The largest provider of legal services to the government has said it will open up its trainee scheme to offer the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new route to qualification.
The Government Legal Department told the Gazette it is working closely with the Government Legal Profession to shape its response to the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination.
SQE, which came into force in September 2021, will eventually replace the Legal Practice Course as the central route to qualification. Under the SQE route, candidates must pass two sets of assessments that test their functioning legal knowledge and practical legal skills, and complete two years of qualifying work experience.
The department will recruit its first cohort of SQE trainees this summer, who will join the department in 2025.
Trainees following the department’s ‘traditional’ route will also be recruited this summer, to join in 2023 and 2024. Transitional arrangements introduced by the SRA enable candidates who were already on their way to becoming a solicitor when SQE came into force to continue down the LPC route.
The department told the Gazette that it will offer solicitor-apprenticeships with graduate and non-graduate entry points from September. The department said apprenticeship routes aligned well with its flexible working offer, and its wider diversity and social mobility aims.
Government Legal Department early talent champions Zane Denton, a deputy legal director in its commercial law group, and Stephen Cave, legal director at the Department for Transport, said: ‘Those starting their legal careers, our future is in their hands. In the Government Legal Department, we need to mirror those we serve, bringing our diversity of thought, ideas and locations to the crucial work we do as government lawyers.
‘Apprentices and paralegals will sit alongside the new SQE legal training as routes to becoming a GLD lawyer, opening up exciting opportunities to those with the skills, abilities and ambition to succeed.’
The department currently recruits trainee solicitors via the annual Government Legal Profession trainee recruitment campaign. The two-year training programme involves four six-month seats. Trainees generally complete two advisory and two litigation seats. First-year trainees are paid £30,157, rising to £34,460 in the second year.
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