As a major law firm overhauls its SQE partnership, Legal Cheek assesses the battle for law school dominance
Just over three years ago, the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) made its debut, transforming the path to becoming a solicitor and reshaping the legal training landscape in England and Wales.
While the regulator continues to tackle challenges with its delivery — ranging from painfully slow booking processes and tech issues to marking blunders — law schools are fighting their own battle for a share of the prep market.
There was a notable scuffle last week, as The College of Legal Practice (CoLP) out-wrestled fellow new entrant to the SQE market, Barbri, to win an exclusive deal to train global law firm Reed Smith‘s future London trainees. Previously CoLP and Barbri had shared the training responsibilities for the firm, having nabbed the contract four years ago from BPP University Law School. BPP, alongside The University of Law (ULaw), represent the legal education establishment, and despite an increase in competition — and the loss of the odd firm like Reed Smith — they continue to dominate the future lawyer training market.
Law firm partnerships are important in this respect. Around 2,500 students are trained up this way each year. Although that represents only about 30% of the approximately 9,000 students doing the SQE and legacy LPC courses annually, the indirect benefits of being associated with top law firms have a much wider effect in attracting self-funded students.
BPP probably just edges ULaw here, with both having carried over most of their deals from the LPC to the SQE. Indeed BPP’s loss of Reed Smith, which offers a significant but not massive 26 training contracts each year in London, was something of an aberration. Importantly, BPP retained its crown jewel deal with the ‘City Consortium‘, a group of six elite City law firms. The group — comprising Freshfields, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Linklaters, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Slaughter and May — recruits over 400 trainees annually, with BPP exclusively responsible for preparing them to sit the SQE.
BPP also has long list of standalone firm partnerships with a raft of other leading law firms such as Addleshaw Goddard, Dentons, DWF, Osborne Clarke and Travers Smith.
ULaw isn’t far behind. The biggest name on its roster is Magic Circle giant Clifford Chance, that recruits around 100 trainees annually. This partnership has been in place since the summer of 2021. It also has pairings with many other leading law firms, including Silver Circle member Ashurst, City firms Charles Russell Speechlys, RPC, Taylor Wessing, and Trowers & Hamlins, as well as US firms Akin and Milbank.
ULaw has a second string to its bow in the firm of university collaborations, an important new source of business for SQE providers. It has secured agreements to deliver its SQE courses via mini campuses at universities such as Exeter, Liverpool, Reading, Royal Holloway, Newcastle, Southampton and UEA.
And then come Barbri and CoLP. The SRA’s website lists over 130 “training providers” but currently these are the only two among the upstarts that can be classed as major players, having gained significant ground in the UK training market since the introduction of the SQE.
US-based Barbri is the much bigger of the two, providing the training for many of America’s state bar exams. Drawing on its expertise in preparing aspiring US lawyers for the bar exam, which has a similar multiple-choice structure to the SQE, Barbri is well positioned to have a run at the England & Wales market.
Unlike BPP and ULaw, which offer both in-person and online options, Barbri offers exclusively web-based teaching. This model means it can slightly undercut BPP and ULaw on price. The US company’s UK arm has secured partnerships with a number of prominent law firms, including Brabners, Baker McKenzie, Orrick and Vinson & Elkins, as well as BCLP (in a shared deal with BPP).
Outside of corporate law, Barbri also supports many aspiring solicitors aiming to qualify in the social welfare sector. This is made possible through its partnership with the Social Welfare Solicitors Qualification Fund (SWSQF), a fund supported by leading law firms that covers the preparation course fees and exam costs for students who would otherwise be unable to afford them.
Barbri has also established partnerships with universities including London South Bank, De Montfort University, and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), as well as training providers like the on-demand paralegal service Flex Legal and apprenticeship specialist Damar Training.
CoLP, an offshoot of The College of Law Australia and New Zealand, has been following a similar strategy. So far it seems to be attempting to differentiate itself on price, with course fees lower than other larger providers. It has attracted partnerships with the aforementioned Reed Smith, as well as mid-sized regional outfits like Browne Jacobson, Capsticks, Clarke Willmott and Wright Hassall.
CoLP, too, has formed multiple partnerships with universities to deliver its SQE preparation courses and supporting modules on campus. These universities include Keele, Southampton Solent, Manchester Met and Middlesex Uni.
How the battle of the law schools shakes out is a tough one to call. Law firm partnerships will surely always play a part, bringing future trainees in bulk as well as prestige, while the convenience of the law school tie-up model could lure ever more aspiring lawyers. But ultimately, it could come down to pass rates.
As part of the switch from the LPC to the SQE, the SRA pledged to publish student success rates broken down per provider. Slightly oddly, this hasn’t happened yet. When (or should that be ‘If’?) it does, a new front in this battle will open that could transform all that has come before.
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