The Solicitors Regulation Authority has published final details as to the legal knowledge that will be tested in the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). The final version of SQE1’s Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) Assessment Specification is now available.
Since a draft was first published in summer 2017 the SRA have engaged with more than 500 stakeholders – including training providers, subject matter experts, law firms and students – to get feedback. This has included engagement through the SQE reference group, SQE1 pilot, workshops, and surveys.
As a result the SRA have, in conjunction with their assessment provider Kaplan, made changes to the Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) to make it clearer what will be assessed where.
The specification states that the two SQE1 Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) assessments will comprise the following subject areas:
- Business Law and Practice; Dispute Resolution; Contract; Tort; Legal System of England and Wales; Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law and Legal Services; and
- Property Practice; Wills and the Administration of Estates; Solicitors Accounts; Land Law; Trusts; Criminal Law and Practice.
Within each of the above FLK assessments, questions may draw on any combination of the subject areas which might be encountered in practice whilst issues relating to ethics and professional conduct will be examined pervasively across the two assessments above. Principles of taxation, however, will be examined only in the context of:
- Business Law and Practice;
- Property Law and Practice; and
- Wills and the Administration of Estates.
The ARA are to make a decision about the SQE1 skills assessment in 2020, after evaluating the SQE2 pilot. The SQE2 Pilot Assessment Specification tells candidates what will be assessed in the SQE2 pilot, how it will be assessed and to what standard.