SQE Guide
The U.S. Lawyer’s Guide to the SQE
Everything American lawyers need to know about the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, exemptions, QWE, costs, and the path to becoming a solicitor of England and Wales.
If you are already a lawyer in the United States and have started researching how to qualify in England and Wales, the process can look more complicated than it really is.
You will quickly encounter a new vocabulary: SRA, SQE1, SQE2, FLK1, FLK2, QWE, mySRA. Then you will find guides explaining that aspiring solicitors need two years of work experience, two stages of examinations, a degree, character and suitability checks, and various other requirements.
Most of that information is written for someone becoming a lawyer for the first time.
If you are already professionally qualified in a U.S. jurisdiction, your route is different.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority—the SRA—treats lawyers who already hold a professional legal qualification giving them rights to practise in another jurisdiction as qualified lawyers. Qualified lawyers do not need the ordinary two years of Qualifying Work Experience, and some may be able to obtain an exemption from SQE2. For most American lawyers, however, SQE1 remains the major examination hurdle.
I came to this process after going to law school in the United States, passing a U.S. bar examination, and beginning practice in BigLaw. I then studied for and passed SQE1 while continuing to work full time.
This is the overview I wish I had when I started.
How the SQE Works for U.S.-Qualified Lawyers
The Solicitors Qualifying Examination, or SQE, is the centralized assessment used in the modern route to qualification as a solicitor of England and Wales.
It has two parts.
SQE1
Functioning legal knowledge
SQE1 tests whether you can apply legal rules and principles across a broad range of English and Welsh law and practice.
It is a computer-based, single-best-answer multiple-choice examination divided into two assessments:
FLK1 and FLK2.
For an American lawyer, this is where you encounter substantial areas of English law that may be completely new to you.
SQE2
Practical legal skills
SQE2 assesses practical lawyering skills together with the application of legal knowledge.
It includes written and oral exercises testing skills such as advocacy, interviewing, legal research, legal drafting, legal writing, and case and matter analysis.
Qualified lawyers may be able to obtain an exemption from SQE2 if their professional qualification and experience satisfy the SRA's requirements.
Why Your Route Is Different
For someone qualifying as a solicitor for the first time, the ordinary SQE pathway generally includes a degree or equivalent qualification, SQE1, SQE2, two years of Qualifying Work Experience, and character and suitability requirements.
An already-qualified American lawyer is not starting from zero.
Your U.S. admission matters because the SRA recognizes an existing professional legal qualification when determining your pathway to admission.
That is why qualified lawyers are specifically excused from the normal two-year QWE requirement. It is also why the SRA has an exemption process for SQE assessments.
This distinction sounds simple, but it is important.
If you search for something like “how to become a solicitor,” many of the results you find may be completely accurate for a British university student while being materially misleading for an attorney already admitted in Texas, New York, California, or another U.S. jurisdiction.
The first question should therefore not be:
How does someone become a solicitor?
It should be:
How does someone who is already a lawyer become a solicitor?
That is the route this guide addresses.
The Roadmap
The U.S. Lawyer’s SQE Roadmap
The individual steps do not always have to happen in exactly this order, but this is a useful way to understand the process.
01
Create your mySRA account and add your U.S. qualification
Your first administrative step is creating a mySRA account.
You then add the jurisdiction or jurisdictions in which you are professionally qualified, your professional title, and the date you qualified.
For an American lawyer, remember that professional qualification is generally state-based. You are not simply telling the SRA that you are “an American lawyer.” You are identifying the actual jurisdiction in which you hold rights to practise.
Adding that professional qualification is also what tells the SRA that you are proceeding as a qualified lawyer and do not need ordinary QWE.
Official resource: SRA Qualified Lawyer Pathway →02
Validate your degree or equivalent qualification
Qualified lawyers still need to satisfy the SRA's degree-or-equivalent requirement.
The degree can be in any subject. For an international degree, the SRA's process involves checking whether the qualification is equivalent to a UK Level 6 qualification.
As of October 2026, validation of an international degree or equivalent qualification costs £54.84, although the educational institution may impose an additional verification charge.
This is worth separating conceptually from your bar admission.
Your degree satisfies the academic/equivalence requirement.
Your bar admission is what makes you a qualified lawyer.
They do different jobs in the process.
Official resource: SRA Degree Validation →03
Determine which SQE assessments you actually need
Before booking examinations, check the current exemption rules.
Qualified lawyers can apply for SQE exemptions, but SQE1 and SQE2 should not be thought about the same way.
The threshold for an individual SQE1 exemption is exceptionally high because the applicant must demonstrate equivalent knowledge and application of English and Welsh law.
SQE2 exemption is a much more significant issue for experienced foreign-qualified lawyers because it focuses on practical skills that an existing lawyer may already have demonstrated through qualification and practice.
The SRA maintains an exemption finder showing qualifications it has previously considered, but a qualification not appearing there does not necessarily prevent an individual SQE2 application.
Official resource: SRA SQE Exemption Finder →The SQE2 Exemption for U.S.-Qualified Lawyers
Coming soon
04
Pass SQE1, if required
For most U.S.-qualified lawyers, this is likely to be the major examination step.
SQE1 requires you to learn and apply a broad body of English and Welsh substantive law, procedure, and professional obligations.
Being a practising American lawyer helps.
It does not make English land law become American property law.
We will go much deeper into SQE1 below.
How I Passed SQE1 While Working Full Time in BigLaw
Coming soon
05
Take SQE2 or obtain an exemption
If you are not exempt, SQE2 tests practical legal skills through written and oral assessments.
If you are already an experienced qualified lawyer, you may instead investigate whether your qualification, practising rights, and professional experience can support an individual exemption application.
An exemption is not automatic merely because you hold a U.S. law license.
It is an evidentiary application.
My SQE2 Exemption Application: What I Submitted
Coming soon
06
Complete the remaining requirements and apply for admission
The exams are not the end of the process.
Before admission, you must satisfy the remaining SRA requirements, including background screening and character and suitability. Qualified lawyers must also provide current certificates of good standing from the jurisdictions in which they hold professional legal qualifications.
If you have an SQE2 exemption, there is an additional English or Welsh language-proficiency step before admission.
Once the requirements are complete, you formally apply for admission to the roll of solicitors.
Then comes the actual endpoint:
Admission as a Solicitor of England and Wales.
SQE1
SQE1: The Main Examination Hurdle for Most U.S. Lawyers
This is where I would expect most American lawyers to spend the bulk of their study time.
An individual SQE1 exemption is technically possible, but the SRA describes the threshold as very high. The assessment covers a wide body of English and Welsh law and legal practice, so a U.S. bar examination is not simply treated as its equivalent.
For practical planning purposes, I would start with the assumption that you will need to pass SQE1 unless your circumstances give you a genuine reason to investigate an exemption.
What does SQE1 look like?
SQE1 consists of two separate Functioning Legal Knowledge assessments:
FLK1
and
FLK2.
Beginning with the January 2027 sitting, each FLK contains 170 questions, for 340 questions total.
Each FLK is split into two sessions of 85 questions. Candidates continue to receive 2 hours and 33 minutes for each session.
FLK1
FLK2
340
4
Every question is a single-best-answer multiple-choice question.
That sounds straightforward.
It is not a recognition test where one obviously correct answer sits next to four ridiculous ones.
You are expected to know the law well enough to apply it to factual scenarios and distinguish between answers that can look frustratingly similar.
What does SQE1 cover?
Beginning with the January 2027 structure, the subjects are divided between the four sessions.
FLK1
- Business Law and Practice
- Dispute Resolution
- Legal Services
- Contract
- Tort
- The Legal System of England and Wales, including constitutional and administrative law and relevant EU law
FLK2
- Wills and the Administration of Estates
- Solicitors Accounts in the context of wills
- Trusts
- Land Law
- Property Law and Practice
- Solicitors Accounts in the context of property
- Criminal Liability
- Criminal Law and Practice
Ethics and professional conduct remain pervasive throughout the assessment rather than being confined to a single standalone section.
Why SQE1 feels strange as an American lawyer
Some of the headings initially look comforting.
Contract law.
Tort.
Criminal law.
Business law.
You went to law school. You passed a bar exam. You know these things.
Except sometimes you know the wrong version of these things.
That can be one of the more difficult aspects of preparing for SQE1 as an American lawyer.
Sometimes you are learning an entirely new subject.
Other times, you are learning the English version of a subject you already studied in the United States and training yourself not to instinctively reach for the American rule.
Then there are subjects that may feel almost completely foreign.
Land law was an obvious example for me. So were aspects of English civil and criminal procedure, Solicitors Accounts, property practice, and the professional regulatory framework.
Your U.S. legal training still gives you an important advantage: you already know how to read rules, analyze facts, work through ambiguity, and study enormous quantities of legal material.
But you should not confuse being an experienced law student or lawyer with already knowing the tested law.
Do you need a preparation course?
No preparation course is legally required.
