Practice rights: your options 

With the need to gain practice rights a priority for many of our members, CILEX Journal gives an overview of why they are important, who needs them and how to obtain them 

During our recent roadshows one of the topics we have been asked the most questions about is practice rights. While members are aware of the need to obtain practice rights, many are still unclear about what they need to do, the different pathways available and what is required of those working in non-reserved areas of the law.

The benefits of practice rights

The legal profession is changing and authorisation is becoming ever more important. The use by employers of non-authorised persons for reserved or regulated activities is coming under greater scrutiny and we believe that operating freely under a firm-level regulatory regime without the relevant practice rights will become increasingly difficult in the coming years.

With practice rights, you can practise without restriction in your specialist area and will no longer need to be supervised by a solicitor. We are conscious that for many of you this ‘supervision’ has been invisible and indeed can often be from a more junior solicitor colleague, however, obtaining practice rights will ensure you can call yourself a CILEX Lawyer, and more importantly that you can assert to your employer that you can work with true equivalence to a solicitor, improving your status and benefitting your career in the long term.

“With practice rights, you can practise without restriction in your specialist area and will no longer need to be supervised by a solicitor” 

The CILEX Lawyer title offers reassurance, demonstrating to other legal professionals, employers and consumers that CILEX-qualified lawyers are authorised to deliver the same services to employers and clients as their peers who qualified through the more traditional route.

It is important to reiterate, however, that Chartered Legal Executives who decide not to obtain practice rights, either now or in the future, will not have their status affected or downgraded. You will still hold a practising certificate as a Chartered Legal Executive, will remain a Fellow of the Institute and be able to use the designatory letters FCILEX. It is just that you will not be able to call yourself a CILEX Lawyer while you continue to work in a reserved area.

Reserved vs non-reserved areas 

Practice rights are compulsory for authorisation to work in the following reserved areas:

This will apply to those working in areas such as civil and criminal litigation, family litigation, immigration, conveyancing and some private client work.

Chartered Legal Executives working in non-reserved areas of the law, however, are not required to gain practice rights in order to work independently. This will include those working in non-litigious areas of regulatory law, employment, family and commercial law amongst others, as well as in-house lawyers.

Routes to gaining practice rights and CILEX Lawyer status

Chartered Legal Executives working in reserved areas

There are two routes to gaining practice rights for those working in reserved areas; the portfolio route and the assessment route. Both are open to those who have worked in the legal sector for five years, two years of which must be in the specialist area in which you are seeking practice rights.

The following practice rights are available:

The newest route (launched in 2022) involves taking an assessment provided by the University of Law on behalf of CILEx Regulation. This costs £499 and takes three and a half hours to complete, combining multiple choice questions with a two-part skills assessment. If necessary, there is also a training course available from the University of Law to help you pass the assessment. It takes either 12 or 24 weeks to complete and costs £1999.

Feedback received from CILEx Regulation and Fellows who have completed the assessment so far would suggest that those with five years’ experience in their specialism are more than capable of passing the assessment without the training course. CILEx Regulation is currently seeing high pass rates suggesting a good likelihood of success.

The alternative route is to put together a logbook of your experience to demonstrate evidence you hold the relevant competencies and skills. How long this takes will depend on several factors, including whether you hold the relevant Level 6 (or equivalent) assessments, and how long it takes to gather your evidence, but the average time taken is 9-12 months.

CILEx Regulation charge an application fee of £450.

Once authorised you will be required to pay an annual fee of £60 per practice right alongside your existing practising certificate fee.

For further information you can read our practice rights guide or visit the CILEx Regulation website.

Chartered Legal Executives working in non-reserved areas

Many CILEX members do not need practice rights. If you are not working in an area covered by the reserved legal activities detailed above, or if you are working in those general areas but none of the work you undertake constitutes any reserved legal activity or immigration work, you will not need to obtain them.

However, if you would like to use the title of CILEX Lawyer there are two steps you still need to take.

Firstly, you must declare that you are working in an area which is not a reserved legal activity and is not immigration advice and services, or that the work you undertake does not constitute a reserved legal activity or regulated activity.

You must also declare that you will undertake the CILEX Education Ethics and Professional Responsibility in Context module. This can be purchased through the CILEX portal for £119.

If you have already undertaken this specific CPD learning, then you will be able to make a declaration on that basis.

Fellows can make this declaration at any time via the member portal by accessing the CILEX Lawyer eligibility checker. On completion of these two steps, you will become eligible to describe yourself as a CILEX Lawyer.

CPQ students and Level 7 apprenticeships

When the CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ) was launched in 2021 it meant that for the first time, those qualifying with CILEX would hold practice rights on qualification. The same applies to Level 7 apprentices as the apprenticeship is based on the CPQ.

So those qualifying will not need to take any additional steps except for where litigation rights are held (civil, criminal, or family) where there is also a requirement to complete advocacy training. Once held, these individuals are eligible to use the title CILEX Lawyer.

When it comes to your long term career, practice rights, and the ability to call yourself a CILEX Lawyer with equivalence to a solicitor, will be more than worth the work needed to obtain them and we would encourage all those eligible to apply.

 

 

 

 

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