Legal Drafting for SQE Candidates - What Examiners Look For

Introduction

Legal drafting is where candidates often expect easy marks and are caught out, because it tests not what you know, but whether you can produce a precise and legally complete document to a professional standard in forty-five minutes. The task is a computer-based exercise in which candidates draft a legal document, or parts of one, which may involve drafting from a precedent, amending an existing draft, or drafting from scratch, set in any of the five SQE2 practice areas.

Examiners mark on two things at once - getting the law right and the quality of the drafting itself, structure, clarity, precision and the absence of gaps.

This webinar focuses squarely on what examiners look for, giving delegates a practical drafting method and a working understanding of the document types most likely to appear, so they can draft to the mark scheme rather than guessing at it.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• How the SQE2 legal drafting station works - forty-five minutes, computer-based and the three task types: drafting from scratch, drafting from a precedent and amending an existing document
• The distinction between legal drafting (constructing legal instruments) and legal writing (letters and emails) and why they are marked differently
• The document types most likely to be examined across the practice areas, for example articles, board minutes, resolutions and shareholders’ agreements in business; statements of case and witness statements in dispute resolution; and wills and related instruments in private client, as well as real estate and criminal proceedings
• What ‘legally correct’ means in practice, applying the right law to the facts so the document does the legal job it is meant to do
• What ‘legally comprehensive’ means, anticipating foreseeable issues, covering every necessary element, and leaving no critical gaps
• Drafting with clarity and precision, clear, concise, unambiguous language, pitched correctly for the intended reader (client, other side, or the court), avoiding unnecessary legalese
• Structure, organisation, formatting, and the basics of grammar, spelling and punctuation that examiners expect to see
• How to read and work from a precedent intelligently, understanding why each clause exists so you can adapt or amend it, rather than copying blindly
• Identifying and resolving ethical and professional conduct issues embedded in the drafting task, which are never flagged
• A forty-five-minute drafting workflow, reading the instructions, planning the document, drafting and leaving time to check, so candidates finish on time and on point
• The recurring mistakes that cost marks are incomplete documents, ambiguous wording, ignored instructions, and missed ethical points

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Wednesday 20th January 2027

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