The SRA does not prescribe how candidates prepare, and it does not regulate, accredit, or endorse SQE training providers. Candidates can use structured courses, individual materials, tutoring, self-study, or some combination.
For a practising U.S. lawyer, however, I think the more useful question is:
How much structure do you need?
I was studying while working full time in BigLaw.
I did not want my second job to be figuring out what an SQE curriculum should look like.
A structured provider therefore made sense for me.
That does not mean the most expensive course is automatically the best course, or that self-study cannot work. It means your preparation strategy should reflect the amount of unfamiliar law, the time you have available, and the way you learn.
SQE2
SQE2 and the Qualified-Lawyer Exemption
SQE2 is fundamentally different from SQE1.
Instead of hundreds of multiple-choice questions, SQE2 assesses practical legal skills and the application of legal knowledge through 16 assessment stations: 12 written and four oral.
The skills include:
01
Advocacy
02
Client interviewing and attendance-note/legal analysis
03
Case and matter analysis
04
Legal research
05
Legal writing
06
Legal drafting
For someone who has already practised law, that list may sound much closer to actual legal work than SQE1.
That is where the qualified-lawyer exemption becomes particularly significant.
Can an American lawyer obtain an SQE2 exemption?
Potentially.
But the correct rule is not:
“American lawyers are exempt from SQE2.”
The exemption depends on the professional qualification, practising rights, experience, and evidence involved.
For an individual SQE2 exemption, the SRA currently requires the applicant to have one or more specified practising rights, at least two years of professional legal work experience or equivalent, experience covering all of the skills assessed in SQE2, and qualification and/or experience meeting Level 3 of the SRA Threshold Standard—the standard of a day-one solicitor.
The SRA also makes clear that it will not assess partial equivalence.
You need to establish the required SQE2 content as a whole.
Depending on the application, evidence can include detailed descriptions of your work, work samples, professional assessments, and supervisor references corroborating your experience.
That is why the exemption deserves its own full guide.
It is not a box you check saying:
“I have been a lawyer for two years.”
It is an application you prove.
SQE2 Exemption Facts
£265
Current application fee: £265 for one or both SQE exemption applications.
Up to 180 days
Current stated decision period: up to 180 days after the SRA receives a fully completed individual application.
Yes
Can you sit SQE1 while waiting? Yes. The SRA says an SQE1 result will not affect a pending SQE2 exemption decision.
No
Can you seek an exemption after failing SQE2? No. You cannot obtain an exemption from an SQE assessment you have already failed.
Why U.S.-Qualified Lawyers Do Not Need QWE
This point deserves to be stated plainly.
If you are already a qualified lawyer, you do not need the ordinary two years of Qualifying Work Experience.
The confusion arises because QWE is a core requirement of the standard SQE pathway.
Someone entering the profession for the first time normally needs to accumulate two years of qualifying experience.
A qualified lawyer is treated differently because the SRA recognizes the professional qualification and experience that already made that person a lawyer.
So you do not need to:
- find a UK training contract,
- work for two years in England,
- convince a British firm to sign off two years of QWE,
- or repeat the beginning of your legal career simply because you want to cross-qualify.
When you identify your existing professional jurisdiction in mySRA, the qualified-lawyer pathway reflects that QWE is not required.
This is one of the most important reasons U.S.-qualified lawyers should be cautious when relying on generic SQE guides.
Practical Planning
Planning Your SQE Route From the United States
Understanding the regulatory requirements is only half of the project.
Then you have to figure out how to actually do it.
For an American lawyer, four practical questions matter early:
- How much will this cost?
- How long will it take?
- Where can I sit the exams?
- What happens if I do not pass on the first attempt?
A
Cost
As of October 2026, the principal official fees include:
SQE1
£2,006
SQE2
£3,086
International degree validation
£54.84
SQE exemption application
£265
SRA background screening
£34
Admission to the roll
£100
The SQE assessment fees shown above apply under the fee schedule effective from September 2026.
The exams alone therefore exceed £5,000 if you take both SQE1 and SQE2.
That still does not include things like:
- preparation courses,
- books or supplemental question banks,
- travel,
- hotels,
- transportation,
- overseas criminal-record documentation where applicable,
- or the cost of a practising certificate after admission if you require one.
An SQE2 exemption can therefore change not only the examination burden but also the economics of the process.
How Much Does It Cost to Requalify as a Solicitor?
Coming soon
B
Timing
There is no universal SQE timeline.
The process depends on the assessment calendar, how long you study, whether you seek an exemption, when results are released, and how quickly you complete the administrative requirements.
