Super-exam to be used from September 2020
Despite some considerable hostility, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced last month that its planned Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), dubbed ‘the super exam’, will be used from September 2020.
The single, centrally-set exam will come in to use one year later than the SRA had originally planned as a consequence of significant opposition, and after lengthy consultations with the profession and legal education providers.
The super exam will replace the existing requirements for trainee solicitors to take the Legal Practice Course or the Graduate Diploma in Law. Instead, the SRA has decided that trainees with degrees or equivalent, and with two years’ work experience, can sit the exam and become lawyers.
The SRA-formulated plans have long received a negative reaction from legal training providers and from within the profession, with organisations such as The City of London Law Society criticising proposals for multiple-choice questioning. However a City partner said: ‘Overall, the SRA carried out quite a long consultation process on this and concerns from the profession have been significantly reduced. We can’t fear change forever.’
Meanwhile, the Law Society junior lawyers division chair, Bryan Scant, said social mobility is unlikely to be improved by the new exam: ‘The SRA has still not clarified the full cost of the SQE and we are concerned that, given the proposed entry requirements, it is likely to be at least as high as the current arrangements, if not higher.’
However, law firm graduate recruitment specialists now have a clear timetable to work to. Hogan Lovells associate director of legal resourcing Clare Harris said: ‘We need to see a bit more of the detail regarding the assessment. However, implementation to 2020 means we have a reasonable amount of time to plan ahead. The real work starts now. We will now get together internally and with our law school provider. The priority for us will certainly be to make sure trainees get the best outcome.’
georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk