Become a Chartered Legal Executive Advocate


If you are a Chartered Legal Executive working in civil, criminal or family proceedings then you may be interested to know that you can apply for extended rights of audience in your practice area to allow you to undertake advocacy in certain proceedings.

Members who have previously gone through this route have said that it has helped them to progress in their careers and provides consistency of representation to their clients.

This page is for individuals seeking authorisation as:

  • a Chartered Legal Executive Advocate
  • a CILEx Practitioner (in one of the litigation rights)

The basic elements of the process for these applications is the same, although if you have applied to be a CILEx Practitioner, you will already have completed the application for a certificate of eligibility as part of the wider application process.


The Advocacy training process

1.Successful completion
of specialist area of law
and practice units at
Level 6
2. Apply for certificate
of eligibility
including the fee
3. Attend advocacy
skills course*
4.Once holding Chartered
Legal Executive status,
become an Advocate

 

*Applicants holding a BPTC are exempt from the Advocacy Skills course, where they are making an application to become a CILEx Practitioner – applicants who have attended similar courses are invited to apply for an exemption.

Certificate of eligibility

You can apply to become an advocate in one of the following practice areas:

  • Civil litigation
  • Criminal litigation
  • Family litigation

You should complete the application form for a certificate of eligibility here and pay the fee.

The application form asks for:

  • your academic qualifications, to ensure that you have appropriate underpinning legal knowledge and that you are a Chartered Legal Executive (or will be on granting of the right)
  • an outline of your work experience over the last five years, including five case outlines that demonstrate your competence in litigation
  • three case outlines that demonstrate your competence in advocacy developed through your work experience
  • two referees who can provide CILEx Regulation with assurance of your competence and who have experience of your work
  • payment of the fee

If you are making the application to become an Advocate without the corresponding litigation rights, it is a requirement that you are an employee of a law firm authorised to provide litigation and advocacy services. There is an employer declaration included within the form to confirm this.

Once this part of the process has been successfully concluded, a certificate of eligibility will be issued, which enables you to register for the advocacy skills course.

Advocacy skills course next steps

Unless you have received an exemption from course, before you can be authorised as either a Chartered Legal Executive Advocate or a CILEx Practitioner, you must attend a six-day advocacy skills course provided by a CILEx Regulation accredited provider. There is a fee to attend this course which is charged directly by the course provider.

Apply for advocacy rights

You will have to complete a short application form to become authorised.

Advocacy is always a frightening concept and I would not have thought I would have gained as much confidence as I did from the course. I left believing I was ready to undertake a trial.

Sarah Phippen, Chartered Legal Executive at Goldstones Solicitors

1

Am I ready?

Am I a Chartered Legal Executive or Graduate Member of CILEx?

Not yet ready
2

Have I been working in the legal sector for five years?

Not yet ready
3

Can I demonstrate the required knowledge of law and legal practice?

Not yet ready
4

Can I provide three examples of undertaking advocacy?

I am ready to apply
5

Am I a criminal advocate – Am I a Police Station representative? Have I shadowed advocates?

Not yet ready
I am ready to apply


Ready to apply?

If you think you are ready to make your application to become a Chartered Legal Executive Advocate, complete the application form here.

Once you have completed all the paperwork, please send your application to CILEx Regulation for assessment with your payment.

We may need to ask you for more information to clarify some of the information you have provided, once we have made a decision, we will write to you to let you know the outcome. This will be either:

  • approved (Certificate of Eligibility issues)
  • a request for further information
  • referred to committee
  • refused

Where your application is referred to the Committee, we will schedule this for the next available meeting and we endeavour to contact all applicants whose application has been heard within 10 working days. Please note we are unable to communicate the outcome of your application by telephone.

For more information on the work of the Admissions and Licencing Committee, please click here.

Next steps

Once you have received your Certificate of Eligibility, you will be able to apply to attend the Advocacy Skills Course, run by a CILEx Regulation Accredited provider. For more information, click here.

Once you have received your results, we hope you are satisfied by the decision you receive. However if you are unhappy with the decision, you can appeal. More information on the appeals process can be found here.

Contact us today to request a call with a member of our team to find out more.