Applying for admission as a trainee

Your supervising solicitor must confirm that you are a fit and proper person to be admitted as a solicitor, so must complete paperwork to confirm this, as part of your admission process.

There are different types of admission forms. The one you will need depends on the point in your traineeship at which you are making the application, whether your traineeship has been assigned or if you are qualifying into Scotland from another jurisdiction.  Follow the links below to access the correct form:

• Applying after 3 months of training but before your first year is completed
• Applying once you have completed at least one year of training
• Applying for admission and discharge of your traineeship at the same time (at the end of your traineeship)

If you have assigned your training contract, you are requalifying from another jurisdiction or you are on a non-PEAT 1 traineeship, please contact admission@lawscot.org.uk and we will send you the correct form.

We will obtain a Standard Disclosure Scotland certificate for you as part of the process.  You can only apply for this, by sending a completed Disclosure application form to us. You should not apply to Disclosure Scotland directly.

You can apply for this, through us, before making your application for admission. It will speed the process up if you do and we recommend you do this if possible.

Please note that if we have carried out a Standard Disclosure check on you in the last six months, for example when we issued your Entrance Certificate, we do not need to carry out another disclosure check at admission stage.

If you hold a Disclosure Scotland certificate already, for another reason, you will still have to apply for and submit a new form to us, as we cannot accept certificates obtained for other reasons.

How to complete the Disclosure Scotland application 

1. Download the Word document version of the disclosure application form from the Disclosure Scotland website. You can only submit a Word document. We cannot accept PDF.
2. Complete the form up to and including section six.
   • You will be given the option to select 'application type'; select 'standard'.
   • If you have middle names include all of them on the form.
   • Ensure your address history covers a full five years. Addresses should be listed precisely in reverse order, starting with your current address. You may have to list some addresses, such as family homes, more than once, if you have lived there on separate occasions.
   • If you don’t have enough space on the application form for all the addresses, you can provide these on a separate Word document when you email the form to us.
3. Email the part-completed form as a Word document to admission@lawscot.org.uk for us to complete. Together with any additional addresses. Do not send it directly to Disclosure Scotland.
4. With the application form, also scan and email three forms of identification, one of which must be photographic and one of which must show your current address. Please make sure your address ID matches your current address.
5. Payment of the £25 fee should now be made to Disclosure Scotland directly, using the payment portal within the application form. The payment reference should be inserted at section 6 on the form.

We will then countersign and submit the form to Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

If you have any questions, please contact admission@lawscot.org.uk.

When you apply for admission, we will check that your PQPRs and required CPD for trainees have been fully completed and accurately recorded.

• Any PQPR due up to the point that your application is made must have been submitted and approved by your supervisor.
• Where you are applying for admission after one year of training, you must also have completed at least 20 hours of required CPD for trainees.  There is no equivalent trainee CPD requirement for those applying for "early admission".  However, the further requirements that do apply to early admission are noted below.

The cost of admission will vary depending on:

• Whether you are applying for admission only
• Whether you are applying for admission as a solicitor and a notary public
• Whether you also need a Disclosure certificate.

The admission fees are set out on the individual application forms. They are subject to change, but are currently around £460. Many training organisations will pay this for their trainees, but you should discuss this with them if you are unsure.

The admission process includes verification of your application, a Standard Disclosure Scotland check, petitioning the court for your admission and then our records being updated. The Disclosure Scotland aspect, in particular, can take some time to complete and is outwith our control. Consequently, the process can take up to 7 weeks during busy periods. It is particularly important to factor this in if you apply for admission and discharge at the end of your traineeship. 

You will not be able to hold yourself out as a solicitor until the admission process is complete and you have an unrestricted practising certificate, even although the two-year period of your traineeship may have ended.  You should ensure that you do not hold yourself out to be a “solicitor” on any correspondence, until you have completed the full process and hold an unrestricted practising certificate.

If you are applying for early admission, you must complete 20 hours of sitting-in training. Sitting-in training involves observing a qualified solicitor from your own training unit appearing in proceedings in a court in which you would be entitled to appear once admitted and holding a practising certificate.

The 2019 Admissions Regulations state that sitting-in training cannot be carried out during or in attendance at -
(1) police station interviews;
(2) Tribunals;
(3) non-evidential simple procedure matters;
(4) non-evidential Summary Cause hearings;
(5) Licensing Boards;
(6) Justice of the Peace Courts.

Sitting-in should be meaningful and relevant to your development as a trainee.  You should be able to appreciate the context and implications of the advocacy you are observing because you have been appropriately prepared for it.  If you have any questions, you should be able to ask that of the solicitor you are observing.

Where you intend to appear in both civil and criminal courts, you will require to complete sitting in training in both courts, with at least eight of the twenty hours relating to each court.

You must complete a record of your experience through the trainee portal and this record must have been verified by your supervisor in order for your admission application to be processed.  This can be done by your supervisor through their own member’s portal.

If you are applying for early admission, you must also complete an advocacy course. You will not be able to record your attendance on this course on the on-line portal, however we will check that you have completed it when we receive your admission application. The course is available through the Law Society of Scotland.  The course is online, four hours and costs £50 +VAT.

Wherever possible, sitting-in is now expected to occur in person. 

During the Covid pandemic, the Lord President confirmed that exclusively virtual sitting-in was acceptable, when courts were not operating in person.  However, as this is no longer the case, wherever possible, sitting-in is now expected to occur in person.

The answer to this and the following two questions is “no”. Sitting-in must involve you observing a qualified solicitor from your own firm or training organisation.

Early admission is a significant relaxation of the previous rule that trainee solicitors required to complete a full year of training, in order to be eligible for admission and to obtain their restricted practising certificate.  The sitting-in rules were introduced to ensure that trainee solicitors obtain sufficient exposure to good advocacy, with the opportunity to prepare and reflect on that with their supervising solicitor or an appropriately qualified solicitor from their own practice unit, prior to being eligible for early admission.

No.  Sitting-in must involve you observing a qualified solicitor from your own firm or training organisation. 

Early admission is a significant relaxation of the previous rule that trainee solicitors required to complete a full year of training, in order to be eligible for admission and to obtain their restricted practising certificate.  The sitting-in rules were introduced to ensure that trainee solicitors obtain sufficient exposure to good advocacy, with the opportunity to prepare and reflect on that with their supervising solicitor or an appropriately qualified solicitor from their own practice unit, prior to being eligible for early admission.

No.  Sitting-in must involve you observing a qualified solicitor from your own firm or training organisation. 

Early admission is a significant relaxation of the previous rule that trainee solicitors required to complete a full year of training, in order to be eligible for admission and to obtain their restricted practising certificate.  The sitting-in rules were introduced to ensure that trainee solicitors obtain sufficient exposure to good advocacy, with the opportunity to prepare and reflect on that with their supervising solicitor or an appropriately qualified solicitor from their own practice unit, prior to being eligible for early admission.

No.  As stated in the 2019 Admissions regulations, sitting-in cannot be completed by observing proceedings at Tribunals.

No.  Sitting-in must take place "in a court in which you would be entitled to appear once admitted and holding a practising certificate".  Therefore, it cannot take place in the High Court.