Qualifying Work Experience, or QWE, is one of the final steps on the route to solicitor qualification in England and Wales. It sits alongside SQE1 and SQE2, but it is not an exam. Instead, it is about real legal work, carried out in a genuine setting, where you develop the competencies needed for practice. The challenge is not only understanding what counts. It is also knowing how to log it in a way that is accurate, useful, and easy to explain later.
QWE and Solicitor Qualification: What the SRA Actually Wants
The Solicitors Regulation Authority allows candidates to complete up to two years of QWE before admission. The work must expose you to legal services and allow you to develop at least some of the competencies expected of a newly qualified solicitor. That is the key point. You do not need to do every possible task, and you do not need to work in one particular type of organisation.
QWE can be gained in a law firm, in-house legal team, law clinic, charity, advice centre, or another organisation where legal work is done. It can even be accumulated across different roles. A holiday scheme, a paralegal post, a training contract-style seat, or volunteering may all qualify if the work is legal in nature and properly evidenced. The label on the job title is less important than the substance of the work.
QWE is about what you did, not just where you worked. If the role involved legal tasks and built relevant competencies, it may count.
This flexibility is useful, but it also means you should keep records from the start. If you leave a role and then try to reconstruct six months of work from memory, you will probably miss useful detail. A short, regular log is much safer.
What Counts as QWE: Practical Examples Candidates Can Use
Many candidates ask whether a particular task “counts”. The answer is usually found by asking a simpler question: did the work involve legal services and help you develop solicitor-like skills?
Examples that may count include drafting correspondence, reviewing contracts, taking instructions from clients, preparing bundles, supporting litigation, legal research, attending client meetings, and assisting with case management. A role may involve a mix of legal and non-legal tasks. That is fine. QWE does not require every minute of your working day to be billable legal work.
A few examples make the boundary clearer:
- Paralegal work on conveyancing, litigation, family, employment, commercial or private client matters may count if it is genuinely legal work.
- In-house work on contracts, compliance, disputes, policy, or regulatory matters may count where it is legal in nature.
- Law clinic or pro bono work may count if you are carrying out legal tasks under appropriate supervision.
- Vacation schemes or placements can count if the work is substantive and not purely observational.
By contrast, purely administrative work is less likely to count on its own. Filing, booking meetings, and general office support are helpful, but they do not usually demonstrate legal competence unless they form part of a broader legal role. Observation alone is also not enough. Sitting in a room while lawyers work is not the same as doing the work yourself.
It helps to think in terms of capability. If the task gave you practice in legal analysis, communication, research, drafting, or case handling, it is more likely to be relevant. That aligns well with the SQE route, which assesses practical legal skills through SQE1 and SQE2 before you move into full professional practice.
How QWE Connects with SQE1 and SQE2
QWE is separate from the exams, but the three parts of the solicitor qualification route fit together. SQE1 tests functioning legal knowledge across FLK1 and FLK2. SQE2 then assesses practical skills such as client interviewing, advocacy, legal research, drafting, and case analysis. QWE is where those skills begin to feel real.
If you have studied Contract Law, Tort Law, Property Law and Practice, or Wills and the Administration of Estates for SQE1, your QWE may give those subjects context. A contract review in a commercial team, for example, can make the rules on formation, interpretation, and breach much easier to remember. A probate file may bring succession issues to life in a way that textbooks cannot.
That said, do not assume you must have worked in every FLK subject area before you can qualify. The system does not require complete coverage of all practice areas. You need exposure to legal work and development of the required competencies, not a checklist of every subject in the SQE curriculum.
This is one reason candidates should keep QWE notes with later study in mind. When you revise for SQE2, a well-kept log can help you recall real examples of client communication, drafting decisions, or research methods. Those examples are useful in preparation, and sometimes in interviews too.
How to Log QWE Properly: A Simple System That Works
The SRA does not prescribe one rigid format for recording QWE, but your log should be clear enough for a solicitor to confirm it later. Aim for a record that answers four basic questions: where did you work, when did you work there, what did you do, and how did it help you develop?
