SQE 2 INTERVIEWING ASSESSMENT EXAM NOTES
Assessment criteria; structure; opening; listening and questioning techniques
Oral skills
• 2 oral skills assessed in SQE 2:
o Client interviewing and completion of attendance note/ legal analysis; and
o Advocacy
• Negotiation → all deliveries of SQE2 will contain at least 1 assessment involving negotiation
• Ethics and professional conduct will be pervasive throughout SQE2
• Practice areas
Assessment Practice area Black letter law Taxation
Advocacy Dispute Resolution Contract Law and Tort No
Criminal Litigation (including Criminal Liability No
advising clients at the police station)
Client Interviewing Property Practice Land Law Yes
and Completion of
Attendance Note/
Legal Analysis
Wills and Intestacy, Probate Trusts Yes
Administration and Practice
Form of assessment
• Total of 2 interviewing assessments, one in context of Property Practice (Land Law) and one in the
context of Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice (Trusts)
• The interview
o 10 mins to consider email &/ documents
o 25 mins to conduct interview with client
o Assessor who plays role of client will assess only on skills, not on application of law
o Aim to win client’s trust and confidence, obtain all relevant info and as full an understanding
as possible of client’s concerns.
o Don’t need to provide detailed advice at this stage → can conduct interview on basis that will
be advising client in detail at later date,
o Do still need to give enough preliminary advice and to address enough of the client’s concerns
to establish the client’s trust and confidence.
• Completion of the attendance note/ legal analysis
o 25 mins to write by hand an attendance note/ legal analysis of the interview have just
completed
o All relevant information obtained during interview should be recorded in attendance note/
legal analysis
o Provide analysis of any legal issues that arise in the matter and record initial advice for client
o Identify the next steps to be taken by the solicitor and where applicable, the client as well as
any ethical issues that arise and how they should be dealt with
o May, but not necessarily, include options and strategies for negotiation
o If email from partner/ secretary has asked you to deal with any specific issues/ questions,
then advice on these issues should also be included
,• Application of law criteria
o Candidates required to:
(1) apply the law correctly to the client’s situation
(2) apply law comprehensively to client’s situation, identifying any ethical & professional
conduct issues and exercising judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity
• Grading
A Superior performance: well above the competency requirements of the assessment 5
B Clearly satisfactory: clearly meets the competency requirements of the assessment 4
C Marginal pass: on balance, just meets the competency requirements of the 3
assessment
D Marginal fail: on balance, just fails to meet the competency requirements of the 2
assessment
E Clearly unsatisfactory: clearly does not meet the competency requirements of the 1
assessment
F Poor performance: well below the competency requirements of the assessment 0
o In arriving at final mark for candidate across al assessments, skills and application of law are
weighted equally and that is to make sure that adequate weighting is given to quality of the
advice provided.
• Threshold standard
o Standard of competency of a Day One solicitor
o Standard against which you will be assessed
Functioning Identifies the legal principles relevant to the area of practice and applies them
legal appropriately and effectively to individual cases
knowledge
Standard of Acceptable standard achieved routinely for straightforward tasks. Complex
work tasks may lack refinement.
Autonomy Achieves most tasks and able to progress legal matters using own judgment,
recognising when support is needed.
Complexity Able to deal with straightforward transactions, including occasional unfamiliar
tasks which present a range of problems and choices
Perception of Understands the significance of individual actions in the context of the
context objectives of the transaction/ strategy for the case.
Innovation Uses experience to check information provided and to form judgments about
and originality possible courses of action and ways forward.
o Statement of Solicitor Competence (SoSC)
▪ Set of competencies which apply to all solicitors
▪ Expected to achieve level 3 standard → the standard to which the competencies should be
performed upon qualification as a solicitor i.e. Day One solicitor
▪ Competence = the ability to perform the roles and tasks required by one’s job to the
expected standard
, • 4 key areas:
A – ethics, professionalism and judgment
B – technical legal practice
C – working with other people
D – managing themselves and their own work
• In the assessment
o First point – look at the instructions for any information given about the assessment itself e.g.
don’t need to deal with costs and client care
o Instructions will give client name →commit to memory → need to use it to greet client at
beginning of interview
o Instructions will also provide some indication of reason for the meeting
o Good idea to make note of issues that anticipate will have to be discussed
▪ Use as prompt during interview → best to make note of ‘points to cover’
o Need to make contemporaneous note during interview
▪ Use some preparation time to set out structure for those notes e.g. headings for each
section of the notes with blank spaces in between to be completed during the interview
▪ ‘Points to cover’ section can be slotted into structure at appropriate place.
