Paralegal QWE sign-off
Published by FQPS Academy, which also offers QWE confirmation where the rules allow it. Every rule below links to its source.
Does paralegal work count as QWE?
Yes, it can. The SRA names paralegal work as an example of QWE, alongside law clinics, degree placements and training contracts. If you can answer yes to all six of its questions, the SRA says your work is likely to be QWE.
Yes, so long as the work gives you the opportunity to develop at least two of the competences in the Statement of Solicitor Competence, and a solicitor with direct knowledge of your work can confirm it. A solicitor outside your organisation can do so only under the extra conditions in regulation 2.2(c), which include that it has no COLP and no solicitor.
Legal services
Your role involves providing legal services, as section 12 of the Legal Services Act 2007 defines legal activity.
Real work, not simulated
Real-life legal work for real clients. Simulated legal services do not count.
At least two competences
You were exposed to at least two competences in the SRA’s Statement of Solicitor Competence.
No more than four organisations
Across all your QWE, paid or voluntary, you use no more than four organisations.
Two years in total
Two years’ full time or the equivalent part time. The SRA does not set what full time means.
Confirmed by a solicitor or COLP
A solicitor of England and Wales or a COLP confirms it, in the order regulation 2.2 sets.
A role that involves only one competence does not count, even if it is legal work. The SRA will not tell you whether your own situation is QWE: the solicitor or COLP confirming it must satisfy themselves that it meets the rules. To test your own role against the SRA’s questions, use the Free QWE checker.
Sources: SRA: Qualifying work experience for candidates (updated 26 January 2024); SRA: Qualifying work experience questions and answers (updated 3 October 2023); SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations, regulation 2.
Which QWE competences does paralegal work cover?
The SRA’s Statement of Solicitor Competence has four groups. You need the chance to develop at least two competences, and the SRA does not say which: its own example is B1, obtain relevant facts, with B3, develop and advise on relevant options. Here is how everyday paralegal tasks line up with them.
Ethics, professionalism and judgment
- Spotting an ethical issue, such as a possible conflict, and raising it (A1, act honestly and with integrity).
- Asking for help when a task is beyond you (A3, work within the limits of your competence).
Technical legal practice
- Taking instructions and gathering documents (B1, obtain relevant facts).
- Researching a point of law (B2, undertake legal research).
- Drafting letters, forms and agreements (B4, draft documents).
Working with other people
- Writing to clients and the other side (C1, communicate clearly and effectively).
- Keeping clients up to date on their matter (C2, relations with clients).
Managing themselves and their own work
- Managing deadlines across your caseload (D1, plan, prioritise and manage work).
- Keeping accurate file notes (D2, keep accurate, complete and clear records).
The tasks are our examples of work that can give you the chance to develop each competence; the competence names are the SRA’s. It is for the solicitor or COLP confirming your QWE to be satisfied that your own work did.
Sources: SRA: Statement of Solicitor Competence (updated 9 August 2022); SRA: Qualifying work experience for candidates (updated 26 January 2024).
Does legal assistant work count as QWE?
Legal assistant work can count as QWE if it involves providing legal services and gives you the chance to develop at least two competences. The SRA’s questions ask whether your job, role or experience involved providing legal services, so a legal assistant, legal secretary or caseworker is judged on the same test as a paralegal.
What roles count as QWE?
| Role | Can it count as QWE? | What the SRA says |
|---|---|---|
| ParalegalNamed by the SRA | Yes, if the work meets the test | The SRA lists paralegal work as QWE, if it gives you the chance to develop at least two competences. |
| Legal assistant | It depends on the work you did | Not named by the SRA. The same test applies as for a paralegal. |
| Legal secretary | It depends on the work you did | Unlikely if the role does not involve providing legal services. Mostly repetitive administrative tasks are unlikely to help you develop the competences. |
| Solicitor apprenticeNamed by the SRA | Yes | Time spent working as an apprentice counts as QWE, and you can use any two-year period from it. |
| Paralegal in an in-house legal teamNamed by the SRA | Yes, if the work meets the test | In-house work counts on the same conditions: at least two competences and a solicitor who can confirm it. |
| A role with no legal work, such as accounts or IT | Unlikely | A role in a law firm or legal team that does not involve providing legal services is unlikely to be QWE. |
What counts as providing legal services?
The SRA points to the definition of legal activity in section 12 of the Legal Services Act 2007. Section 12 covers the six reserved legal activities, such as the conduct of litigation and probate activities, and any other legal advice, assistance or representation on how the law applies or on resolving a legal dispute. It leaves out work of a judicial or quasi-judicial nature, including acting as a mediator.
