, based on clear evidence, about

how to train and which providers to choose. It will give the best candidates, from all backgrounds, a fair opportunity to qualify as a solicitor. Importantly, the SQE will not only validate different routes into the profession, but should also remove the training contract bottleneck.

The SQE is designed to provide a fair and rigorous assessment of competence at point of admission, regardless of the route taken. This is in line with the SRA’s objective of greater assurance of consistent, high standards at the point of admission. As previously highlighted, the SRA also wants the SQE to result in the development of new and diverse pathways to qualification, which are responsive to the changing legal services’ market and to promote a diverse profession by removing artificial and unjustifiable barriers. As part of that, it can offer a better opportunity to monitor and research what is happening over time, which will make a positive contribution to a strong and diverse profession.

SQE Costs Qualifying as a solicitor under the current system can be expensive (and this might deter some talented candidates from seeking admission as a solicitor). The LPC can cost up to £16,750 and provides no guarantee of admission as a solicitor. This is addition to undergraduate fees and for non-law graduates, about £10,000 for the GDL. Firms must also pay £1,500 to £2,000 for the PSC. The SRA released the SQE assessment costs at the end of July 2020 and they are: The SQE1 - £1,558.00 The SQE2 - £2,442.00 This totals £3,980.00.


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The Design and Delivery of the

SQE

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Introduction

The skills and knowledge which the SQE will assess are as stated above i.e. • The competences set out in the SoSC; • The knowledge set out in the Statement of Legal Knowledge.

Those skills and knowledge will then be assessed to the standard set out in the Threshold Standard. The SQE will assess these competences in two stages:

• SQE1 - which assesses functioning legal knowledge (FLK); and • SQE2 - which assesses practical legal skills.

The chart below provides an overview of what will be assessed within SQE1 and SQE2. The assessments will be delivered by Kaplan, the SRA’s assessment provider. Kaplan is a leading education and assessment organisation operating in more than 30 countries.

SQE 1 SQE 2 Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) Assessments FLK 1: 180-question assessment on the following subject areas: • Business Law and Practice • Dispute Resolution, • Contract • Tort • Legal System of England and Wales • Constitutional and Administrative

Law and EU Law and • Legal Services FLK 2: 180-question assessment on the following subject areas: • Property Practice • Wills and Administration of Estates

Solicitors’ Accounts • Land Law • Trusts • Criminal Law and Practice Ethical questions underpin and pervade both FLK1 and FLK2

Practical Legal Skills Assessments Candidates will be assessed in the following six skills: • Client interview and attendance

note/legal analysis • Advocacy • Case and matter analysis • Legal research • Legal writing • Legal drafting Sampled across the following five practice contexts: • Criminal Litigation • Dispute Resolution • Property Practice • Wills and Intestacy, Probate

Administration and Practice • Business organisations rules

and procedures Unflagged points of ethics and professional conduct to pervade

Figure 3: SQE 1 and SQE 2 Assessments



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The SQE will be delivered through a suite of secure assessment centres. All written tests will be available in England and Wales and internationally through the Pearson VUE network of testing centres. The oral skills assessments will be available initially only in England and Wales, in three to five centres, so that the assessments can be properly controlled and standardised. Over time, however, the SRA also plans to roll out the oral assessments internationally.

SQE 1 - Multiple Choice Single Best Answers

The Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) Assessments in SQE1 will consist of multiple choice single best answer questions. Multiple choice questions are widely used in assessment in:

• Other professions e.g. medicine, pharmacy and accountancy; and • In the legal context, both in universities and in high-stakes licensing exams

e.g. within the LLB, on the LPC, on the Bar Professional Training Course and as part of the US Multi-State Bar Exam (including the New York Bar).

