The routes to qualify as a solicitor are diversifying and are now open to non-law degree graduates wishing to become a solicitor in England and Wales.
Until the introduction of the SQE, people who had a degree in a discipline that was not law, had to convert their degree through a programme known as The Common Professional Examination (CPE)/Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), before going onto the LPC and completing the two-year training contract, like other law degree candidates.
The course was designed as an intense study programme covering roughly the same content as in a Law degree LL.B (Hons), with the purpose of allowing people with a greater variety of educational backgrounds to access the legal profession.
This further training added to the existing cost of qualification, however at the same time did not provide a sufficient level of assurance of consistent standards among newly qualified solicitors.
