SQE at five: Pass or Fail?

With the Solicitors Qualifying Examination now in its fifth year, Journalist Joanna Goodman asks if its creators have kept their promises. 

She notes that the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) aimed to create consistency through a centralised assessment, provide quality assurance to the public and make entry into the profession more flexible. Introduced in the autumn of 2021, if SQE were a child, it would be preparing to start school in September. She questions, "so how well is it delivering? Have the logistical and operational issues relating to taking exams and assessments been resolved? How are candidates and sponsor firms managing the new routes into the profession?"

Addressing the question, she suggests that there is general agreement that the SQE qualification does not give trainee solicitors day -one competency, particularly compared with the previous LPC/training contract route. 

In the article, Patrick McCann, chief executive of the City of London Law Society and co-CEO of City Century, a collaboration of over 50 City law firms involved in qualifying solicitor apprentices, says, ‘The SQE is basically a licensing exam’. ‘It has two key purposes: to get candidates past a certain level of competence so that the SRA can say we’ve done what we need to do to protect clients from incompetence; and to prepare people to take an exam against day-one standards when they may not have previously worked in a law firm. We’re asking someone to perform as if they are qualified before they’ve actually worked as a solicitor. So we are setting quite a high bar.’