‘It’s Both a Blessing and a Curse’: Law Firm Attitudes to Qualifying Work Experience in England and Wales

Abstract

With the advent of the Solicitors’ Qualifying Examination (SQE), Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) allows for flexibility in the journey to qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales that was not previously permitted by the Period of Recognized Training. This development was heralded as a lever to widening access to the profession, with the potential to assist those who may not have been recruited onto traditional graduate-level training programmes in securing a qualified legal role. This paper discusses the findings of empirical research conducted by the authors with a view to understanding the perceptions of, and attitudes towards, QWE of those responsible for recruitment in UK law firms. It reveals a friction between the perceived, and actual, value of QWE obtained via non-traditional routes and exposes the threat that law firm stances on QWE pose to the regulator’s aim of widening access to the profession.