Qualifying Employment

Qualifying Employment

Please note, due to the current Coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) CILEx Regulation have put into place some emergency provisions for QE/WBL electronic applications. Please read about them here before attempting to submit your QE/WBL application.

Qualifying employment is work that is wholly of a legal nature. You must be undertaking work that is qualifying employment for at least 20 hours per week. 

Your work must also be supervised by an authorised person. An authorised person is a lawyer qualified in accordance with the Legal Services Act 2007, s. 18. For example CILEX Fellows, CILEX Practitioners, Solicitors, Barristers, Licensed Conveyancers are all authorised persons under the Act.

In order to be eligible to apply for Fellowship via Work-based Learning portfolio you must have completed at least 3 years’ qualifying employment of which: 
  • 1 year must be served as an Advanced Paralegal member of CILEX. 
  • The 2 years immediately before you apply for Fellowship must be served consecutively. 

CILEx Regulation’s rules provide for a break in the 2 years’ continuous employment of up to 12 months. A break for up to 12 months will not count as part of the 2-year period but will not break the continuity of employment.

Guidance

CILEX Regulation is the independent regulator of CILEX members and oversees the education, qualification and practice standards of CILEX members. The CILEx Regulation Admissions and Licensing Committee is responsible for considering and determining qualifying employment applications, which the officers of CILEx Regulation are not able to determine themselves. 

Guidance for members who are uncertain as to whether they are in qualifying employment can be found under the resources heading.  

We would certainly recommend that you have your employment assessed as early as possible so that you can be satisfied that your current employment arrangements satisfy the qualifying employment requirements. 

Resources

Fees 2022

From 1 January 2022, the qualifying employment assessment fee for Fellowship applications is £80

Submission

For more information on how to submit your application, please see the following page.

Rules

CILEx Regulation applications are decided in accordance with the: