How to qualify as a solicitor in-house in 2027

When Emma Levin trained, most people qualified the same way. You did the LPC and then a two-year training contract, usually at a law firm.

That’s changed. Since the SQE arrived in 2021, you can qualify by passing the exams and doing two years of legal work in an in-house team, with no training contract and no “trainee” job title.

Plenty of people want to. Emma runs Inclusie Club, which shares opportunities with aspiring lawyers every week, and she’s found the in-house paralegal and legal assistant roles are twice as popular as the law firm ones. When Metro Bank last advertised a paralegal job, it had around 500 applications in 32 hours.

For this guide, we spoke to Emma and two other in-house lawyers who have trained people in-house or trained there themselves. It also draws on our research with nearly 100 in-house lawyers. The rules come from the SRA and the official sources linked throughout.

Key definitions for qualifying as a solicitor

Term	Definition
Apprenticeship levy	A charge paid by employers with a pay bill over £3 million, used to fund apprenticeship training and assessment. Where funding rules allow, it can cover SQE preparation and exam fees. It never covers salary.
CILEX	Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, the professional body for CILEX Lawyers and CILEX Paralegals. Older writing spells it CILEx.
COLP	Compliance Officer for Legal Practice. The person in an SRA-authorised firm responsible for compliance systems and for reporting serious breaches. A COLP can confirm QWE. Many in-house teams don’t have one.
GC (general counsel)	The most senior in-house lawyer in an organisation. A job title, not a regulated one.
LPC	Legal Practice Course, the vocational course on the old route. Only open to people in the transitional cohort, with a final deadline of 31 December 2032.
NQ (newly qualified)	A solicitor in roughly their first year after admission. A hiring term, not a regulatory one.
Panel firm	A law firm an organisation uses regularly for outside legal work.
Paralegal	Someone who does legal work but isn’t admitted as a solicitor. Paralegal work can count as QWE.
PQE	Post-qualification experience. The number of years a solicitor has worked since qualifying. Job adverts use it to show the level of a role.
QWE	Qualifying work experience. Two years’ full-time, or equivalent, legal work in up to four organisations, confirmed by a solicitor or COLP.
Seat	A rotation, often about six months, through one practice area during a traditional training contract. Not needed for QWE.
Solicitor	A lawyer admitted to the roll by the SRA. “Solicitor” is a protected title. Legal counsel and GC aren’t.
Solicitor apprenticeship	A paid route to qualifying as a solicitor in England. Apprentices sit the SQE, and their working time counts as QWE.
SQE	Solicitors Qualifying Examination, the two-part assessment you pass to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales.
SQE1	The first part of the SQE. Two closed-book papers, each with 170 single-best-answer questions from January 2027.
SQE2	The second part of the SQE. A skills assessment of 16 exercises, four oral and 12 written. You sit it after passing SQE1.
SRA	Solicitors Regulation Authority, the regulator of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales.
Trainee	The everyday title for someone completing QWE or a training contract. You don’t need the title for your QWE to count.
Training contract	Two years of recognised training on the old LPC route, formally called a period of recognised training. Many employers still use the name for their QWE programmes.

The routes in have changed

Emma Levin is Group Legal Counsel at Onebright and founder of Inclusie Club. We asked her how qualifying works now. On what was called the traditional route, she explained, the LPC took 6 to 12 months and the training contract that followed took 2 years. That has all changed, which in her view means in-house is “perhaps a better and easier option than it ever has been.”

The Solicitors Qualifying Examination replaced the LPC as the standard route on 1 September 2021. The LPC is now only open to a transitional group who’d started their law studies by the time of the change, and that route closes for good on 31 December 2032 (SRA, LPC transitional requirements). If you’re starting out in 2027, you’ll qualify through the SQE.

To qualify that way, you need all four of these (SRA, pathways to qualification).

• A degree in any subject, or an equivalent qualification or experience.
• A pass in both SQE1 and SQE2.
• Two years’ full-time, or equivalent, qualifying work experience (QWE).
• To meet the SRA’s character and suitability requirements.

You can put those pieces together in different ways. The most flexible is to pass the SQE and build QWE in paid legal roles. A solicitor apprenticeship wraps the same requirements into one job. CILEX offers its own qualification, with a later path to becoming a solicitor. People already on the LPC can still finish the old way.

That change is what made in-house training workable for teams that never had a training contract scheme. Oliver Storey is Head of Legal at Metro Bank, where the legal team is 10 people.

“Metro Bank probably would never have set up a traditional route. The SQE has given us that avenue to set this up and offer it in-house.”

The SQE route

What the SQE involves in 2027

The SQE has two parts, and you have to pass SQE1 before you can sit SQE2 (Law Society, SQE requirements and cost).

