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How to Become a Solicitor in England & Wales as a U.S. Lawyer
The high-level roadmap for American lawyers interested in English qualification, the SQE, and building a legal career in London.
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to practice law in London?
Maybe you’ve walked through the City and passed the offices of American and international law firms and wondered what it would actually take to work there. Maybe you want to spend a few years abroad, build a more international practice, become dual-qualified, or simply give yourself the option of taking your career across the Atlantic someday.
If you’re already a U.S.-qualified lawyer, that idea may be more realistic than you think.
You do not necessarily need to go back to law school in England. You do not necessarily need to complete the traditional route followed by someone beginning their legal career in the UK. And, if you are already professionally qualified as a lawyer in the United States, you may be able to qualify as a solicitor of England and Wales through a route designed for qualified lawyers.
I started looking into this process as a U.S.-qualified BigLaw lawyer. What began as curiosity eventually turned into studying for and passing SQE1 while working full time, pursuing the SQE2 exemption route, and working toward taking my own practice across the Atlantic.
The more I researched, the more I noticed a problem: there was plenty of information about becoming a solicitor, but relatively little of it was written specifically for an American lawyer trying to understand how the English system fits with a U.S. JD, bar admission, BigLaw seniority, London recruiting, immigration, and an actual international career.
That is why I created The JD Solicitor.
This site is the resource I wish I had when I started.
And the most important thing to understand is this:
Becoming a solicitor, getting a legal job in London, and obtaining the right to work in the UK are three different processes.
Once you separate those three questions, the path becomes much easier to understand.
The Framework
The Three Parts of a Transatlantic Legal Career
People often talk about “moving to London as a lawyer” as though it were a single process.
It isn’t.
There are really three separate questions.
01 · Qualify
Can I become a solicitor of England and Wales?
This is the professional-qualification question.
It involves the Solicitors Regulation Authority, or SRA, and potentially the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, better known as the SQE.
02 · Work
How do I actually get a legal job in London?
This is the career question.
Maybe you transfer internally with an international law firm. Maybe you lateral directly into a London office. Maybe you recruit into the UK earlier in your career. Maybe your path is in-house instead of private practice.
Qualification can help, but qualification and employability are not the same thing.
03 · Move
Do I have the legal right to live and work in the UK?
This is the immigration question.
Depending on your circumstances, you may already have the right to work in the UK or you may need an immigration route such as employer sponsorship under the Skilled Worker system or another available visa category.
Becoming a solicitor does not, by itself, give you the right to live or work in the United Kingdom.
Likewise, having the right to work in the UK does not automatically make you a solicitor.
And you can pursue English qualification without intending to move to England at all.
Throughout The JD Solicitor, I organize most of what I write around these stages:
DREAM → QUALIFY → WORK → MOVE → PRACTICE
This page is the map. The rest of the site goes deeper.
So, Can an American Lawyer Become a Solicitor in England?
Yes.
England and Wales has a route specifically for lawyers who are already professionally qualified in another jurisdiction.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority defines a qualified lawyer as someone who holds a professional legal qualification giving that person rights to practise in England and Wales or another jurisdiction. Qualified lawyers seeking admission as solicitors of England and Wales generally need to satisfy the SRA’s degree-or-equivalent requirement, complete the applicable SQE requirements unless exempt, and meet the SRA’s character and suitability requirements.
SRA: Qualified Lawyers →There is also an important terminology point here.
You are technically seeking admission as a solicitor of England and Wales.
There is no single qualification called a “UK lawyer.” England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have separate legal systems and professional qualification regimes.
For most American lawyers interested in London, England and Wales is the relevant jurisdiction.
The Roadmap
The Process in 60 Seconds
For an already-qualified U.S. lawyer, the route broadly looks like this:
01
Create your SRA account and identify yourself as a qualified lawyer
You create a mySRA account and add the jurisdiction or jurisdictions in which you are professionally qualified.
This matters because the SRA uses that information to identify you as a qualified lawyer and apply the appropriate qualification pathway.
SRA: Qualified Lawyer Pathway →02
Validate your degree or equivalent qualification
The SRA requires a UK degree or equivalent Level 6 qualification. The degree can be in any subject, and there is also a process for establishing equivalence through other qualifications or relevant experience.
For an overseas applicant, do not simply assume that the SRA will automatically treat a particular U.S. credential as satisfying every requirement. Follow the SRA’s current validation process.
SRA: Degree Validation →03
Determine which SQE assessments you need
The Solicitors Qualifying Examination has two main components:
- SQE1, which assesses functioning legal knowledge; and
- SQE2, which assesses practical legal skills.
Qualified lawyers can potentially apply for exemptions from SQE assessments, but exemption eligibility depends on the qualification and evidence involved.
