Welsh law firm partners with virtual law school for SQE training

Acuity Law 🤝 College of Legal Practice

Welsh business law firm Acuity Law has selected The College of Legal Practice (CoLP) to prepare its future trainees for the Barristers Qualifying Examination (SQE).

The deal, announced today, will see the team’s interns undertake SQE1 and 2 preparation with CoLP alongside their qualifying work experience. There are also separate pathways for law and non-law graduates, with the latter also completing a Graduate Foundation in Law (GFL) before starting their SQE studies.

The medium-sized commercial company, with offices in Cardiff, Swansea and London, will start with eight trainees on their SQE track, alongside a smaller LPC cohort for their current recruitment cycle, ending with 10-12 per year.

Commenting on the deal, CoLP CEO Giles Proctor said: “We are delighted to have worked closely with Acuity Law to design a flexible curriculum that will allow their trainees to undertake SQE1 preparatory courses. and SQE2 while undertaking their qualifying work experience with the company.”

He added:

“Acuity is also pioneering a non-legal graduate pathway for its future articling students that integrates with our Graduate Foundation in Law (GFL) program to give their young lawyers a solid foundation for qualification. Acuity is seizing the opportunity offered by the flexibility of the new qualification scheme to rethink its qualification pathways and offer its future lawyers a very good start in their career with the firm.

ColP has already established similar partnerships with Accutrainee, Flex Legal and Wright Hassall.

Law schools have been scrambling to position themselves in the market since news broke that the SQE will eventually replace the Legal Practice course.

The University of Law is SQE’s exclusive supplier to Clifford Chance and White & Case, among others, while rival BPP University is the go-to law school for a sextet of elite firms known as ” City Consortium”. BARBRI, meanwhile, has deals with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (alongside BPP) and Reed Smith.

News of CoLP’s combination comes just weeks after CoLP launched a new online module in conjunction with O-Shaped Lawyer, a project that places greater emphasis on a more comprehensive approach to the development of lawyers and the legal profession. . The project’s founder, Dan Kayne, recently announced that he has left his role as general counsel at Network Rail to focus on the project full-time.