SQE1 tests functioning legal knowledge in two closed-book papers. From the January 2027 sitting, each paper has 170 questions, down from 180 (SQE, changes to SQE1 for January 2027). SQE2 tests practical legal skills in 16 assessments, four oral and 12 written, across five practice areas (SQE2 specification).

For bookings from October 2026, the exam fees are £2,006 for SQE1 and £3,086 for SQE2, so £5,092 in total. Prep courses cost extra (SRA, SQE update April 2026). In January 2026, 7,863 candidates completed SQE1 and the first-time pass rate was 58%. For SQE2 in October 2025, it was 79% (same source).

You can do QWE in-house, including as a paralegal

You can do QWE in an in-house legal team, as long as the work involves providing legal services and a solicitor or COLP confirms it (SRA, qualifying work experience).

“You can now qualify by doing qualifying work experience, which is something you can do across up to 4 different employers. You don’t need to have a specific title, so you don’t need to be called trainee solicitor to do that.”

QWE can be paid or voluntary, and it can happen before you sit the exams. It can be gained overseas, and it doesn’t have to involve English and Welsh law.

Paralegal work counts if it involves real legal services and gives you the chance to develop at least two of the competences in the SRA’s Statement of Solicitor Competence. A role that involves only one competence won’t count, and nor will work that isn’t legal services, such as pure admin. Emma’s example was a paralegal role over two years, “focusing on legal tasks such as drafting and negotiating, across any area of law,” with a solicitor confirming you’ve done enough legal work to qualify.

You need two years of QWE full time, or the part-time equivalent, in no more than four organisations. The SRA doesn’t define what full time means and expects a common-sense view (SRA, employers and QWE). There’s no minimum length for a placement, and you don’t have to cover particular practice areas, or both contentious and non-contentious work. You only need to register the two years when you apply for admission. Experience from earlier roles can also count, with no time limit, if someone can still confirm it.

A solicitor of England and Wales or a COLP has to confirm the work. They can work in a different organisation, as long as they’ve reviewed it. Many in-house teams have no COLP, so confirmation usually comes from a solicitor, inside or outside the team (SRA, COLPs and COFAs).

They confirm how long you worked and that the work gave you the chance to develop at least two competences. They also confirm nothing came up that raises a character and suitability concern. They aren’t signing off that you’re competent to practise. The SQE tests that.

You don’t need a training contract after passing the SQE, because QWE does that job. If you’ve already done the LPC and can’t find a period of recognised training, you can use QWE plus a pass in SQE2 instead, and you won’t need the Professional Skills Course either. Some employers pay the exam fees, as Metro Bank does once a paralegal moves into a trainee role, so ask before you assume.

How the solicitor apprenticeship works

A solicitor apprenticeship lets you qualify while you work, with your working time counting as QWE and at least 20% of your hours spent on off-the-job training, often one day a week (SRA, solicitor apprenticeships). Apprentices still sit both parts of the SQE. The route is available in England, not currently in Wales. There are two kinds.

• The trailblazer apprenticeship typically takes five to six years and can start after A levels. It ends with a level 7 qualification, equivalent to a master’s degree.
• The graduate apprenticeship is for people who already have a degree. It typically takes two to three years.

“Legal apprenticeships are quite interesting because, although there have been some changes, you can sometimes still get funding to cover the apprenticeship. It means that someone else pays for the training and you don’t have to.”

Level 7 apprenticeship funding changed in January 2026

From 1 January 2026, new level 7 apprenticeships in England are only government-funded for apprentices who, at the start of their training, are aged 16 to 21, or aged 22 to 24 with an Education, Health and Care plan or who are or have been in the care of their local authority (Apprenticeship funding rules 2026 to 2027, and Skills England, ST0246). Anyone who started before that date stays funded to the end.

That’s the “some changes” Emma mentioned. A school leaver starting a trailblazer apprenticeship in 2027 will be eligible if they’re 16 to 21 when they start. A graduate aged 22 or over generally won’t be, unless they have an EHC plan or care experience and are still 24 or under. The apprenticeship can still go ahead, but the training has to be paid for privately, and levy funds can’t be used (GOV.UK, privately funded apprenticeships). The levy never covers salary, and apprentices must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage. These are the rules for starts up to 31 July 2027, so check the current position if you’re planning a later start.

Both routes end with the same exams and the same qualification. The difference is how the training is organised and who pays for it.

	Solicitor apprenticeship	SQE with QWE
Who it suits	School leavers, or employers who want a structured programme	Graduates and career changers already in, or looking for, a legal role
How long it takes	Five to six years from A levels, or two to three for graduates	Two years of QWE, plus however long the exams take you
Who pays for training	Government funding if you’re eligible, otherwise paid for privately	You or your employer
Where you work	One employer for the whole apprenticeship	Up to four organisations
Study time	At least 20% of working hours, built in	Whatever you agree with your employer

CILEX vs solicitor

A CILEX Lawyer is authorised to practise unsupervised in a specialist area, while a solicitor qualifies through the SQE and isn’t tied to one specialism (CILEX, start your legal career). You don’t need a degree to start the CILEX Professional Qualification.

