15.08.07 What is PQE, and how important is it to law firms? PQE stands for 'Post-Qualified Experience', and is usually given in years or half years for solicitors and also for legal executives as well. In terms of job advertisements, it was envisaged by various experts on age discrimination that it would no longer be an accepted method of describing vacancies by law firms, as it should not matter how many years experience you have for a post, rather it should be more based on your ability. However since 2006 and the new laws, very little has changed, because in reality solicitors need certain levels of PQE before they can undertake certain tasks. For example, a 1 year PQE solicitor is legally unable to supervise an office - they have to be 3 years PQE before they are allowed to, and also have passed a management course recognised by the Law Society (some solicitors believe the latter to be a simple money spinning operation by various course providers, but I could not possibly c...
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