SQE 1 will be assessed through 2 separate assessments - FLK 1 and FLK 2 - which will each consist of 180-question assessments of the areas of law set out in Figure 3 on the previous page. The legal knowledge curriculum to be assessed through the FLK in SQE1 includes all the current Foundations of Legal Knowledge required to be taught on the current Qualifying Law Degree (QLD)/GDL) and the core subjects of the LPC, with the addition of Conflict of Laws. Questions on professional ethics will pervade all parts of the SQE 1 assessment (it is important to note that ethics currently forms no part of the academic stage of training for solicitors). The FLK assessment integrates substantive and procedural law and is designed to assess candidates’ ability to:

• Characterise the nature of a legal problem (the assessments cover a range of different legal topics);

• Identify relevant legal principles; • Apply legal principles to factual scenarios, similar to the type of cases which

a newly-qualified solicitor might encounter in practice; and • Reach a decision e.g. on a point of advice or next steps in a transaction.

Using multiple choice single best answer questions enables:

• The effective measurement of the cognitive skills that the SRA wishes to test;

• Better assurance of a candidate’s breadth of knowledge than that provided by a small number of essay-style questions i.e. doing 3 essay questions on



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a topic increases the risk that a candidate may “get lucky” on the subjects that come up in an exam when s/he does not, in fact, have the range of knowledge expected of a solicitor;

• Objective marking; and • The adoption of modern, statistically-based standard-setting processes, to

ensure a high level of accuracy in assessment decisions and consistent assessment over time, across successive sittings and between different candidates.

Overall, the SRA maintains that MCQs will contribute to a high-quality, rigorous assessment. However, to realise these benefits, the MCQs must be well written. They will require continued expert drafting to ensure that the right cognitive skills are assessed properly, not just knowledge recall. The SRA maintains that a significant investment in both time and expertise has been made in the development and drafting of the questions, together with testing and reviewing of them. Sample questions can be accessed at SQE Functioning Legal Knowledge sample questions April 2020. Multiple choice questions will not, however, be the sole method of assessment in the SQE and nor will they be the sole method of assessing functioning legal knowledge. In addition, MCQs cannot assess the range of legal skills set out in the SoSC e.g. the ability to present a reasoned argument and to communicate clearly in writing and orally. These are critical competences which all solicitors must have and they will be tested through the SQE2.

The SQE 2 - Skills Assessment

The SQE2 Examinable Areas

The SQE2 assesses the skills of (corresponding to the competences specified in the SoSC):

• Client Interviewing and attendance note/legal analysis • Advocacy (rights of audience) • Case and matter analysis • Legal research • Legal drafting • Legal writing

Each of the following practice areas will be used to provide context for each of the above assessment areas:

• Criminal litigation



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• Dispute resolution • Property practice • Wills and intestacy, probate administration and practice • Business organisations rules and procedures

NB

• The SQE 2 questions in these practice areas may draw on underlying black letter law which will have already been tested in the SQE1; and

• All SQE 2 candidates will be assessed in all 5 practice areas. The assessment will test both oral and written skills through a series of tasks (called ‘stations’ by the SRA) reflecting the type of work that a NQ solicitor would carry out in practice. There will be a total of 16 stations which will be divided as follows:

• 12 stations will involve written tasks; and • 2 skills (advocacy and client interviewing) will be assessed through a total

of 4 oral role-play assessments The following additional areas will also underpin the above main examinable areas:

• Ethics and professional conduct i.e. compliance with Standards and Regulations (StaRs) 2019;

• Negotiation skills, which in this context, will probably involve a candidate suggesting alternatives within the interview assessment and then setting out the pros and cons of those alternatives and consequential next steps within both the compulsory follow-up attendance note (within the oral skills section) and the matter analysis and legal writing assessments (written skills section); and

• Potential vulnerabilities of a client.

