Business Law and Practice for the SQE

Business Law and Practice questions on SQE1 reward knowing who decides and how. This free PDF takes you through the company and partnership law in the subject: choosing the business vehicle, forming a company, board and shareholder decisions, directors’ duties and the deals that need shareholders’ approval, minority remedies, issuing shares, dividends, buybacks and borrowing, and partnerships and LLPs.

Updated October 2026 · checked against the SQE1 specification, the Companies Act 2006, the model articles, the Partnership Act 1890, the LLP legislation and GOV.UK on 30 October 2026. General information, not legal advice.

Where Business Law sits in SQE1

Business Law and Practice is an FLK1 subject. From January 2027 it is in the first FLK1 session, with Dispute Resolution and Legal Services, and the blueprint gives it 14 to 20% of the paper. The specification has six assessment areas: starting a business, management and company decision-making, stakeholders, finance, taxation, and insolvency. This guide covers the first four for companies, partnerships and LLPs. Tax and insolvency are outside it; for tax, see our free Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax guides on Downloads & Tools.

The figures at a glance

What changed in November 2025

From 18 November 2025, under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, no one may act as a director without verified identity, and a new company’s statement of proposed officers must confirm it. Companies no longer keep their own registers of directors or of people with significant control: changes go straight to Companies House within 14 days. The register of members stays. Books printed before then still describe the old registers.

Rules the exam returns to

• Removing a director: an ordinary resolution at a meeting with 28 days’ special notice, never a written resolution.
• Written resolutions: private companies only, measured against the total voting rights of eligible members, and lapsing after 28 days unless the articles say otherwise.
• Directors’ duties: the seven duties in ss 171 to 177 are owed to the company, so a shareholder sues by derivative claim, with the court’s permission.
• Issuing shares: first authority (s 550 for a private company with one class, otherwise s 551), then pre-emption for shares paid for in cash.
• Buybacks: an off-market purchase needs an ordinary resolution; a purchase out of capital needs a special resolution, a solvency statement and an auditor’s report.
• Partnerships: without an agreement, profits are shared equally, there is no salary, and a new partner or a change of business needs everyone.

What is inside the PDF

• How Business Law is examined, and the key figures on one page
• Choosing the vehicle: sole trader, partnership, LLP or company, and forming a company after the 2025 changes
• Company decisions: a decision tree and a worked board and general meeting
• Directors: appointment, removal, the seven duties and a decision tree on deals needing approval
• Shareholders’ rights and the minority remedies
• Shares and finance: a worked share issue, dividends, buybacks, charges and transfers
• Partnerships and LLPs with a worked example, ten exam traps, a twelve-question self-test and a checklist

Frequently asked questions