▪ Advisable for structure of your contemporaneous notes to align with structure of the full
attendance note which you will make in second part of assessment
The client
• Focus of every interview must be client
• Vulnerability
o Need to adapt practices to identify and meet the needs of clients who may be vulnerable due
to personal circumstances and barriers put in place by society
o Vulnerable = broad definition
▪ Extends to anyone who is at a disadvantage because of factors which affect their access to
and use of legal services
o Matter of being alert to circumstances which are likely to place client in a vulnerable situation
and respond accordingly
5 main objectives when conducting a first interview
• Establish a good relationship/ rapport between solicitor and client
• Obtain relevant information from client
• Help client make appropriate decisions
• Plan future action
• Deal with client care and costs information issues
, Skills and structure
• Principal skills involved in interviewing a client =
o Listening
o Questioning
o Analysing
o Explaining and
o Note taking
• Structure outline
o 5 main objectives easier to achieve if interview conducted in logical and coherent manner
o Suggested model:
1. GREETING
2. OPENING
3. LISTENING/ OBTAINING THE RELEVANT INFORMATION
4. FILING IN THE DETAIL
5. ADVISING
6. CLOSING
The skills
• Listening
o Requires a range of techniques to be employed with aim of sustaining information giving
o If client is verbose, solicitor may need to adopt more forceful braking role but this should
occur only when absolutely necessary
o Vital in gaining client’s trust and confidence
o Acknowledgments → Brief indications without interrupting showing attention, interest and
understanding e.g. Yes I see/ Mhmm… etc
o Invitations to continue/ elaborate e.g. go on/ what happened/ tell me more about that
o Reflecting feeling → express empathy with client’s feelings
o Silence → gives client time to recall facts and organise their thoughts so they are better able to
tell the story
o Body language
▪ Important for solicitor to think about how their own body language may encourage/
discourage information giving & help/ hinder good rapport
▪ Examples:
• Friendly eye contact is positive but prolonged store is unsettling
• Leaning slightly towards client shows attentiveness but must not become intimidating
• Head-nodding shows understanding but off-putting if done in excess
• Irritating/ distracting mannerisms must be avoided
• Questioning
o Solicitor needs to obtain information on:
▪ Nature of client’s problem/ proposed transaction
▪ Relevant background facts; and
▪ Client’s feelings and objectives
o Avoid asking more than 1 question at time
o Ensure all questions are expressed clearly and succinctly
Assessment criteria; structure; opening; listening and questioning techniques
Oral skills
• 2 oral skills assessed in SQE 2:
o Client interviewing and completion of attendance note/ legal analysis; and
o Advocacy
• Negotiation → all deliveries of SQE2 will contain at least 1 assessment involving negotiation
• Ethics and professional conduct will be pervasive throughout SQE2
• Practice areas
Assessment Practice area Black letter law Taxation
Advocacy Dispute Resolution Contract Law and Tort No
Criminal Litigation (including Criminal Liability No
advising clients at the police station)
Client Interviewing Property Practice Land Law Yes
and Completion of
Attendance Note/
Legal Analysis
Wills and Intestacy, Probate Trusts Yes
Administration and Practice
Form of assessment
• Total of 2 interviewing assessments, one in context of Property Practice (Land Law) and one in the
context of Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice (Trusts)
• The interview
o 10 mins to consider email &/ documents
o 25 mins to conduct interview with client
o Assessor who plays role of client will assess only on skills, not on application of law
o Aim to win client’s trust and confidence, obtain all relevant info and as full an understanding
as possible of client’s concerns.
o Don’t need to provide detailed advice at this stage → can conduct interview on basis that will
be advising client in detail at later date,
o Do still need to give enough preliminary advice and to address enough of the client’s concerns
to establish the client’s trust and confidence.
• Completion of the attendance note/ legal analysis
o 25 mins to write by hand an attendance note/ legal analysis of the interview have just
completed
o All relevant information obtained during interview should be recorded in attendance note/
legal analysis
o Provide analysis of any legal issues that arise in the matter and record initial advice for client
o Identify the next steps to be taken by the solicitor and where applicable, the client as well as
any ethical issues that arise and how they should be dealt with
o May, but not necessarily, include options and strategies for negotiation
o If email from partner/ secretary has asked you to deal with any specific issues/ questions,
then advice on these issues should also be included
,• Application of law criteria
o Candidates required to:
(1) apply the law correctly to the client’s situation
(2) apply law comprehensively to client’s situation, identifying any ethical & professional
conduct issues and exercising judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity
• Grading
A Superior performance: well above the competency requirements of the assessment 5
B Clearly satisfactory: clearly meets the competency requirements of the assessment 4
C Marginal pass: on balance, just meets the competency requirements of the 3
assessment
D Marginal fail: on balance, just fails to meet the competency requirements of the 2
assessment
E Clearly unsatisfactory: clearly does not meet the competency requirements of the 1
assessment
F Poor performance: well below the competency requirements of the assessment 0
o In arriving at final mark for candidate across al assessments, skills and application of law are
weighted equally and that is to make sure that adequate weighting is given to quality of the
advice provided.