Sources: SRA: Qualifying work experience for candidates (updated 26 January 2024); SRA: Qualifying work experience questions and answers (updated 3 October 2023); SRA: Meeting our standards for good qualifying work experience (updated 5 November 2026); SRA: Solicitor apprenticeships (updated 28 November 2025); SRA: Recording your qualifying work experience (updated 12 April 2023); Legal Services Act 2007, section 12.
Who signs off a paralegal’s QWE?
Regulation 2.2 of the SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations sets the order: the COLP or a solicitor of England and Wales who works in your organisation confirms your QWE. A solicitor outside it can confirm only if it has neither.
In a law firm
The firm’s COLP or a solicitor who works there confirms: the solicitor who supervised you, or another the firm chooses, for example one in HR.
In-house, or in another business with a solicitor
A solicitor of England and Wales who works there confirms, even where the SRA does not regulate the business, such as a legal team at an insurer.
No COLP and no solicitor at all
Some unregulated businesses, in-house teams and charities. A solicitor outside the organisation who has direct experience of your work can confirm, after reviewing your work and getting feedback from the people who supervised you.
FQPS offers QWE confirmation by a solicitor for this case, from £275.
Your day-to-day supervisor does not have to be the one who confirms. A chartered legal executive, licensed conveyancer or barrister cannot confirm QWE unless they are also a solicitor of England and Wales or your organisation’s COLP.
If your firm has a COLP or a solicitor, they are the ones to confirm your QWE, and no outside solicitor can step in instead. The one exception: a solicitor who supervised you there can still confirm after they have left, as long as they reviewed your work for the period. The full rules are in Who can confirm QWE?.
Sources: SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations, regulation 2; SRA: Qualifying work experience questions and answers (updated 3 October 2023); SRA: Your organisation’s approach to qualifying work experience (September 2021); SRA: Dealing with a refusal to confirm qualifying work experience (updated 19 February 2025).
If your firm is reluctant to confirm your paralegal QWE
The SRA expects solicitors and COLPs to act fairly when confirming QWE. Its own example: they should not refuse because they may not want to employ you as a solicitor once you have qualified. Wanting to keep you as a paralegal is no reason to hold back QWE that meets the rules.
Reasons the SRA recognises
- You have not given them enough information about your work.
- Your work does not meet the SRA’s requirements for QWE.
- For a past role: no records survive, the claim is beyond the firm’s data retention period, or nobody there can verify it.
Reasons the SRA does not accept
- Not wanting to employ you as a solicitor once you have qualified.
- Your work is not yet at the standard of a qualified solicitor: confirming QWE does not assess your competence.
- Simply not wanting to: the SRA calls refusing QWE that meets its criteria a clear breach of its Principles and Code.
What the SRA suggests if they will not confirm
- Ask the solicitor or COLP, politely and in writing or at a meeting, why they will not confirm, and show how you met the competences.
- Bring your records: a training diary, portfolio, or the SRA’s training template, and if it helps, your line manager or supervisor.
- Share the SRA’s guidance for those confirming QWE: confirming is not an assessment of your competence.
- Ask whether another solicitor or the COLP in the organisation can confirm instead.
- If they still refuse after you have taken these steps, contact the SRA’s Professional Ethics team. The SRA does not mediate, but it can remind solicitors of their obligations.
Because your firm has a solicitor or COLP, a solicitor from outside it, such as FQPS, cannot confirm instead: regulation 2.2 allows that only where the organisation has neither. The SRA does let a solicitor who supervised you there confirm after they have left. For every step, and how a supervisor who has left confirms, see Employer won’t sign off your QWE?.
Sources: SRA: Dealing with a refusal to confirm qualifying work experience (updated 19 February 2025); SRA: Meeting our standards for good qualifying work experience (updated 5 November 2026); SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations, regulation 2; SRA: Qualifying work experience questions and answers (updated 3 October 2023).
How to record your QWE as a paralegal
The solicitor or COLP confirming your QWE can say what evidence they need. A record kept as you go gives it to them, and shows you any competences you still need the chance to develop.
- At the start, ask your firm what system it uses to record QWE, who will confirm yours and what evidence they want to see.
- For each matter, note the dates, what you did, who supervised you and which competences it gave you the chance to develop.
- Keep evidence as you go, in the form your firm allows: for example a note of the documents you worked on, or a description of how you met each competence.
- Talk to the solicitor or COLP regularly, for example at one-to-ones or appraisals, so you agree how you are evidencing the competences.
- You do not send the record to the SRA. The SRA’s template is a training and recording aid only, and using it is optional.
Our QWE record template is free, with a filled-in example for each competence.
Sources: SRA: QWE training template (September 2021); SRA: Meeting our standards for good qualifying work experience (updated 5 November 2026); SRA: Qualifying work experience for candidates (updated 26 January 2024).
Paralegal QWE at several firms
You can build your two years across more than one paralegal job, including jobs you have already left.
