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’.