• Threshold standard
o Standard of competency of a Day One solicitor
o Standard against which you will be assessed
Functioning Identifies the legal principles relevant to the area of practice and applies them
legal appropriately and effectively to individual cases
knowledge
Standard of Acceptable standard achieved routinely for straightforward tasks. Complex
work tasks may lack refinement.
Autonomy Achieves most tasks and able to progress legal matters using own judgment,
recognising when support is needed.
Complexity Able to deal with straightforward transactions, including occasional unfamiliar
tasks which present a range of problems and choices
Perception of Understands the significance of individual actions in the context of the
context objectives of the transaction/ strategy for the case.
Innovation Uses experience to check information provided and to form judgments about
and originality possible courses of action and ways forward.
o Statement of Solicitor Competence (SoSC)
▪ Set of competencies which apply to all solicitors
▪ Expected to achieve level 3 standard → the standard to which the competencies should be
performed upon qualification as a solicitor i.e. Day One solicitor
▪ Competence = the ability to perform the roles and tasks required by one’s job to the
expected standard
, • 4 key areas:
A – ethics, professionalism and judgment
B – technical legal practice
C – working with other people
D – managing themselves and their own work
• In the assessment
o First point – look at the instructions for any information given about the assessment itself e.g.
don’t need to deal with costs and client care
o Instructions will give client name →commit to memory → need to use it to greet client at
beginning of interview
o Instructions will also provide some indication of reason for the meeting
o Good idea to make note of issues that anticipate will have to be discussed
▪ Use as prompt during interview → best to make note of ‘points to cover’
o Need to make contemporaneous note during interview
▪ Use some preparation time to set out structure for those notes e.g. headings for each
section of the notes with blank spaces in between to be completed during the interview
▪ ‘Points to cover’ section can be slotted into structure at appropriate place.
▪ Advisable for structure of your contemporaneous notes to align with structure of the full
attendance note which you will make in second part of assessment
The client
• Focus of every interview must be client
• Vulnerability
o Need to adapt practices to identify and meet the needs of clients who may be vulnerable due
to personal circumstances and barriers put in place by society
o Vulnerable = broad definition
▪ Extends to anyone who is at a disadvantage because of factors which affect their access to
and use of legal services
o Matter of being alert to circumstances which are likely to place client in a vulnerable situation
and respond accordingly
5 main objectives when conducting a first interview
• Establish a good relationship/ rapport between solicitor and client
• Obtain relevant information from client
• Help client make appropriate decisions
• Plan future action
• Deal with client care and costs information issues
, Skills and structure
• Principal skills involved in interviewing a client =
o Listening
o Questioning
o Analysing
o Explaining and
o Note taking
• Structure outline
o 5 main objectives easier to achieve if interview conducted in logical and coherent manner
o Suggested model:
1. GREETING
2. OPENING
3. LISTENING/ OBTAINING THE RELEVANT INFORMATION
4. FILING IN THE DETAIL
5. ADVISING
6. CLOSING
The skills
• Listening
o Requires a range of techniques to be employed with aim of sustaining information giving
o If client is verbose, solicitor may need to adopt more forceful braking role but this should
occur only when absolutely necessary
o Vital in gaining client’s trust and confidence
o Acknowledgments → Brief indications without interrupting showing attention, interest and
understanding e.g. Yes I see/ Mhmm… etc
o Invitations to continue/ elaborate e.g. go on/ what happened/ tell me more about that
o Reflecting feeling → express empathy with client’s feelings
o Silence → gives client time to recall facts and organise their thoughts so they are better able to
tell the story
o Body language
▪ Important for solicitor to think about how their own body language may encourage/
discourage information giving & help/ hinder good rapport
▪ Examples:
• Friendly eye contact is positive but prolonged store is unsettling
• Leaning slightly towards client shows attentiveness but must not become intimidating
• Head-nodding shows understanding but off-putting if done in excess
• Irritating/ distracting mannerisms must be avoided
• Questioning
o Solicitor needs to obtain information on:
▪ Nature of client’s problem/ proposed transaction
▪ Relevant background facts; and
▪ Client’s feelings and objectives
o Avoid asking more than 1 question at time
o Ensure all questions are expressed clearly and succinctly