The SRA specifically describes the threshold for an individual SQE1 exemption as very high and says SQE1 exemptions are very rare.
For many U.S.-qualified lawyers, therefore, SQE1 is likely to be the central examination to plan around rather than something to assume can be waived.
The U.S. Lawyer’s Guide to the SQE
Coming soon
04
Take SQE1, if required
SQE1 is where a U.S.-trained lawyer encounters a large amount of substantive English and Welsh law and procedure that may be completely unfamiliar.
That was the major examination step in my own path.
How I Passed SQE1 While Working Full Time in BigLaw
Coming soon
SQE1 for U.S. Lawyers: What to Expect
Coming soon
05
Take SQE2 or seek an exemption if eligible
SQE2 focuses on practical legal skills.
Qualified lawyers may be able to apply for an exemption based on their existing professional qualification and/or experience, but eligibility is not automatic simply because someone holds a U.S. law license. The SRA assesses exemption applications under its current requirements.
If you receive an SQE2 exemption, the SRA also requires you to demonstrate English or Welsh language proficiency through its applicable process before admission.
The SQE2 Exemption for U.S.-Qualified Lawyers
Coming soon
My SQE2 Exemption Application: What I Submitted
Coming soon
06
Complete screening and apply for admission
Once you have satisfied the applicable qualification requirements, the final stages include the SRA’s character and suitability process, background screening, and the application for admission.
Qualified lawyers are also asked to provide certificates of good standing from the jurisdictions in which they hold professional legal qualifications.
Then comes the part this entire process has been building toward:
Admission as a Solicitor of England and Wales.
Wait — Don’t I Need Two Years of Qualifying Work Experience?
This is one of the biggest sources of confusion for American lawyers researching the SQE.
If you read a general guide to becoming a solicitor, you will probably see references to two years of Qualifying Work Experience, or QWE.
That requirement is part of the ordinary SQE pathway.
That means a U.S. lawyer should be careful about relying on generic articles titled something like “How to Become a Solicitor.”
Those articles may be perfectly accurate for a British university student or an aspiring solicitor beginning from scratch while being materially misleading for someone who is already licensed to practise law in the United States.
That distinction is one of the main reasons The JD Solicitor exists.
What If I Have a U.S. JD but I’m Not Admitted to a Bar?
This is an important distinction.
Having a J.D. and being a U.S.-qualified lawyer are not the same thing for purposes of the SRA’s qualified-lawyer provisions.
The SRA limits SQE exemptions to qualified lawyers—meaning people who hold a professional legal qualification conferring rights to practise.
So if you graduated from an American law school but have not yet obtained a professional qualification, do not assume that every rule described on this page for U.S.-qualified lawyers applies to you.
That does not mean a U.S. JD holder cannot pursue English qualification. It means the pathway may be different.
Do I Actually Have to Move to England?
No.
Becoming qualified as a solicitor and moving to England are separate decisions.
You might pursue English qualification because you:
- work on cross-border transactions;
- regularly deal with English law or UK counterparties;
- expect to work internationally later in your career;
- want another professional credential;
- want additional career optionality; or
- simply have a personal goal of becoming dual-qualified.
You can therefore think of two very different people reading this site.
“I want the qualification.”
Your primary questions are probably about the SQE, exemptions, admission, cost, preparation, and whether dual qualification is professionally worthwhile.
Start here:
The U.S. Lawyer’s Guide to the SQE
Coming soon
“I want to live and work in London.”
Now qualification is only one piece of a much larger project.
You need to think about the London legal market, recruiting, practice-area portability, seniority, compensation, immigration, relocation, taxes, housing, and what moving abroad actually does to your career.
That was my larger goal.
For me, the qualification was not simply another credential.
It was part of building a transatlantic legal career.
Career Pathways
How Do American Lawyers Actually Get Jobs in London?
There is no single route.
And this is one area where I think it is particularly important not to confuse being eligible to qualify in England with being competitive for a particular London job.
Some of the major routes include:
Internal transfer
If you already work for an international law firm with a London office, an internal transfer may provide one of the most straightforward ways to move your existing practice overseas.
You already have relationships inside the firm. The firm already understands your work. And, depending on the practice, you may be able to continue serving U.S. matters while gradually integrating into London work.
How I Transferred From U.S. BigLaw to London
Coming soon
How to Ask Your Firm for an International Transfer
Coming soon
Lateral recruiting
American lawyers can also lateral directly into London offices.
How realistic that is will depend heavily on your practice area, level of seniority, market conditions, U.S. qualification, English qualification, existing clients and experience.
Some practices are naturally more portable across borders than others.
Do London Law Firms Hire American Lawyers?
Coming soon
Which U.S. Legal Practice Areas Transfer Best to London?
