CILEX opens final stage of CPQ to LPC graduates

Reading time: two minutes

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) has opened the final stage of the CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ) to allow Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Bar course graduates to qualify as CILEX lawyers.

The CPQ, which was launched last year, is a three-stage progressive qualification designed to meet the needs of the modern legal market, acknowledging that candidates require more than just legal knowledge to have a successful career in the profession.

Watch our latest Instagram Reel for advice on how to make the most of LCN’s courses search tool.

LPC or Bar course graduates are now eligible to enrol onto the final/third stage of the CPQ as trainee CILEX lawyers, and are exempt from the first two stages. Once qualified, they can then practise alongside solicitors, barristers and other legal professionals, with practice rights in their chosen area of specialism. The prospects for CILEX lawyers are vast, with opportunities to become law firm partners, coroners, judges or advocates in open court.

The final stage of the CPQ – the CPQ professional stage – involves academic study in the candidates' chosen practice area, together with work-based assessments that look at essential skills, including commercial awareness.

LPC and BPC graduates can qualify this way in as little as 18 months. CPQ students are required to work in a legal services role to complete the work-based element of this final stage.

CILEX CEO Linda Ford explains that this move “gives aspiring lawyers who want to progress to the next stage of their careers the option of qualifying as a specialist lawyer, able to practise alongside solicitors, barristers and other legal professionals”.

Ford adds: “While students can study at their own pace, CPQ Professional stage offers a fast-track path to becoming a formally recognised specialist, with tangible experience, practical, commercial and interpersonal skills as well as legal expertise.”