SQE2 case and matter analysis: format, timing and the six criteria

Sixty minutes to read a case study and write a report to a partner: legal analysis plus client-focused advice, and possibly a negotiation strategy.

Published

60 minutes to read a case study with documents and write a report to a partner giving a legal analysis of the case and client-focused advice. Six criteria: three on skills, three on application of law. It may require options and strategies for negotiation.

It is the longest written assessment and the broadest: the only one that asks you to take a file of material and say what the whole matter amounts to.

The six criteria

| # | Criterion | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Identify relevant facts | Skills | | 2 | Provide client-focused advice | Skills | | 3 | Clear, precise, concise and acceptable language | Skills | | 4 | Apply the law correctly | Application of law | | 5 | Apply the law comprehensively | Application of law | | 6 | Identify ethical and professional conduct issues and resolve them | Application of law |

Criterion 1 is doing more work than it looks. You are given documents; identifying relevant facts means selecting from them. A report that recites the file has not demonstrated selection, and selection is the skill.

Negotiation lives here

SQE2 has no assessment called negotiation, but every sitting contains at least one assessment that involves it — and case and matter analysis is one of the three places it can appear, alongside legal writing and the interview and attendance note.

In practice that means being ready to set out options and a strategy: what the client wants, what they might accept, what leverage the facts give, and what you would open with.

How to prepare

Write to a partner, not to a marker. The reader is a colleague who needs to act. Lead with the analysis and the recommendation, not with a narrative of the file.

Separate what is agreed from what is in dispute. It is the fastest route to a report that reads like analysis rather than summary, and it sets up the advice.

Give advice that is actually advice. "There is a risk" is not advice. What should the client do, and what follows if they do not.

Budget the hour. Sixty minutes with a document bundle goes quickly. Decide early what the matter turns on and write to that, rather than reading everything twice.

Look for the conduct issue in the file, not in a flag — there will not be one.

Sources