The SQE2 Oral Skills The assessments in the SQE2 oral are:

• Advocacy • Interview and attendance note/legal analysis

The SQE2 oral will take place over 2 half days. The following table shows the assessments that will take place on each of Days 1 and 2 - a total of 4 oral legal skills assessments:



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Day 1 Day 2

Advocacy

In the context of Dispute Resolution

Advocacy

In the context of Criminal Litigation

Interview and attendance note/legal analysis

In the context of Property Practice

Interview and attendance note/legal analysis In the context of

Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice

Figure 4: SQE Oral Assessment

Explanation of assessments (extracted from SQE2 Assessment Specification - July 2020) The advocacy assessment will take 1 hour. The candidate will be instructed by e-mail and will be given 45 mins prep time before making a 15 min submission to the judge etc., this will demonstrate whether the candidate can conduct a piece of advocacy before a judge. The interview assessment will take 40-45 mins. The candidate will receive a briefing e-mail together with any documents. S/he will have 15 mins in which to review the e-mail and documents and will then be given 25 mins to conduct the interview. The assessment will concentrate on whether the candidate has gained the trust and confidence of the client, obtained the necessary information and fully understood what the client’s concerns actually are. The candidate will then have to do an attendance note/case analysis - with some next steps, options and steps for negotiation. This assesses the candidate’s client handling skills and analysis leading into the giving of legal advice.

The SQE2 Written Skills The assessments in the SQE2 written skills are:

• Case and matter analysis • Legal research • Legal writing • Legal drafting

The SQE2 written skills will assess equally the candidates’ practical legal skills and their functioning legal knowledge e.g. a letter of advice which is beautifully written but wrong on the law cannot be competent.



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The SQE2 written skills will take place over 3 half days. The following table shows the 12 written legal skills assessments a candidate will undertake on each of the days.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Case and matter analysis Case and matter analysis Case and matter analysis

Legal drafting Legal drafting Legal drafting

Legal research Legal research Legal research

Legal writing Legal writing Legal writing

Two of these exercises will be in the context of:

Two of these exercises will be in the context of:

All assessments in the context of:

Dispute Resolution

Wills and Intestacy,

Probate Administration and Practice

Business Organisations, Rules and Procedures

and two will be in the context of:

Criminal Litigation Property Practice

Figure 5: SQE2 Written Assessments

Sample explanation (extracted from SQE2 Assessment Specification - July 2020) The matter analysis assessment will take 60 mins. This is a computer based assessment. The candidate will be given an electronic file of docs (some docs may be irrelevant) and the candidate will have to produce a written report/analysis to the partner. This assesses legal analysis and client-focused advice e.g. options, strategies + negotiations. More detail on the assessment of the SQE2 Written Skills can be found within the SRA SQE2 Assessment Specification July 2020 but Fresh is developing detailed delivery plans for the SQE2 and these will be released in the autumn 2020 after more detailed explanatory information has been provided by the SRA.

SRA SQE2 Assessment Specification July 2020

All available from: www.freshpd.com/sqe


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Qualifying Work Experience

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What is Qualifying Work Experience (QWE)?

The SRA requires SQE candidates to complete at least 2 years’ QWE. QWE is any experience of providing legal services that offers a candidate the opportunity to develop some or all of the competences needed to practise as a solicitor i.e. in SoSC. That work experience can be obtained in England and Wales or overseas. QWE provides opportunities for individuals to learn through apprenticeships, paralegal roles or placements. It can be gained in one block of time or in stages, so long as it is with no more than four organisations. It can be paid or unpaid work and could include time spent:

• On placement during a law degree • Working in a law clinic • At a voluntary or charitable organisation such as Citizen Advice or a law

centre • Working as a paralegal • On a training contract

Candidates can gain experience during or after they sit the SQE assessments. However, the QWE must be completed by the time they apply for admission (they could even start gaining the necessary experience immediately and ‘bank’ it for when SQE comes into operation). QWE also provides opportunities for firms to provide work experience in circumstances where, because of their size, resources or niche areas of law they might not have been able to provide during PSC training.

Supervision and Sign-off Under the PSC, the current period of recognised training (PRT) has to be signed off by the law firm’s Training Principal. That person has to make an assessment of the individual’s competence to practise but there is no benchmarking or standardisation to ensure that decisions are taken against a consistent standard (as highlighted above). However, under QWE it is the SQE that will provide the assessment. QWE will need to be signed off by one of the following:

• The COLP (if the organisation has one); or • A solicitor of England and Wales in the organisation; or



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• Another nominated solicitor of England and Wales outside the organisation but with direct knowledge of the candidate’s work.

