People working in the legal profession part 5 - legal executives
^ TOPILEX
The Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) provide another form of legal qualification. You have to be a Fellow of ILEX to be allowed to describe yourself as a 'Legal Executive'. This is a form of qualified lawyer. Whilst you would have to operate through a legal firm (unlike a solicitor, you could not set up as a sole practitioner) legal executives can be important fee earners with corresponding rewards.
For those who do not have a university degree, or for whom the prospect of the cost and time out from working to obtain qualification as a solicitor is a nonstarter, the legal executive route can prove attractive. In particular because the way the studying is organised it is possible to work towards and obtain the qualifications whilst you are actually working in a legal practice.
^ TOPFocused study
The starting point is the academic stage. This normally takes about four years. Roughly speaking, the first half is at A level standard, the second half at degree level standard. The difference is the areas studied are much more limited than for a solicitor. However the depth of study is supposed to be the same. Thus if the legal executive wanted to work in the field of employment law, essentially what will be studied are those matters relevant to the area of practice that he or she would eventually be working in. That involves studying just a few subjects. Someone becoming a barrister or solicitor has to study a much wider range of subjects, whether they are going to be relevant to the particular practice they pursue or not.
^ TOPFlexible training
Of course, additional training in different topics is always useful, and it may be that it is only as you learn that you find out the area you really want to work in. However for someone who does not have a degree, or for whom it is simply impractical to qualify other than whilst working, this is a feasible route, possibly the only feasible route, to becoming a qualified lawyer. The learning can be at a local college on day release or evening classes, or at home since the ILEX Tutorial College offers distance learning. Likewise the time taken to qualify can be tailored around the time for study. Since the individual will usually be working as an employee within a solicitor's firm (although obviously not at that stage as a qualified legal executive) the academic study will be reflecting practical issues thrown up and observed in the course of work.
^ TOPPractical experience
After the academic training has been completed successfully, the would-be legal executive can be described as a trainee legal executive and become a member of ILEX . In order to become a Fellow they have to complete five years experience working under the supervision of a solicitor. This can either be in private legal practice or the legal department of a private company or in local or national government. Moreover whilst two years has to be after the completion of the academic training, three years of this can be acquired before the academic training is completed. Thus the person working in the solicitors firm and studying part-time can in effect become a fully fledged legal executive within about six years.
^ TOPFellow Advocates
Some legal executives can now become Fellow Advocates exercising rights of audience in the way solicitors do. Others who prove adept in particular fields may have an important role within or status within the solicitors firm. A legal executive who shows expertise in a particular sphere, and proves popular with clients, will be an attractive proposition for any firm. The names and status within the firm of Fellows can be placed on the professional note-paper of the employing solicitors firm. Good legal executives will always find firms wanting to employ them.