A strong QWE log usually includes:
- the organisation name and team
- the dates of the role or placement
- a short description of the legal work done
- the competencies developed
- the name and role of the solicitor who can confirm the experience
Keep the wording factual. “Drafted a first version of a witness statement and revised it after supervision” is better than “helped with litigation”. “Reviewed standard commercial contracts and flagged risk points for senior review” is better than “did contract work”. Specifics matter because they show the quality of the work, not just the existence of a role.
You should also keep the log updated while the work is fresh. A weekly or monthly note is usually enough. If your role changes, record that too. A candidate who starts in case management and later moves into drafting should capture both phases. That makes the record more honest and more useful.
Good QWE records are not essays. They are concise, dated, and specific. If a supervisor reads them months later, the work should still be easy to understand.
Who Can Confirm QWE and What Supervision Means
QWE needs to be confirmed by a solicitor. In practice, this means someone who can properly vouch for the work you carried out and the period during which you carried it out. The confirmer does not have to have supervised every task personally, but they must be in a position to assess the experience truthfully.
Supervision matters because QWE is not self-declared in a vacuum. You should be able to explain what you did, and the confirming solicitor should be comfortable saying that the experience was genuine. If you work in a large organisation, keep a note of who your line manager is and who the confirming solicitor will be. If you move roles, do not assume someone will remember the details later.
This is where many candidates slip up. They wait until the end of a placement and then discover that no one has tracked the work properly. Do not let that happen. Ask early how confirmation will work, and whether your supervisor wants quarterly summaries, a draft log, or short reflections. Different organisations handle this differently, and a little communication now can save a lot of stress later.
Common QWE Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
A few recurring mistakes appear again and again in candidate questions.
Mistake one: treating QWE as a box-ticking exercise. If you write only “worked as paralegal for six months”, you have not really captured the experience. Add detail.
Mistake two: assuming unpaid work cannot count. It may count if it is genuine legal work and properly confirmed. The issue is the substance of the experience, not simply whether you were paid.
Mistake three: relying on memory. Keep a running log. It takes minutes, not hours.
Mistake four: forgetting to show development. Your log should not just list tasks. It should show how your confidence, judgement, or drafting improved over time.
There is also a legal point worth remembering. QWE is separate from employment law rights, and it is not governed by the same rules as a contract of apprenticeship or training contract. You may be in a role that feels informal, but it can still be valid QWE if the legal work is there. The important thing is to evidence it properly.
If you want a quick self-check, ask yourself three questions: would a solicitor recognise this as legal work, can I describe it clearly, and can someone else confirm it? If the answer to all three is yes, you are probably on safe ground.
A Practical QWE Template You Can Start Today
You do not need fancy software. A simple document or spreadsheet is enough. Here is a practical format that works well:
- Date: the week or month the work was done
- Team / organisation: where the work took place
- Task: what you actually did
- Legal issue: the area of law involved
- Skill developed: drafting, research, analysis, communication, organisation, or advocacy
- Evidence: email, file note, supervisor feedback, or matter reference if available ” That is short, but it is meaningful. It tells the story of the work without overcomplicating it.
If you are still studying for SQE1, this kind of record can also help you revise. You may notice patterns in the work you do and the law you keep seeing. That can guide your revision planning for FLK1 and FLK2, especially if you are balancing study with employment.
One final thought: do not wait for the “perfect” role before starting QWE. Many candidates build it gradually. A good route is often a mix of roles, each adding something different. The point is steady, documented legal experience, not a flawless CV.
How CELE SQE can help: if you are planning SQE1 or SQE2 alongside QWE, CELE SQE offers structured support that fits around work. The SQE1 Long-term Course is £3,720, the Mid-term Course is £2,750, and the Short-term Course is £1,750; a Single FLK is half of those prices, with £150 off for bookings within three months of the exam. We also offer SQE1 Question Bank access at £575/month, SQE1 Textbooks at £950 for the full set or £570 for a single FLK set, and the SQE2 Course at £1,450, which includes 61 full mock questions built 1:1 to the official SRA format.com.