A CILEX Lawyer is treated by the SRA as a qualified lawyer, so the route can lead to becoming a solicitor later. They need a degree or a level 6 equivalent, which a CILEX level 6 qualification can provide, and they need to pass SQE1 and SQE2 or get an SQE2 exemption. They don’t need more QWE (SRA, CILEX pathway). The exemption isn’t automatic.

If you don’t have a degree and want to start earning in a legal role, CILEX is worth a serious look.

Practical advice for qualifying in-house

Going from paralegal to solicitor in-house

You can go from paralegal to solicitor in-house by passing the SQE while your paralegal work builds up as QWE, then having a solicitor confirm it. At Metro Bank, that path is the whole model.

“The model is to recruit a paralegal and provide an opportunity for that paralegal to progress into a trainee role, with the SQE funded. Normally, by about months 12 to 18, we’re looking at moving that paralegal on as a trainee and getting them onto the SQE, rewarding them with that opportunity.”

Trainees aren’t rotated through fixed seats. As Oliver put it, “You’ll largely be pulled where the work is.” Each trainee also spends six months on secondment at a panel firm.

Becoming an in-house solicitor without a training contract

You can become an in-house solicitor without a training contract, by combining the SQE with QWE in an in-house team. Emma Lilley, a fractional GC who runs Inhoco and In-house Potter, did exactly that for a colleague.

“There was somebody in our compliance team who wanted to be a lawyer. We made it up as we went along, in accordance with what the SRA requires, but there was no template. When we realised that they’d hit the two years full-time equivalent and passed the SQE exams, they went on to qualify. Now they do my job, so they covered me as an NQ when I was on mat leave.”

Agree the sign-off in writing, and keep a weekly record

Emma Levin’s first tip was to settle the QWE question at the start, ideally before you accept the job.

“Number one, get it in writing that someone is going to sign off that work experience for you. That’s something you can do right at the start of the role. Have that conversation early if you see an interesting paralegal role, and confirm whether it is qualifying work experience. Lots of employers are now putting that on the advert, but it isn’t always clear.”

Ask who in the team is a solicitor and whether they’ll confirm your QWE. If nobody in the team can, ask whether they’d arrange for a solicitor outside the team to review your work. The rules allow it.

Her second tip was to write things down as you go, “blocking time on a Friday afternoon and writing down what you’ve done that week,” so you’re in the best position you can be when those conversations happen. For each task, note who supervised it and which competences it touched. Take the record with you if you move employer.

Sitting the SQE alongside a full-time job is hard. Oliver did the LPC while working, and says managers need to be empathetic about it. “I remember when I was doing my LPC and trying to juggle working full-time as well. It’s horrendous, and you really do need the support from your line manager,” he said. Emma Lilley agreed a day of study leave for each part of the exam, plus an extra day before deadlines.

How to stand out on your CV

In-house hiring managers want to see that you understand in-house work and can deal with people. Your legal knowledge matters less at the junior end, because they expect to teach it.

“Make it clear that you understand in-house is being part of a company. We’re not billing ourselves and we’re not making money. Rightly or wrongly, we are a cost centre. The role is different, so if you can explain that in your CV or cover letter, I think that’s the first thing.”

Research the business before you apply, and say in your cover letter what the legal team does for it.

Emma’s second point was about the jobs you’ve done outside law. In-house teams are small, and they want people who can get going from day one.

“If you’ve already worked in retail and dealt with difficult people, and you’ve learned to pick up the phone a lot, talk about that. The legal side we can teach you. That’s the bit we can do.”

Oliver, sifting those 500 applications, looked for the same thing. Past the degree and the 2-1, he wanted to know what candidates had done alongside their studies, and what that job was. “Seeing a CV where somebody had been answering calls to vulnerable people throughout the evenings when they were at university is a huge bonus point for them.”

Emma remembered a work experience candidate who’d helped his sister run an ice cream shop.

“He was able to pull out so many soft skills from what he’d learnt in the ice cream shop, and it was so memorable. If you’re reading 500 CVs and cover letters, you remember him as the guy that worked in the ice cream shop.”

Where to start

If you’re applying for in-house roles in 2027, start with the QWE question. Before you accept a paralegal job, ask whether it counts and who’ll confirm it. Keep your weekly record from the first week. If you’re a GC or head of legal thinking about training someone, both Emma Lilley and Oliver did it without a big programme behind them. Emma Lilley called it “probably the best thing that I’ve ever done in my legal career.”

Thanks to everyone who spoke to us for their time. You can watch the full conversation on hiring and training juniors in 2027, and read more from our interviews with in-house lawyers in Ready or Not? and Now what?.