The solicitor signing off, as above, will not have to hold a practising certificate. The person signing the candidate off will not be involved in making any assessment of competence. Instead that person will certify:

• The details of the work experience carried out and the actual period of work experience completed by the SQE candidate;

• That the work experience provided the SQE candidate with the opportunity to develop some or all of the prescribed competencies for solicitors i.e. those set out in the SoSC; and

• No issues were raised during the period of QWE that might raise a question as to the candidate’s character and suitability to be admitted as a solicitor.

The SRA expects those undertaking QWE to be properly supervised. StaRs 2019 requires firms and solicitors to supervise employees or those they manage and to ensure they are competent to carry out their role. Breach of these obligations is a disciplinary matter where the SRA can, and does, take enforcement action. StaRs 2019 also prohibits solicitors and firms from taking unfair advantage of clients and third parties (which includes trainees and so, in the future, anyone gaining QWE). The SRA will publish data on candidates’ performance in the SQE, including SQE2. This will help employers evaluate the effectiveness of their training on the one hand and it will also help candidates identify firms which offer effective training on the other. It is important to understand that the SRA will no longer prescribe how a law firm should train its future solicitors – flexibility underpins the SQE model but this will also mean that law firms will need to re-think their solicitor training model.


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CHAPTER 4

Implementation

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SRA Next Steps

The SRA completed its testing and piloting of the SQE in June 2020 and applied to the LSB for final approval of the SQE in late July 2020. The SQE regulations will be scheduled to come into force on 1 September 2021. The SRA has issued the following initial draft SQE assessment timetable and has stated that it will be a gradual introduction:

Figure 6: SQE Initial Assessment Timetable

The SQE Transitional Arrangements

The SRA transition arrangements recognise that, when the SQE is introduced, some people will be part-way through the existing qualifying system. The arrangements are, therefore, designed to give candidates who are already studying or training to becoming a solicitor as much choice as possible, by either:

• Continuing to qualify through the existing routes; or by • Choosing to do the SQE

The SRA will continue to validate QLDs and the CPE that start before 31 December 2021 (extended on 30 July 2020 by four months to accommodate the effects of Covid-19). This means that students who have accepted an offer for a QLD or CPE on or before 31 August 2021, and who go on to start their course on or before 31 December 2021, will now have a choice – they can qualify under the existing routes (as long as they remain available) or through the new SQE. Full details of these current transitional arrangements are accessible from freshpd.com. Please note the SRA will keep them under review.

Year Assessment Bookings Open Exam Sitting Results Published 2021 SQE 1 Sept 21 Nov 21 6 weeks later 2022 SQE 2 Feb 22 Apr 22 14 weeks later 2022 SQE 1 Mar 22 May 22 6 weeks later 2022 SQE 2 Aug 22 Oct 22 14 weeks later 2022 SQE 1 Sept 22 Nov 22 6 weeks later

Current transitional arrangements are accessible from:

www.freshpd.com/sqe



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SQE Evaluation

The SRA intends to evaluate the impact of the SQE against its two intended outcomes:

• greater assurance of consistent, high standards at the point of admission; and • the development of new and diverse pathways to qualification, which are

responsive to the changing legal services’ market and promote a diverse profession by removing artificial and unjustifiable barriers.

Keep Updated

This Briefing document will be updated by us as substantive developments occur. The SRA submitted its final application to the LSB at the end of July 2020 and a formal adjudication is expected from that Board before the end of October 2020 and we will issue further briefings and guidance, in any event, after that adjudication.

SRA Reference Documents

All the key documents are available from https://www.freshpd.com/sqe. Visit https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/sqe/to access the SRA’s SQE documents. (link correct as at 10th August 2020)

Andrew Dines, TD, LLB, MBA August 2020



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w w w. f r e s h p d . c o m

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