- Each organisation’s period is confirmed separately, by its COLP or a solicitor there, or by the solicitor who supervised you there, even if they have since left. Only if it has no COLP and no solicitor can another solicitor outside it confirm.
- Past paralegal jobs can count, with no limit on how far back, as long as the work meets the SRA’s test. An old firm may not be able to confirm if, for example, no records survive.
- If you have worked in more than four organisations, choose the ones that make up your two years.
Recording each period in mySRA
- Tell the solicitor or COLP who will confirm your QWE before you apply: the SRA contacts them once you submit.
- Make one mySRA application, “Notify us of your qualifying work experience”, for each period of QWE, with an end date in the past.
- Give the name and SRA number of the solicitor or COLP confirming it. They confirm it in mySRA, and the SRA says it will let you know it has registered your QWE within 30 days.
Sources: SRA: Recording your qualifying work experience (updated 12 April 2023); SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations, regulation 2; SRA: Qualifying work experience questions and answers (updated 3 October 2023); SRA: Meeting our standards for good qualifying work experience (updated 5 November 2026); SRA: Qualifying work experience for candidates (updated 26 January 2024).
Paralegal QWE sign-off: common questions
Can I get my paralegal QWE signed off while I am still in the job?
Yes, for a period that has already ended: mySRA needs an end date that is not in the future, so agree the dates with the solicitor or COLP confirming it. You only need the full two years registered by the time you apply for admission.
Does part-time paralegal work count as QWE?
Yes. You need two years’ full time or the equivalent part time, and the SRA leaves those confirming QWE to take a common-sense view of what full time means.
Does unpaid or volunteer paralegal work count as QWE?
It can. QWE can be paid or voluntary, for example at a law clinic, a law centre or a charity, if it involves real legal services and the chance to develop at least two competences.
Does being a legal secretary count as QWE?
It depends on the work you did. The SRA says a role that does not involve providing legal services is unlikely to be QWE, but if yours also involved legal work, such as drafting or progressing client matters, with the chance to develop at least two competences, it can count.
My supervisor is not a solicitor. Who signs off my QWE?
Your organisation’s COLP or a solicitor of England and Wales who works there, once they have satisfied themselves about your work, for example by reviewing your record and speaking to your supervisor. A chartered legal executive, licensed conveyancer or barrister cannot confirm unless they are also a solicitor or your organisation’s COLP. If the organisation has no COLP and no solicitor, a solicitor outside it can confirm, provided they have direct experience of your work, review it and get feedback from your supervisor.
Does paralegal work I did before starting the SQE count as QWE?
Yes. You can gain QWE before, during or after you sit the SQE assessments, and there is no limit on how far back you can claim it, as long as the work meets the SRA’s test and a solicitor or COLP can confirm it.
Can FQPS Academy sign off my paralegal QWE?
Only where the organisation you worked for has no COLP and no solicitor of England and Wales, for example some in-house teams and unregulated businesses. Then one of our solicitors reviews your work, gets feedback from your supervisor and, if satisfied that it meets the SRA’s requirements, confirms it in mySRA, from £275. If your firm has a COLP or a solicitor, they are the ones to confirm your QWE.
Every rule on this page links to its source, read on 8 November 2026. The rules on who confirms are in regulation 2 of the SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations. More on QWE: our QWE guide and paralegal and QWE jobs.
Sources: SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations, regulation 2; SRA: Qualifying work experience for candidates (updated 26 January 2024); SRA: Qualifying work experience questions and answers (updated 3 October 2023); SRA: Recording your qualifying work experience (updated 12 April 2023); SRA: Dealing with a refusal to confirm qualifying work experience (updated 19 February 2025); SRA: Meeting our standards for good qualifying work experience (updated 5 November 2026).
Paralegal with no COLP or solicitor where you worked?
If the organisation where you did your paralegal work has no COLP and no solicitor, a designated FQPS solicitor reviews your work, gets feedback from your supervisor and, if satisfied, confirms your QWE in mySRA. You start with a guidance call, and get a full refund if the solicitor finds you are not ready.
More on getting your QWE confirmed
No COLP or solicitor where you did your QWE? An FQPS solicitor reviews your work, speaks to your supervisor and, if satisfied, confirms it in mySRA.
The SRA rule on who confirms: the COLP, a solicitor where you worked, or an outside solicitor only if there is neither.
Getting QWE signed off in mySRA, step by step: what to prepare, what the solicitor checks and how long it takes.
What to do when your firm refuses to confirm, your supervisor has left, or there is no solicitor to sign off.
A free QWE record template with a filled-in example for each competence, in Word and PDF.
Overseas legal work can count as QWE. Who can confirm it, and when an outside solicitor can because there is no COLP and no solicitor.
Check your work against the SRA’s QWE questions in two minutes, and see who can confirm it.
