Hi, I'm Martine Doce, a solicitor of England and Wales.
I wish I heard about this route sooner.
I graduated with an LLB in Law from SOAS University of London in 2016. Like most law graduates, I wanted to qualify, so I did everything you're supposed to do. I applied, I interviewed, and in time I was offered a training contract.
I turned it down.
That surprises people, but it's the decision that set everything else in motion. I knew I wanted commercial law, and the path in front of me wasn't leading there. Turning down a training contract felt reckless at the time. In hindsight, it was the first time I chose my career on my own terms.
I went back to study and completed my LLM and the LPC at BPP Law School between 2019 and 2021, with electives in Commercial Law and Intellectual Property. But even with the LPC behind me, the usual door still needed a training contract to open. The SQE was there, but I knew fairly quickly it wasn't the right fit for me either. So I kept digging, and that's when I found the Equivalent Means route: a pathway that lets you qualify through supervised legal experience, with no training contract, no SQE, and no further exams to sit.
THE WORK BEHIND THE PORTFOLIO
My application wasn't built from nothing. It came from real legal work at real companies. I started as a paralegal at PromoVeritas, drafting promotional terms and conditions for global brands. Then I spent two years at NBCUniversal working on marketing and PR agreements and contract negotiation across their streaming business. My last role before qualifying was at Unilever, working across franchise and partnership agreements, sponsorship and talent deals, IP enforcement matters including trade mark searches and cease and desist letters, and dispute resolution.
I mapped that work against the SRA's 12 Practice Skill Standards and built a portfolio that ran to over 19,000 words. I gathered my references, submitted, and waited. I was admitted to the roll in January 2026 while 8 months pregnant, and my baby arrived a month later.
Qualifying this way changed how I see the profession. I started documenting the whole journey on TikTok (@LawByEM) because I'd realised how few people even know this route exists. The messages I get every day tell the same story: capable people with years of real legal work behind them, no training contract, and no idea there was another way in.
That's why I built this toolkit. When I was preparing my own application, the information was scattered and hard to piece together, and I had to figure out most of it alone. Every module here is built on first hand experience of what the SRA actually wants to see, and how to present your work so an assessor can confidently score it.
And where am I now? I've just started a new role as a contract lawyer at a Magic Circle firm. Nobody has treated me differently for qualifying this way. If anything, it's opened doors I didn't expect.
If you've been told the only way in is a training contract or the SQE, I'm living proof there's another path.
CREDENTIALS
This programme is provided in a personal capacity. It does not constitute legal advice or legal services.