Coming soon
Recruiting earlier in your career
Law students and junior lawyers may have opportunities to approach London differently—for example by targeting firms with significant U.S. practices, investigating direct London recruiting, or deliberately building experience that is internationally portable.
How U.S. Law Students Can Build a Career in London
Coming soon
In-house and other international roles
Private practice is not the only path.
For more experienced lawyers, international companies, financial institutions, technology companies and other multinational organizations can create their own routes into the UK market.
Will London Firms Treat My U.S. Class Year the Same as UK PQE?
Not necessarily.
This is one of the more complicated career questions behind an international move.
American law firms commonly organize associates by class year. The UK market commonly speaks in terms of post-qualification experience, or PQE.
Those concepts overlap, but they are not always treated as identical.
A lawyer who has practised for several years in the United States and later becomes admitted in England and Wales does not magically lose those years of legal experience. At the same time, firms may differ in how they translate U.S. seniority into their London staffing, title and compensation structures.
This is something to negotiate and understand as part of the job—not something the SQE itself decides.
Then There’s Immigration
This is the third piece.
Qualification answers:
Can I become a solicitor?
Employment answers:
Can I get the job I want?
Immigration answers:
Can I legally live and work in the United Kingdom?
Those are three separate questions.
For some lawyers, an employer-sponsored Skilled Worker visa may be the relevant route. The Skilled Worker system generally requires an eligible role with an approved sponsor, a certificate of sponsorship and satisfaction of the applicable requirements.
Other lawyers may qualify under an entirely different immigration category.
For example, the High Potential Individual visa is an unsponsored route available in certain circumstances to recent graduates of universities appearing on the applicable Global Universities List. It does not require a job offer, although eligibility rules and limitations apply.
The important point for this page is not to choose your visa for you.
It is to recognize that immigration needs its own analysis.
GOV.UK: Work Visas →Immigration rules change. Always confirm the current requirements on GOV.UK or obtain advice appropriate to your circumstances before relying on an immigration route.
Is Becoming Dual-Qualified Worth It?
That is a more personal question.
There are plenty of reasons an American lawyer might value qualification in England and Wales:
- building a long-term career in London;
- working on international or cross-border matters;
- increasing professional credibility with overseas clients and colleagues;
- creating future career optionality;
- understanding another legal system more deeply;
- expanding the geographic scope of a practice; or
- simply accomplishing something you have wanted to do.
But qualification is not magic.
Becoming a solicitor does not guarantee you:
- a London job;
- visa sponsorship;
- a particular salary;
- recognition at a particular PQE level;
- portable clients;
- or a more interesting career.
The credential is one piece of the puzzle.
Whether it makes sense depends on what you want to build with it.
My Path
My route started in the United States.
I went to a U.S. law school, qualified as an American lawyer, and began practising in BigLaw.
At some point, the possibility of practising in London stopped feeling like an abstract idea and started feeling like something I should actually investigate.
That led me into the SQE.
I studied English and Welsh law while continuing to practise full time. I sat SQE1. I passed. I then pursued the qualified-lawyer route for the remaining requirements while working toward moving my practice to London.
My path will not necessarily be your path.
And that is the point.
When I began researching this process, I was not looking for someone to tell me that every American lawyer should move to London.
I wanted to see a concrete example of someone who had actually figured out how the pieces fit together.
That is what I want The JD Solicitor to provide.
Keep Reading
Where Should You Start?
You do not need to read everything on this site.
Start with the question that brought you here.
If you are already a U.S.-qualified lawyer and want to understand the qualification process:
The U.S. Lawyer’s Guide to the SQE
Coming soon
If you are preparing for SQE1:
How I Passed SQE1 While Working Full Time
Coming soon
If you are wondering whether you can avoid taking SQE2:
The SQE2 Exemption for U.S.-Qualified Lawyers
Coming soon
If your real goal is working in London:
How U.S. Lawyers Get Jobs in London
Coming soon
If you are planning the actual move:
Moving From the U.S. to London as a Lawyer
Coming soon
If you are still in law school:
How U.S. Law Students Can Build a Career in London
Coming soon
Could You Actually Practice Law in London?
If you have ever looked at London and wondered:
Could I actually practise there?
The answer may be yes.
The process is not automatic. There are separate pieces to work through: professional qualification, employment, immigration and eventually the practical reality of moving your life across the Atlantic.
But it is a path that exists.
And for a U.S.-qualified lawyer, it may be substantially more achievable than it first appears.
I created The JD Solicitor to make that path easier to understand—from the first time you search “Can an American lawyer practise in England?” through the SQE, admission, recruiting, immigration, relocation and ultimately building a career that crosses both legal systems.
If that is the kind of career you are considering, you are in the right place.
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I’m documenting the process of building a transatlantic legal career—from SQE and dual qualification to London recruiting, visas, relocation and the realities of actually practising abroad.
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