Stage One

Qualified within the EU

If you are a qualified lawyer in any member state of the EU Rule 15 (Overseas practice) and rule 16 (European cross-border practice) of the Solicitors' Code of Conduct explain the conduct requirements for Registered European Lawyers (RELs).

Qualified outside of the EU

In order to practice as a solicitor in England and Wales you must sit the Qualified Lawyers Test. The QLTT is a conversion test which enables lawyers qualified in certain countries outside England and Wales such as USA, Israel, Australia, Nigeria, India and South Africa as well as UK barristers, to qualify as solicitors.

Before entering for the QLTT Test, you must first obtain a Certificate of Eligibility from the Law Society of England and Wales.

This will confirm which Heads of the test you must pass, together with any requirement for further training. This can take six to eight weeks to process. This will vary according to the primary jurisdiction of the applicant.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is currently reviewing requirements for overseas lawyers but for applications made on or after September 2008 lawyers from outside the European Union are required to satisfy the Law Society that they have at least two year's of working in legal practice in a common law jurisdiction, of which at least one year must have been gained by practising the law of England and Wales. This experience must have been gained under the direct supervision of solicitor who must have been admitted as a solicitor in England &Wales. You must also have had experience of three distinct areas of law and experience of both contentious and non-contentious practice.

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If you are not eligible to sit the QLTT then you will need to follow the route to qualification as a non law student.

Stage Two

The QLTT is usually paid for by a firm itself and so for many, the task of job hunting as a newly qualified english lawyer would have begun before the start of the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test.

Every day in the legal press you will read about UK firms opening offices in new countries and merging with overseas firms to further increase their international dominance. In addition many international firms are also opening offices in the UK as it offers a bridge from the US to mainland Europe and beyond. The UK legal market has been and will continue to expand both rapidly and globally and UK firms need the experience and language skills non-UK nationals can offer.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority estimates around one fifth of lawyers in the UK qualify via the QLTT route. The market for overseas qualified lawyers is strong as always in the UK and to get a better of idea of the kind of vacancies are open to you, here are a few useful websites to start your job hunting:

The Lawyer
Legal Week
Totally Legal

You can find many more useful websites here.

You may also find the information about Why UK Firms Need You on our website useful in highlighting your selling points to UK based firms.