A student emailed me last month with a question that comes up in almost every Legal Services tutorial. She had been sitting a practice paper and hit this fact pattern: a firm acts for a long-standing corporate client on a property purchase. The same firm is then asked by the seller — also a client, on unrelated employment matters — to handle their side of the sale. Both clients say they are happy for the firm to act. The answer options all looked plausible. She picked the one that said the firm could act with informed written consent. She got it wrong, and she could not work out why.
That is Legal Services in a nutshell. The rules feel like common sense until an exam writer builds a scenario where common sense and the Code of Conduct point in slightly different directions. And because ethics and professional conduct questions are woven through the whole of SQE1 — they can attach themselves to a Contract question, a Dispute Resolution question, a Business Law question — you cannot afford to treat this subject as an afterthought in FLK1.
Let us take the areas that cause the most damage on exam day.
Start with the SRA Principles: the hierarchy examiners test in FLK1
The seven SRA Principles are the constitutional layer sitting above the Codes of Conduct. In order: upholding the rule of law and the proper administration of justice; upholding public trust and confidence in the solicitors' profession; independence; honesty; integrity; acting in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion; and acting in the best interests of each client.
Notice where the client sits. Last. That ordering is not decorative — the SRA states that where two or more Principles come into conflict, the one that takes precedence is the one which best serves the wider public interest, particularly the proper administration of justice. Examiners love this. A client instructs you to conceal a document that undermines their case; a client asks you to tell the court something you know to be untrue. The tempting answer is "act on instructions, the client comes first". The correct answer is that your duty to the court and to the administration of justice outranks the individual client's wishes.
Revision drill: write the seven Principles on a card in order and, next to Principles 1 and 2, write "beats the client". If a question forces a choice, that note is your tie-breaker.
Then remember there are two Codes: one for individuals, one for firms. A question asking what "the firm must do" and a question asking what "the solicitor must do" are not always answered from the same place, even where the underlying obligation overlaps.
Conflicts of interest in SQE1: the own interest conflict is absolute
Here is where my student went wrong. There are two species of conflict and they behave very differently.
An own interest conflict — where your own interests, or those of your firm, conflict with the client's — is a hard prohibition. You do not act. Consent does not cure it. Information barriers do not cure it. If a solicitor is offered shares in the client company as part of a deal she is advising on, or is asked to advise a client on a claim against her own firm, the answer is simply no.
A client conflict — where you owe separate duties to two or more clients whose interests conflict — is a prohibition with two narrow exceptions. You may act where the clients have a substantially common interest, or where they are competing for the same objective (think two clients bidding for the same asset). Even then, three safeguards must all be present: informed consent given or evidenced in writing; effective safeguards to protect confidential information; and your own satisfaction that it is reasonable to act.
Buyer and seller in a conveyancing transaction do not share a substantially common interest — their commercial positions are opposed on price, condition and timing. That is why consent alone did not save the answer. Buyer and lender, by contrast, will often share a substantially common interest on standard terms, which is why that arrangement is routine in practice. Learn the difference by example, not by definition.
Exam habit: when a conflict question appears, ask in order — (1) whose interests are conflicting, mine or two clients'? (2) if two clients, does an exception apply? (3) are all three safeguards satisfied? If any link fails, the firm declines.
Confidentiality versus disclosure: the classic FLK1 trap
Confidentiality is owed to current and former clients, it survives the end of the retainer, and it survives the client's death (passing to personal representatives). It is a duty of the individual and of the firm.
Running alongside it is the duty of disclosure: where you hold material information relevant to a client's matter, you must disclose it to that client. The tension arises when the material information is another client's confidential information. Confidentiality wins — the duty of confidentiality takes precedence over the duty of disclosure.
Learn the recognised exceptions to disclosure, because SBA questions are built out of them: where disclosure is prohibited by legal restrictions imposed in the interests of national security or the prevention of crime; where the client whose information it is gives informed consent, given or evidenced in writing, to the information not being disclosed; where effective safeguards, including information barriers, are in place and comply with the common law; or where it is reasonable in all the circumstances to act with the client's informed consent.
On information barriers, the common law benchmark is Prince Jefri Bolkiah v KPMG [1999] 2 AC 222 — the firm must show there is no real risk of disclosure of confidential information. A hastily created barrier in a small office, staffed by people who share a printer and a coffee machine, will not meet that standard. When an answer option offers a barrier as the fix, check the size of the firm and the closeness of the teams described in the facts.
Undertakings: the topic candidates underestimate
An undertaking is a statement, given orally or in writing, to someone who reasonably relies on it, that you or your firm will do something or cause something to be done, or will refrain from doing something. Three features catch people out.
It need not be in writing. It need not use the word "undertake". And it binds you personally even if the client refuses to put you in funds — you must perform it within any agreed timescale, or otherwise within a reasonable time. A solicitor who undertakes to redeem a mortgage on completion and then finds the sale proceeds are insufficient is still on the hook.
The court also has an inherent supervisory jurisdiction over solicitors as officers of the court and may order compliance; Udall v Capri Lighting Ltd [1988] QB 907 is the authority to remember. Practical drafting points worth carrying into the exam: avoid undertaking to do anything outside your control, avoid open-ended wording such as "we will account to you from the proceeds of sale" without a cap, and diarise every undertaking given.
Quick test: if the fact pattern contains a phrase like "we confirm we will forward the documents on completion", treat it as an undertaking and work forwards from there.
Funding, costs information and complaints for solicitor qualification
Costs information is a recurring source of easy marks. Clients must receive the best possible information about how their matter will be priced and the likely overall cost — at the point of engagement and as the matter progresses when circumstances change. "I told them at the start" is not a complete answer if the estimate has doubled.
On funding options, know the shape of each:
- Conditional fee agreements under s.58 Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 — no win, no fee, with a success fee capped at 100% of base costs; in personal injury the success fee is further capped by reference to certain heads of damages.
- Damages-based agreements under s.58AA CLSA 1990 and the DBA Regulations 2013 — payment as a percentage of recovered damages, with different caps for personal injury, employment tribunal and other civil claims.
- Legal aid under LASPO 2012, now confined to defined areas of scope.
- Before-the-event and after-the-event insurance, and third party funding for commercial claims.
Complaints handling is equally testable. Firms must have a complaints procedure, must tell clients at the outset how to complain, and must inform them of their right to take the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, along with the relevant time limits, when the internal process concludes or after eight weeks. Poor service goes to the Legal Ombudsman; misconduct goes to the SRA, with serious cases referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Keep those two channels separate in your head — questions often describe a rude, slow, disorganised solicitor and then offer "report to the SDT" as a distractor.
Who regulates what: reserved activities under the Legal Services Act 2007
The regulatory architecture is worth an hour of your time. The Legal Services Act 2007 created the Legal Services Board as oversight regulator, with approved regulators beneath it; the SRA is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Act defines six reserved legal activities: the exercise of a right of audience; the conduct of litigation; reserved instrument activities; probate activities; notarial activities; and the administration of oaths.
Why does this matter for a candidate? Because questions test the boundary. Giving general legal advice, drafting a commercial contract, or negotiating a settlement are not reserved — an unregulated adviser may lawfully do them. Issuing a claim form on someone's behalf, or extracting a grant of probate for reward, is another matter entirely. Add to that the duty to report promptly to the SRA any facts or matters you reasonably believe are capable of amounting to a serious breach, and the duty to cooperate with your regulator, and you have covered most of what FLK1 asks.
A three-week Legal Services routine that actually works
Reading the Code repeatedly does very little. Try this instead. Spend twenty minutes a day writing one-paragraph answers to short scenarios you invent yourself: a client who wants a gift left to you in their will; a partner who asks you to backdate a letter; an opponent who sends privileged material by mistake. Force yourself to name the Principle, the Code paragraph, and the practical step. Then do thirty mixed multiple-choice questions and, for every wrong answer, write the reason in one sentence — not "I misread it", but "I forgot that own interest conflicts cannot be consented to".
Do that consistently and Legal Services turns from your weakest FLK1 subject into the one that rescues marks elsewhere. Ethics questions appear inside other subjects; every hour here pays twice.
How CELE SQE can help
Our SQE1 courses cover all 13 subjects across FLK1 and FLK2, with Legal Services taught through applied scenarios rather than rule-recitation — Long-term £3,720, Mid-term £2,750, Short-term £1,750, with a single-FLK option at half price and £150 off for early bookings or within three months of your sitting. If you simply need volume practice, the SQE1 Question Bank is £575 per month, and full textbook sets are £950 (£570 for a single FLK). Preparing for the next stage? The SQE2 course is £1,450 and includes 61 full mock questions built to the official SRA format. Questions are welcome any time — WeChat SQE100, [email protected], or celebar.com.