SQE2 client interview and attendance note: format and marking

Ten minutes with the papers, twenty-five minutes with the client, then twenty-five minutes writing the attendance note by hand. The eleven criteria across the two halves, and why they are marked by different people.

Published

You get 10 minutes with an email and any documents, 25 minutes to interview the client, and then 25 minutes to write the attendance note by hand.

It is one station marked twice, by two people, against two sets of criteria. The assessor playing your client marks the interview on skills only — no law. A solicitor marks the attendance note on skills and application of law. Eleven criteria in total.

The interview

An email from a partner or secretary tells you who the client is and what they have come to discuss. It may come with documents, and it may point you at specific legal issues to cover in the interview and in the note that follows.

The client may be someone in vulnerable circumstances. The specification says so explicitly, which means it is a thing you should be ready for rather than a thing that would be unfair.

You are not expected to give detailed advice. You can proceed on the basis that you will advise properly later. But you do need to give enough preliminary advice, and address enough of what the client is worried about, to establish their trust — a candidate who gathers information for twenty-five minutes and offers nothing back has failed the point of the exercise.

| # | Interview criterion | What it is asking | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Listen and question | Let the client tell you what matters to them. Open questions, then closed ones to pin detail. | | 2 | Communicate and explain | Pitched so this client understands it. Explain a technical term the moment you use one. | | 3 | Professional manner | Courtesy, respect, politeness, including respecting diversity. Deliver unwelcome news clearly and kindly. | | 4 | Client focus | Understand the problem as the client sees it and what they want to achieve — not only the legal shape of it. | | 5 | Trust and confidence | Build a relationship. Manage expectations. Leave them confident the matter will move. |

All five are skills. None of them is about knowing the law, which is the single most common thing candidates get wrong about this half: being right is not what is being scored here.

The attendance note

Twenty-five minutes, handwritten. It records the relevant information from the interview, analyses the legal issues, states your initial advice, identifies next steps for you and for the client, and deals with any ethical issues and how you would resolve them. If the partner's email asked you to address something specific, address it.

One mechanic worth knowing: the marker is given your interview notes as well as the attendance note, and both are marked. You may cross-refer to your notes but you do not have to — the marker reads them either way. Anything you cross out is disregarded, in either document. So striking through a line you no longer stand behind is a real move, not a cosmetic one.

| # | Note criterion | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Record all relevant information | Skills | | 2 | Identify appropriate next steps | Skills | | 3 | Provide client-focused advice | 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 |

Where it sits

Interview and attendance note is assessed twice across the two oral half-days: Property Practice on Day 1 and Wills and the Administration of Estates on Day 2. The other two oral assessments are advocacy. Interview and advocacy can come in either order within a day.

How to prepare

Practise the two halves together. The note is written from the interview you actually conducted, under time pressure, by hand. Rehearsing interviews without then writing the note trains half the station.

Ask the question that makes the note writable. Deciding facts surface because you asked for them. A fact you never elicited cannot be recorded, analysed or advised on, and it costs you in both halves.

Leave time to say something back. Build in a few minutes near the end for preliminary advice and next steps. It is what criteria 4 and 5 of the interview are scored on, and it gives the note its spine.

Write legibly. It is handwritten and it is marked by a person. This is not a criterion, but an unreadable note cannot score on the six that exist.

Name the ethical issue. It is a criterion of its own and it is never signposted in the papers.

Sources