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The SQE2 syllabus

SQE2 tests six legal skills in five practice areas: Criminal Litigation, Dispute Resolution, Property Practice, Wills and Probate, and Business Law and Practice. The law is a subset of the SQE1 syllabus, and each area can also draw on the core law behind it, such as Land Law for Property Practice.

Updated 1 October 2026 · Checked against the sources listed below

Sample script: injunction research note

Legal research · Dispute Resolution · 60 minutes

Sample, tap anything

SkillsC2.7 / 5

LawC2.7 / 5

Station 53%

823 words

Skills and law count equally. No single station has a pass mark: the exam result is the average of all 16.

RESEARCH NOTE To: Kofi Mensah, Partner From: Trainee Solicitor Date: 1 October 2026 Client: Halden Lighting Ltd Background Halden Lighting Ltd is a Sheffield company which designs and sells handmade pendant lights online1 and through around 40 stockists including Penrose & Hale. Castlegate Metalcraft Ltd made its metal shades under a manufacturing agreement dated 3 March 2023 until Halden terminated it with effect from 31 August 2026 because of poor finishing. On 12 May 2026 Halden sent Castlegate the CAD files and drawings for the Orla II range so prototypes could be made. On 21 September Castlegate started selling the Lune range which Nadia says is the same as Orla II. Lune is £145 a shade and Orla II is £240. Halden wants to launch Orla II at the Northern Interiors Show in Harrogate on 13-15 October and Castlegate will also be there on stand B14 and expects £120,000 of orders. Castlegate is owed £46,800 by Halden, of which £12,000 is disputed. Nadia's brother is investing £25,000. 1. Will the court grant an interim injunction? The court has power to grant an interim injunction under CPR 25.1(1)(a) and can do so at any time (r25.2). The test is from American Cyanamid v Ethicon [1975] AC 396 as explained in AMOB Machinery v Smith-Hughes at [63]: (1) Is there a serious issue to be tried? (2) Would damages be an adequate remedy for the claimant? (3) Would a cross-undertaking be an adequate remedy for the defendant? (4) Where does the balance of convenience lie? Serious issue: Yes. Clause 9.1 of the agreement says Castlegate must not use the Confidential Information for any purpose except manufacturing for Halden and clause 9.4 says this survives termination. Lune appears to have been made from the Orla II drawings. The court will not decide the facts at this stage (AMOB [64]). Damages: Damages would probably not be adequate for Halden because it would lose the benefit of launching Orla II at the show2 and it is difficult to calculate lost sales to stockists. Yodel at [24] says that if damages would be adequate no injunction should normally be granted. Cross-undertaking: Castlegate would be compensated by Halden's cross-undertaking if the injunction turned out to be wrong3, as its losses would be lost sales. Balance of convenience: Lune is a new product so the status quo is that it was not being sold before 21 September (Yodel [25]). This favours Halden. I think an injunction is likely to be granted. 2. What Halden is taking on Under CPR 25.9(3)(a) the injunction order must contain an undertaking by Halden to pay any damages which Castlegate suffers and which the court considers Halden should pay. This means that if Halden loses at trial it could have to pay Castlegate for the orders it lost at Harrogate, which Gareth says could be £120,000, as well as other lost Lune sales. This is a significant risk and Nadia needs to be told about it before we go ahead.4 3. How and when to apply The show is on 13 October so the matter is urgent. Under r25.2(2) the court can grant an injunction before a claim is started if the matter is urgent.5 Nadia wants to apply without notice. Under r25.3(2) the court can only do this if there are good reasons for not giving notice. I do not think there are good reasons here, because Castlegate already knows Halden is unhappy from the emails on 28 and 29 September. Also under PD 25A para 4.3(3) the applicant should notify the respondent informally except where secrecy is essential.6 So I recommend an application on notice. Under r25.6(2) the application notice and evidence must be served at least 3 days before the hearing, which can be done before 13 October if we act this week7. If the application were made without notice there would be a duty of full and frank disclosure (Derma Med v Ally [2024] EWCA Civ 175 at [29]), meaning all material facts must be disclosed, and if they are not the injunction can be discharged. 4. Other matters - Nadia's witness statement Nadia has asked us to leave out of her witness statement the fact that Halden owes Castlegate money and the Instagram post she made on 20 May. I do not think we can do this. Under the SRA Code of Conduct para 1.4 we must not mislead the court, including by omission. The Instagram post could be relevant to whether the information was still confidential under clause 9.2 and the money owed is something Castlegate will raise anyway8. We should advise Nadia that both points need to be included in the evidence. It would be better to explain them, for example that only sketches were posted. 5. Next steps - Call Nadia to discuss the above. - Prepare the claim form, application notice and witness statement.9 - Serve the application on Castlegate at least 3 days before the hearing.

