Queensland Consolidated Acts

LEGAL PROFESSION ACT 2007 - SECT 56

56 Statutory condition regarding practice as solicitor

(1) It is a statutory condition of a local practising certificate for a solicitor that the certificate holder must engage in supervised legal practice only, until the certificate holder has completed—

(a) if the certificate holder completed supervised legal training to qualify for admission to the legal profession in this or another jurisdiction—a period or periods equivalent to 18 months supervised legal practice, worked out under a regulation, after the day the holder’s first practising certificate was granted; or

(b) if the holder completed other practical legal training to qualify for admission to the legal profession in this or another jurisdiction—a period or periods equivalent to 2 years supervised legal practice, worked out under a regulation, after the day the holder’s first practising certificate was granted.

(2) Subsection (1) has effect subject to any other conditions that relate to engaging in supervised legal practice as a solicitor after a period or periods mentioned in that subsection.

(3) The law society may exempt a person or class of persons from the requirement for supervised legal practice under subsection (1) or may reduce a period mentioned in that subsection for a person or class of persons, if satisfied the person or persons do not need to be supervised or need to be supervised only for a shorter period, having regard to—

(a) the length and nature of any legal practice previously engaged in by the person or persons; and

(b) the length and nature of any legal practice engaged in by the supervisors, if any, who previously supervised the legal practice engaged in by the person or persons.

(4) An exemption under subsection (3) may be given unconditionally or subject to conditions the law society considers appropriate.

(5) In this section—

"supervised legal training" means practical legal training principally under the supervision of an Australian lawyer, whether involving articles of clerkship or otherwise.