How to get a practice right
A chartered legal executive who wants to conduct litigation, or do conveyancing, probate or immigration work in their own name rather than under a firm's authorisation, needs the relevant practice right. The register carries 30 of them. Fewer than one in eight practitioners holds anything beyond the base qualification.
What every independent practice right asks for
The handbooks for civil, criminal and family litigation and for immigration are near-identical on requirements:
| Requirement | What it means |
|---|---|
| Two years' experience | "at least 2 years of experience in [the field] immediately preceding your application". Immediately preceding is the operative phrase — experience in a field you left three years ago does not count. |
| Three case portfolios | If you are demonstrating knowledge through Level 6 qualifications — CILEX or equivalent. |
| Or five case portfolios | If you are demonstrating knowledge through practice instead. The qualification's concrete value here is two fewer files. |
| A logbook | Recording the work, alongside the portfolios, against the regulator's Competence Framework. |
Which right you need
The right follows the reserved activity, not the job title. The register's own list is the authoritative one and every right on it has a page here showing who holds it and where they are:
Three things worth knowing before you start
You may not need one. Working inside an SRA-regulated firm, the firm's authorisation covers the reserved work. The individual right is what lets you act without a solicitors' firm around you — which is why only 22 firms in England and Wales are CILEX-authorised entities, and why so few practitioners hold one.
The two years is usually the binding constraint. Three files is not a high bar for somebody doing the work. Two years immediately preceding, in that specific field, is.
Nobody publishes the success rate. The register records grants. It does not record applications, refusals or withdrawals, so there is no published figure for how often an application fails — from CILEx Regulation or anyone else.