If you are a lawyer who has qualified outside the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, you may apply to be authorised as a Chartered Legal Executive or CILEX Practitioner through our process for the Recognition of lawyers qualified outside the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. If you are a Swiss qualified lawyer, please review our ‘Temporary Guidance for Swiss qualified lawyers’.
The application fee is £300 and this will be invoiced once initial checks have been carried out and determined that the application can proceed although this does not mean that the application will be successful. The consideration of the application and supporting documentation will then commence within 20 working days from payment and can take up to 4 months depending on the documentation submitted and any further information requests made.
Our policy, rules and guidelines for processing an application through the scheme can be found listed to the left of this page.
As part of the application, you will be asked to provide the following:
a copy of evidence of your Professional Qualification, such as a diploma or certificate;
a copy of any documents associated with your Professional Qualification, such as documents formally recognising your training or experience;
information and evidence to enable CILEx Regulation to determine the level, content and scope of your Professional Qualification, including any training and experience elements;
information relating to your fitness to practise, professional standing and financial standing
a copy of any insurance cover; and
evidence that you are fluent in English.
We kindly ask that applications are completed and any evidence that is provided is in the English or Welsh language. Where your original documents are not in English or Welsh, please provide an official translation.
We will acknowledge receipt of your application in writing within one month of receipt. If we require any additional information, we will explain this in our acknowledgement of your submission, and you will be given an opportunity to submit the further information to complete the application.
Once we have received all the relevant information required, we will consider your application as soon as we can. We will make you aware of the likely timeframe for reaching a decision.
We may request additional information, documents or evidence from you at any time during the process of considering an application.
We may request certified copies of any documents that you provide in support of your application, or confirmation by others means of the authenticity of such documents, in the event of justified doubt or as otherwise necessary. Please note, if you do not provide any certified copies requested before expiry of the time limit for us to provide you with notification of our decision on the application, we may refuse the application.
Once we have considered your application in full, we will notify you in writing the outcome of your application within four months of receipt of the complete application.
The outcome of an application will be a decision that either:
your Professional Qualification is comparable to the Chartered Legal Executive or CILEX Practitioner Qualifications, in which case we will be satisfied that your meet the authorisation requirements; or
your Professional Qualification is not comparable to the Chartered Legal Executive or CILEX Practitioner Qualifications, in which case we will not be satisfied that you meet the authorisation requirements.
We will set out the reasons for our decision in writing and will advise you of your right to appeal.
Sections 9 and 10 of the Professional Qualification Act 2022 provides a legal basis for sharing of information required to help determine an individual’s entitlement to practise.
Regulators in one part of the UK are required to provide information to a regulator in another part of the UK or to regulators overseas when requested to do so. This information is subject to the following conditions:
A regulator in one part of the UK is only required to share information with their counterpart in another part of the UK or with a corresponding regulator overseas if the information:
i) is held by the first regulator;
ii) relates to the named individual;
iii) is requested by their counterpart regulator in another part of the UK or by the individual concerned; and
iv) is requested for the purpose of determining that individual’s entitlement to practise.
The information sharing must, however, still be conducted in line with relevant UK data protection legislation. For requests by overseas regulators, the individual must have given permission to the overseas regulator to request the information under section 10.
There is no set time nor format for a regulator to provide the information requested.
Regulators in the UK will have to share information relating to an individual’s entitlement to practise. The Act provides flexibility on the exact information to be shared, which is best determined by regulators as the experts in information related to their profession. Information could include but is not limited to:
information on entitlement to practise such as notice of registration documents or fitness to practise documentation;
any evidence of professional misconduct against an individual;
whether an individual has ever committed a criminal offence inside or outside of practice; or
whether an individual has ever been subject to a disciplinary action or sanctions.
Any questions?
If you have any queries about the application process or the supporting information required, please contact us by email at foreignlawyers@cilexregulation.org.uk
The current cost for considering applications is £300. Other costs may be incurred depending on the application. All successful applications will have to undergo DBS checks, the costs of which will be paid by the applicant.