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Work on next

Dispute Resolution: interim injunctions, the cross-undertaking and fortification in relation to the applicant's means

  1. 1.Address Halden's means, fortification and the £25,000 when explaining the cross-undertaking.
  2. 2.Evaluate the sources not relied on (PD 25A superseded, HRA s12 not engaged, AMOB [65]) instead of citing PD 25A as current.
  3. 3.Give the ethics fall-back and a concrete timetable and next steps.
  • You spotted 3½ of 7 key issues.
    • Partly: Adequacy of damages both ways, and the balance of convenience and status quo
    • Partly: The cross-undertaking in damages: what Halden takes on, third-party undertakings and fortification given Halden's means
    • Partly: How and when to apply: before or after issue, on notice (3 days) or without notice (good reasons; informal notice; return date)
    • Partly: Full and frank disclosure and the consequences of non-disclosure
    • Partly: Nadia's instruction to leave the invoices and the Instagram post out of her evidence (unflagged conduct issue)
    • Missed: Which sources govern and which do not (superseded PD 25A; HRA 1998 s12 not engaged; Lansing Linde not applicable)
  • Not everything asked was answered: No account of the sources not relied on and why (PD 25A, HRA s12, AMOB [65]); Fortification and Halden's ability to meet the cross-undertaking not addressed
  • The Cyanamid stages are applied briefly; damages adequacy ignores Castlegate's £38,000 net assets and the cross-undertaking stage ignores Halden's means.
  • Rightly rejects the without-notice route and flags the cross-undertaking risk, but gives no timetable, no fortification plan and thin next steps, and no fall-back if Nadia refuses to disclose.
  • The opening background section recites facts the partner already knows without analysis.

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Skills

Application of law

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Law points

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A sample script written for this demonstration and marked against the SRA's assessment criteria.

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SQE2 at a glance

legal skills, 4 written and 2 oral
6
practice areas, with ethics in every station
5
stations: 4 oral and 12 written
16
out of 500, one pass mark for SQE2 as a whole
300
Sources for these figures

The six skills

SkillWritten or oralStations
Client interview and attendance noteOral, then a handwritten note2
AdvocacyOral2
Case and matter analysisWritten3
Legal researchWritten3
Legal writingWritten3
Legal draftingWritten3

The 12 written stations are three of each written skill, one per written day. The 4 oral stations are two interviews and two advocacy stations.

The five practice areas and the law behind them

The specification names the practice areas and the core law each one can draw on. Use the links to practise that law in SQE1 format.

Practice areaUnderlying lawSQE1 practice
Criminal Litigation, including advising at the police stationCriminal LiabilityCriminal law questions
Dispute ResolutionContract and TortDispute resolution, contract, tort
Property Practice, including money launderingLand LawProperty practice, land law
Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and PracticeTrustsWills and estates, trusts
Business Law and Practice, including money laundering and financial servicesContractBusiness law and practice, contract

From September 2026 the practice areas carry the same names as the SQE1 subjects, which makes the overlap easier to follow.

How the areas fall across the exam

AreaWritten stationsOral stations
Criminal Litigation2 (Day 1)1 advocacy
Dispute Resolution2 (Day 1)1 advocacy
Property Practice2 (Day 2)1 interview and note
Wills and Probate2 (Day 2)1 interview and note
Business Law and Practice4 (Day 3)None

Business Law and Practice has the most written stations, four of the twelve, and no oral station. It is the single largest area in the exam.

Ethics and professional conduct

Ethics is not a separate topic. It can arise in any station, in any area, and the task does not say where. From the October 2026 sitting each station has a third law criterion: "Identify any ethical and professional conduct issues and exercise judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity". Revise the SRA Code of Conduct and the Principles with the SQE1 ethics questions, then look for the conduct point in every SQE2 task you practise.

Tax and figures

Tax is examined where the practice area needs it, for example stamp duty land tax in a purchase or inheritance tax in an estate. From the October 2026 sitting the rates, reliefs and thresholds are given in an attachment. You need to know which tax applies and how, not the numbers.

Using SQE1 knowledge in SQE2

SQE2 does not ask you to recall a rule on its own. It asks you to use it for a client: advise in a letter, draft a clause that works or argue a point to a judge. A rule you knew well enough for a multiple choice question may not be precise enough to write down. When a marked SQE2 answer shows a gap in the law, go back to that SQE1 subject, then write the answer again.

Questions candidates ask

Six skills: client interview and attendance note, advocacy, case and matter analysis, legal research, legal writing and legal drafting. They are tested in five practice areas, with ethics and professional conduct in every station.

Yes. The SRA's specification says the law in SQE2 is a subset of the functioning legal knowledge in SQE1, tested at the level of a newly qualified solicitor. SQE2 tests the use of that law in practical tasks.

The five practice areas and the core law the specification lists behind them: Criminal Liability, Contract, Tort, Land Law and Trusts. Business Law and Practice has a whole written day of its own.

Yes. From the October 2026 sitting, tax reliefs, rates and thresholds are provided in an attachment where a task needs them. You still need to know when a tax applies.

Yes, in every station. From October 2026 each station has a law criterion for identifying ethical and professional conduct issues and resolving them with integrity. The question does not flag the issue.

The SRA sets a cut-off for each sitting. It is 27 June 2026 for the October 2026 SQE2 and 26 September 2026 for January 2027. Law that changes after the cut-off is not examined at that sitting.

Sources

SQE Practice is independent of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Rules, dates and fees can change: the SRA is the authority, and this page is checked against it.

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