SQE1 is offered in scheduled assessment windows rather than whenever you feel ready to sit it. January and July 2027 SQE1 sittings have already been published. SQE2 has its own assessment windows.
If you are coordinating qualification with a London lateral search, internal transfer, visa, or move, those dates can matter a lot.
An SQE2 exemption application also introduces its own timeline because the SRA currently states that an individual exemption decision can take up to 180 days after receipt of a fully completed application.
For me, this was not just an examination schedule.
It became part of a larger career timeline.
My Full SQE Timeline
Coming soon
C
Where can you take the assessments?
You may not need to travel to England for SQE1.
SQE1 is delivered through Pearson VUE test centres in the UK and internationally. The SRA's current intended-location list includes New York in the United States, although individual locations are subject to availability and are not guaranteed for every assessment window.
SQE2 is different.
The written SQE2 assessments are also delivered through Pearson VUE, but they are not currently offered in the United States or Canada.
SQE2 oral assessments take place at dedicated venues in England and Wales.
That distinction can materially affect the logistics and cost of the qualification route for an American lawyer—especially if you are deciding whether an SQE2 exemption is worth pursuing.
Always check the official locations for your specific sitting before making travel arrangements.
D
Attempts and resits
You have a limited assessment window.
6
3
Under the current SQE rules, candidates generally have six years from the first day they sit their first SQE assessment to complete SQE1 and SQE2.
Within that period, you have up to three attempts at SQE1 and SQE2.
There is another important exemption consequence:
If you fail an SQE assessment, you cannot later obtain an exemption from that assessment. You have to retake and pass it.
So if you have a credible basis for seeking an exemption, investigate that before casually booking the assessment you hope to avoid.
Passing the SQE Is Not the Same as Admission
This distinction is easy to overlook.
Passing SQE1 does not make you a solicitor.
Passing SQE1 and SQE2 does not, by itself, make you a solicitor.
And receiving an SQE2 exemption does not make you a solicitor.
The assessments are requirements on the path to admission.
Qualified lawyers still need to satisfy the remaining SRA requirements.
That can include:
ensuring the degree/equivalence requirement is satisfied;
retrieving the relevant SQE results or exemptions into mySRA;
completing background screening;
satisfying character and suitability requirements;
demonstrating English or Welsh proficiency if exempt from SQE2; and
supplying current certificates of good standing from each jurisdiction where you hold a professional legal qualification.
The SRA says those certificates must generally be less than three months old and confirm matters including your admission, good standing, disciplinary status, and current entitlement to practise.
Once the requirements are complete, you submit your formal application for admission.
The current admission fee is £100, and the SRA says it aims to admit applicants within 30 days where there is no character and suitability issue.
Admission places you on the roll of solicitors.
If you intend to practise in circumstances requiring a practising certificate, that is a separate step after admission.
The milestone you have been working toward is therefore not:
“I passed the SQE.”
It is:
My Experience
My Experience With the SQE
I came to this process after already doing the American version of becoming a lawyer.
I went to law school.
I took a U.S. bar exam.
I was admitted.
I began practising in BigLaw.
So when I started researching qualification in England and Wales, I was not looking for another legal education for its own sake.
I wanted to understand whether taking my career across the Atlantic was actually possible—and what I would have to do to make it happen.
The SQE was the qualification piece of that puzzle.
For me, SQE1 became the major substantive hurdle.
I studied English and Welsh law while continuing to work full time. Some subjects felt adjacent to concepts I already knew. Others felt like starting from the beginning. I sat FLK1 and FLK2 and passed.
After that, the problem changed.
It was no longer:
Can I pass SQE1?
It became:
What remaining requirements apply to me as an already-qualified American lawyer, and how do I turn the qualification into an actual transatlantic career?
That is ultimately why I created The JD Solicitor.
There is plenty of information explaining the SQE.
What I struggled to find was information answering the question I actually had:
What does all of this mean if I already have a JD, already passed a U.S. bar, already have a legal career, and want to understand whether I could become an English solicitor too?
That is the perspective behind this guide.
Should a U.S. Lawyer Take the SQE?
Not necessarily.
I do not think every American attorney needs another professional qualification.
If your career is entirely domestic, you have no particular interest in English law or the UK, and you do not expect the credential to change anything about your work, the time and cost may not make sense.
But there are very different reasons someone might reasonably pursue it.
- Maybe you want to practise in London.
- Maybe you regularly work on international transactions.
- Maybe your clients, counterparties, or colleagues are in the UK.
