Legal CVs are harder to screen than they used to be, and the reason is the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. Two routes to qualification now run in parallel, candidates describe their progress through them inconsistently, and a reviewer who does not understand the difference will misread seniority in both directions. Add post-qualification experience calculated from the wrong date and you have a shortlist that is confidently wrong.
The fix is not more legal knowledge in the recruitment team. It is a rubric that forces the ambiguous claims into the open.
What Actually Needs Establishing
Three facts, in this order, and none of them is a matter of judgement.
Admission Status
Whether the person is admitted as a solicitor and currently on the roll. This is checkable against the Solicitors Regulation Authority register and it is definitive. A certificate proves an award at a moment; the register shows current standing, including any conditions.
Qualification Route
Whether they qualified through the Legal Practice Course and a training contract, or through the SQE and qualifying work experience. Both produce solicitors. They produce different shaped experience, and a candidate mid-route through either is not yet a solicitor.
Post-Qualification Experience
Years since admission, not years since starting in law. This is the single most commonly inflated figure on a legal CV, usually without any intent to mislead.
The SQE Confusion, Precisely
Under the SQE route a candidate passes SQE1 and SQE2 and completes two years of qualifying work experience, which can be gathered across up to four organisations and can include paralegal work and placements.
That flexibility produces genuine ambiguity on a CV. Someone may have passed SQE1 only. They may have passed both assessments but not completed the work experience. They may have completed everything and be awaiting admission. All three sometimes appear as "SQE qualified", which means nothing precise.
The reciprocal error is worse. Qualifying work experience is real legal work, and a reviewer who treats pre-admission experience as though it did not happen will reject strong candidates. The answer is to capture both dates: when qualifying work experience began, and when admission occurred.
The PQE Problem
Clients specify PQE bands and treat them as a proxy for capability. The band is only meaningful if measured from admission.
The recurring patterns are a paralegal counting those years toward PQE, a candidate counting time from starting a training contract rather than from admission, a career changer counting a previous profession, and an overseas lawyer counting home-jurisdiction practice before any England and Wales qualification.
None of these is necessarily dishonest, and the last is often genuinely relevant experience. They simply are not PQE, and a submission that presents them as PQE will be rejected by the client at the point somebody notices.
Screening at Volume Without Legal Expertise
The method that works is to require the facts rather than infer them.
- Require the SRA number in the application. Not a certificate. A number is checkable in seconds and a PDF requires inspection. Filter on whether it is present and valid before assessing anything else.
- Require the admission date explicitly. As its own field, separate from employment history. This removes PQE ambiguity entirely.
- For SQE candidates, require the stage. SQE1 passed, SQE2 passed, qualifying work experience complete, admitted. Four discrete facts rather than one vague label.
- Assess practice area on evidence. A claimed specialism should be supported by matters, sectors, transaction types or forum, not by a heading.
- Treat pre-admission experience as relevant but separate. Score it, do not count it as PQE.
Structuring the application this way converts an interpretation problem into a data problem, which is the only thing that scales past fifty applications.
Practice Area Evidence Worth Looking For
Practice areas are asserted far more often than they are evidenced, and the specifics differ by area.
- Litigation. Forum and level, whether they had conduct of matters, advocacy actually undertaken, case values.
- Corporate and commercial. Transaction types and values, their role in the deal team rather than the deal's prestige.
- Property. Residential or commercial, freehold or leasehold, development work, and whether they ran files independently.
- Private client. Probate values, trust work, contentious or non-contentious, and any STEP progress.
- Employment. Claimant or respondent, tribunal experience, whether advisory or contentious.
The distinction that matters throughout is between exposure and conduct. Working on a matter and having conduct of it are different levels of responsibility, and CVs blur them routinely.
Overseas Qualified Lawyers
A significant candidate pool, and one where screening frequently goes wrong in both directions.
Establish whether the person is qualified in England and Wales, or qualified elsewhere, or qualified elsewhere and now in the process of transferring. Those are three different propositions for a client role requiring a solicitor.
Do not reject a qualification because of its country of origin, which is not defensible under the Equality Act 2010. Do establish the England and Wales position factually, because where admission is a requirement of the role, it is a requirement of the role.
Why This Sector Cares About Documented Sifting
Legal recruiters report AI-assisted applications at higher rates than most sectors, and legal hiring managers are unusually well equipped to challenge a shortlist. A submission that says "admitted on this date, SRA number verified, five of six essentials evidenced with supporting text, the sixth claimed only" survives that scrutiny. A submission of six CVs and a covering note does not.
The same record serves a second purpose. Where selection is challenged, a documented, uniformly applied rubric is the defence, and legal candidates are more likely than most to ask on what basis they were rejected.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SQE Qualification Equivalent to the LPC Route?
Both lead to admission as a solicitor. The preparation differs and the work experience is gathered differently. Treat an admitted solicitor as an admitted solicitor and assess experience on evidence rather than on route.
How Should We Handle a Paralegal With Six Years of Experience?
As a strong candidate with six years of legal experience and zero PQE. Present it that way to the client rather than blurring the two, and let the client decide.
Can We Verify Admission Ourselves?
Yes. The SRA maintains a public register of solicitors. Check the register rather than a certificate, because it shows current standing.
What About Chartered Legal Executives and Barristers?
Different qualifications with different regulators and different scopes of practice. Where a role requires a solicitor, a CILEX or Bar qualification is not the same thing, and the role requirement should say which is acceptable.
Do Clients Accept PQE Equivalence Arguments?
Sometimes, if presented honestly and early. What fails is discovering at offer stage that the PQE figure was calculated from a different date.
The Short Version
Require the SRA number and the admission date as structured fields. For SQE candidates require the stage as four discrete facts. Calculate PQE from admission only. Assess practice areas on matters and conduct rather than headings. Check the register, not the certificate. Treat pre-admission and overseas experience as relevant and separate.
That removes the ambiguity the SQE introduced without requiring anybody in the recruitment team to be a lawyer.
This article is general guidance, not legal advice. Consult current SRA requirements, which continue to evolve as the SQE route matures.
Sources
Solicitors Regulation Authority. Solicitors Register.
https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/register/
Solicitors Regulation Authority. Solicitors Qualifying Examination.
https://www.sra.org.uk/become-solicitor/sqe/
The Stationery Office. Equality Act 2010.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents
GOV.UK. Equality Act 2010: Guidance.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-act-2010-guidance
Information Commissioner's Office. Employment Practices: Recruitment and Selection.
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/employment/recruitment-and-selection/
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