Aspiring lawyer voices frustration over transitional arrangements

We did everything right. We wrote the “Why law?” essays, jumped through the assessment centre hoops, charmed grad recruitment, and secured the training contract. Finally, we were on the path to qualification.

Except… the path moved. And the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) didn’t leave us a map.

‘Congrats on the TC! Now please start from scratch.’

When I was offered my training contract, I had already completed the LPC, the standard vocational route at the time. The understanding was simple: finish the LPC, complete your two years of training, and you’d qualify.

Then came the SQE.

At first, the SRA said LPC graduates didn’t need to sit the new exams — we could still qualify under transitional arrangements. Then firms began shifting their internal processes, and suddenly many of us were told we had to sit SQE2, regardless of the route we’d started on.

And here’s the problem: in my view the SQE2 exam is not designed for LPC graduates. Not even close.

An exam built for a different cohort

The SQE was introduced with big promises: to create a single, standardised path to qualification that would open the profession and level the playing field. Laudable goals. But in reality, LPC grads have been shoved awkwardly into a system that was never built with us in mind.

The SQE2 assumes that you’ve just done SQE1 — that your legal knowledge is fresh, and that you’ve studied the specific topics as defined by the SRA’s Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) framework. That’s what most prep courses are tailored for.

But we didn’t do SQE1. We did the LPC, which, while comprehensive, does not exactly mirror the SQE1 syllabus.

Yet no SQE2 prep course teaches the legal knowledge underpinning the assessments. Why? Because they assume you already know it from SQE1.

So, if you’re an LPC graduate, you’re on your own. There’s no formal refresher. No syllabus comparison. No bridging materials. Just skills-based prep with an occasional nod to legal content, but no real way of knowing whether your LPC knowledge actually aligns with the SQE’s expectations.

It’s like sitting a French oral exam where the marking scheme is based on Canadian French, but you learned Parisian French, and no one bothered to tell you the difference.

The numbers don’t lie

Let’s look at the data.

In the April 2024 SQE2 sitting, LPC grads had a 36% pass rate. In the July 2024 sitting, the figure was 44%.

Meanwhile, those who followed the full SQE route, including SQE1, passed at rates of 74% in July and 79% in April.

These aren’t small gaps. They’re gaping holes in the system.

And what they show is that despite having already completed a full-time vocational course (often costing up to £17,000), we’re still failing the final exam — not because we’re unprepared in general, but because the system isn’t built for us. The SRA has failed to think through the transition. If it had, LPC graduates wouldn’t be floundering in a system where the prep materials, course assumptions, and exam structures are all based on a path we didn’t take.

“Transitional arrangements” — in name only

The SRA says we can still qualify under transitional arrangements. In theory, that’s true. In practice, firms have moved on.

Many employers have now internalised the SQE as their formal qualification route and if your firm has adopted SQE2 as the final step, your only option is to sit the exam.

So, what do you do?

You fork out another £2,500–£4,000 for a prep course that doesn’t teach the law. You try to self-study the entire FLK syllabus, hoping that your LPC notes cover what the exam might ask. You sit an exam in which legal knowledge is assessed indirectly, through tasks like client interviews, legal drafting and advocacy, but where the underlying legal knowledge is critical to scoring well.

And then, like many of us, you fail. Not because you didn’t study. Not because you’re not competent. But because no one told you that the rules had changed.

A regulatory afterthought

The most frustrating part is that this was entirely avoidable. The SRA knew there would be thousands of LPC graduates still qualifying during the transition period. It could have:

We are not the exception — we are the forgotten majority

LPC graduates are not a niche group. We’re thousands strong. Many of us have spent years, and small fortunes, training under a framework that was, until very recently, the only route to qualification. To be cast aside now, told to retake assessments that don’t match our training, and to foot the bill for a system change we didn’t ask for, feels not just unfair, it feels like neglect.

The SQE may well be the future. But we are still here. Still qualified. Still capable. Just not supported. It’s time for the SRA to admit it hasn’t thought this through. Because if the goal is to produce competent, confident solicitors, shouldn’t we start by giving them the tools to succeed?