- Maybe you want more geographic flexibility later in your career.
- Maybe you are interested in international in-house roles.
- Maybe you simply want to become dual-qualified because it is a professional goal that matters to you.
For me, the SQE was never just about collecting another set of letters.
It was one part of building a career that could operate on both sides of the Atlantic.
Keep Reading
Where Should You Go Next?
You do not need to read every SQE article at once.
Start with the problem you are actually trying to solve.
I am deciding whether I can handle SQE1
SQE1 for U.S. Lawyers: What to Expect
Coming soon
I have decided to take SQE1
How I Passed SQE1 While Working Full Time in BigLaw
Coming soon
I am choosing a preparation provider
BARBRI vs. QLTS School for U.S. Lawyers
Coming soon
I have passed—or expect to pass—SQE1
The SQE2 Exemption for U.S.-Qualified Lawyers
Coming soon
I am preparing my exemption application
My SQE2 Exemption Application: What I Submitted
Coming soon
I want to see the entire process
My Full SQE Timeline
Coming soon
Frequently Asked Questions
I have a U.S. JD but I am not admitted to a bar. Does this guide apply to me?
Not completely.
A JD is an academic qualification. Being admitted to practise law is a professional qualification.
The SRA's qualified-lawyer rules apply to someone who already holds a professional legal qualification conferring rights to practise. SQE exemptions are likewise available only to qualified lawyers.
That does not mean a U.S. JD holder cannot become a solicitor.
It means you should not assume that the QWE exemption or other qualified-lawyer provisions discussed in this guide automatically apply to you.
Can You Become an English Solicitor With a U.S. JD?
Coming soon
Do I need an English law degree?
No.
Qualified lawyers need a UK degree or an equivalent Level 6 qualification, but it can be in any subject. An overseas degree can be assessed through the SRA's validation process.
You do not need to go back to university and obtain an English LLB simply because your original legal education was in the United States.
Can I apply for an SQE2 exemption before I pass SQE1?
Yes.
The SRA specifically says that if you have applied for an SQE2 exemption and are ready to sit SQE1, you can take SQE1 while the exemption application is pending. Your SQE1 result will not affect the SQE2 exemption decision.
That can be useful because an individual exemption decision can take months.
What happens if I fail SQE1 or SQE2?
You can generally resit, subject to the SQE's attempt and time limits.
Candidates currently have up to three attempts at SQE1 and SQE2 within the six-year assessment period.
But there is an important rule for qualified lawyers considering exemptions: once you have failed a particular SQE assessment, you cannot later obtain an exemption from that assessment. You must retake and pass it.
Is SQE1 harder than the U.S. bar exam?
I do not think there is a useful universal answer.
They test different things.
A U.S. bar exam tests American law in a format developed for entry into a particular U.S. jurisdiction.
SQE1 asks an American lawyer to learn and apply a very broad body of law from a different legal system through hundreds of single-best-answer questions.
Passing a U.S. bar gave me experience studying large quantities of law and sitting a high-stakes professional examination.
It did not make English land law disappear from the SQE syllabus.
I would describe SQE1 less as “taking another bar exam” and more as requalifying into another legal system.
U.S. Bar Exam vs. SQE1: Which Is Harder?
Coming soon
Do I have to move to England if I become a solicitor?
No.
Qualification and relocation are separate decisions.
You can pursue admission as a solicitor of England and Wales without permanently moving to England.
Likewise, becoming a solicitor does not itself give you immigration permission to live or work in the United Kingdom.
If your goal is actually to build a career in London, the SQE solves only the qualification question.
You still need to solve the employment and immigration questions.
That is the larger framework behind The JD Solicitor:
QUALIFY → WORK → MOVE
Read next: Start Here — How to Become a Solicitor in England & Wales as a U.S. Lawyer
The Bigger Picture
At first, the SQE can make English qualification look as though you are beginning another legal career from scratch.
You are not.
If you are already a U.S.-qualified lawyer, the SRA recognizes that fact.
You do not need the ordinary two years of QWE.
For most American lawyers, SQE1 will be the major examination hurdle.
Depending on your qualification and experience, SQE2 may instead become an exemption exercise.
Then there are the administrative steps that turn passing an examination into actual admission.
None of that is automatic.
But it is a defined path.
And once you separate the requirements that apply to a new lawyer from the requirements that apply to someone who is already a lawyer, the process becomes much easier to understand.
The SQE is not the entire transatlantic career.
It is the qualification piece.
For some American lawyers, that may be exactly where the journey starts.
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