What are the 'character and suitability' requirements needed for solicitors?

Jan 30, 2024

Written By Helena Kudiabor

Once you have passed both of the SQE exams and finished your two years of qualifying work experience, you will be able to apply for admission to the roll of solicitors. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) requires all potential solicitors to be of proper 'character and suitability', and screens them to ensure that they fit this role. This article will explain what this means and how it might affect you.

What does character and suitability mean?

Having proper character and suitability means that you will fulfill the SRA’s need to "protect the public and the public interest", and "maintain public trust and confidence in the solicitors' profession". This is because having a solicitor with a criminal background may lead to questions about their integrity and damage public confidence.

As a result, all potential solicitors will need to apply for screening before they can be admitted to the roll of solicitors. If you have lived outside of the UK for 12 months or more in the past five years, you will need to provide proof of name, proof of address and an overseas criminal record check.

What does this screening involve?

Pre-admission applicant screening costs £34. Eight weeks before the end of your work experience, you will receive an email from the SRA inviting you to submit your application for screening. They check your identity, financial history (this includes bankruptcy and insolvency) as well as your criminal records via the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Provided that the screening doesn’t pick up anything, the application will be automatically approved. You will be sent a standard certificate. However, if something is found but the application is still approved, you will need to upload the certificate as proof of this approval.

What should I do if I have a criminal record?

The steps you must take differ depending on the type of crime you have committed. If you have committed a crime that involved violence, dishonesty, terrorism, discrimination or sexual themes, these will need to be disclosed.

Custodial or suspended sentences, as well as multiple offences, will also need to be included. There are certain crimes that do not fall under this umbrella, more details can be found on the SRA website.

Certain offences do not need to be disclosed: reprimands, final warnings and cautions under the age of 18, as well as adult cautions that took place six years ago providing the offence was not one specified above. A full list of specified offences can be found on the UK government website. It is vital that you disclose all specified convictions as even if you don’t, they will be discovered during the DBS check and will hurt your application further.

If you are disclosing a crime, you must include:

- A full statement of what took place

- References from two professionals who know about the crime

- Evidence showing you are rehabilitated

- Documentary evidence that supports your account of events (such as a report from the court)

- Evidence you have paid any fines.

Am I automatically ineligible to become a solicitor if I have a criminal record?

You are not automatically ineligible to become a solicitor if you have committed a crime in the past. If your conviction is not one of the offences that do not need to be disclosed, the SRA will carefully consider the information given to them to decide whether you have improved your character. Factors that support your application are: evidence of successful rehabilitation or remorse, an event that only took place once or happened a long time ago, or credible supporting references.

However, factors that will harm your application include: little evidence of remorse, recent or repeated behaviour, failing to be upfront and disclose the conviction, or having committed a crime that hurt the vulnerable (children, the elderly, those in care). The SRA also state that the specified offences detailed earlier are the most serious, and thus likely to result in a refusal.

SQE