header-logo header-logo

Final hurdle for the SQE?

22 September 2020
Issue: 7903 / Categories: Legal News , Profession
printer mail-detail
Legal education provider BARBRI launched its Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) Prep course to students this week, amid ongoing setbacks for the proposed solicitor qualification route

The super-exam, which would be divided into SQE1, a multiple-choice test of legal knowledge, and SQE2, a practical skills assessment, is scheduled to begin next year. However, the Legal Services Board recently gave itself more time to approve the exam, stating that it needed to make ‘additional enquiries’, and will now make a final decision on 28 October.

In August, five legal education groups, including the Association of Law Teachers, wrote to the Board urging it to reject the SQE on the basis it was ‘inadequate’.

However, BARBRI’s UK managing director Sarah Hutchinson said independent research showed the SQE would ‘help to reduce the financial impact of qualifying as a solicitor’.

Issue: 7903 / Categories: Legal News , Profession
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

NEWS
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has not done enough to protect the future sustainability of the legal aid market, MPs have warned
Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome
After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously
back-to-top-scroll