Student Success Story: Georgia Fowler

Georgia Fowler, who transitioned from a passion for English, History, and Sociology to Music & Law, chose the SQE route for its flexibility. Now an Business Affairs and Publishing Coordinator at Hospital Records, she shares her story on balancing work and study, and overcoming challenges with support from her employer and family, gaining valuable experience in-house and at a law firm.

What Attracted To You To A Career In Law?

In school, I always enjoyed and was good at subjects like English/History/Sociology, but I didn’t want to do a degree in them, I wanted a new challenge. Law seemed like a of a combination of them all but with a newness that was exciting. 

Why Did You Decide To Follow The SQE Route?

Mostly because it meant I didn’t have to fight for a limited training contract spot, I could go in-house or get paralegal work. Especially as I’d decided I wanted to work in music, and I thought law firms in that area of law would be inundated with applications as it’s one of the more ‘glitz and glam’ areas of law to work in. So following the SQE would give me more flexibility.

Did You Experience Any Challenges Along The Way To Qualification?

I was working full time whilst studying. In SQE1 this wasn’t too bad because I only had to go into the office around 2 days a week, I’d purposefully moved within a short walking distance of the office, and I was given a good amount of study leave in the lead up to the exams. In SQE2 it suddenly became much harder. The label moved office, so it now took 2 long buses to get to work rather than a 20-minute walk, and they changed the company policy to 3 mandatory days in the office. The sudden introduction of office days and a much longer commute completely wiped me out after attempting to balance it all.

However, after raising this with my manager, they were very understanding and immediately gave me accommodations to help me get through exams, such as more days working from home. I knew one other girl doing SQE1 at the same time as me. I met her when I was doing a secondment at a law firm as she was one of their trainee solicitors. She had a few other friends also doing the SQE with other law firms/providers so it was helpful to hear everyone’s experiences through her. Once I left my secondment and started SQE2, I felt more lonely because the girl had finished SQE2 before me (she didn’t take a break after SQE1 but I did), so I suddenly felt much more isolated.

How Did You Push Through The Challenge? Did You Have Any Support?

The support of my friends and family when I felt low was so important. Sometimes I just needed to vent about how hard everything was, and they were there for me through that. The support of my company was also essential, without study leave and work from home I don’t know how I would have gotten through it.

Which Part of The BARBRI Course Offering Did You Find Particularly Useful?

After doing lots of research into the different SQE providers, what swayed me towards Barbri was the absolute flexibility of the course. This was essential for me as someone who would be working full time whilst studying. I wanted to control my studying and not have my studying control me. Having completed both SQE1 and SQE2 with Barbri, the most helpful part was the personal study plan. In SQE1 this told me exactly what I needed to do for the 1.5 hours of studying I was allocated each day. This was a lifesaver. The overwhelming task of meticulously crafting a study plan was taken off my shoulders, so all I needed was to focus on learning the content.

How Did You Acquire QWE?

I got the majority of my QWE working in-house as a legal and business affairs assistant at a record label after I graduated in 2020. When I moved to a new record label in 2022, I was no longer gaining QWE  because I wasn’t being supervised by a solicitor anymore. At first I thought maybe I should try to get a training contract somewhere else, so I applied at a boutique law firm that specialised in crisis reputation management and defamation law.

I got to the final stages of interview and was waiting to hear back when my current employer offered to pay for my SQE course. I was in two minds about accepting because ideally I wanted to be gaining QWE and the SQE at the same time to qualify as quickly as possible. I delayed giving my employer an answer until I heard back from the law firm. When I did get an answer, it was a rejection email. But then I had a bit of a lightbulb moment. I hit reply to the rejection email and proposed to them that because my employer was willing to pay for my SQE now, could I come back when that was finished and get my final few months of work experience with them. Almost immediately I got a reply saying they actually needed some help now and maybe that could work.

This meant I needed to figure out a way to convince my current employer to let me go away on a secondment to the law firm for 8 months. After putting together a signed letter from the law firm confirming they’d cover my wage whilst I was there, and also finding someone to cover for my role whilst I was away (I had a friend I had worked with at my first label that was looking for work at that moment), I presented this to my employer and they said yes. About a month later I started my secondment at the law firm and got my final 8 months of work experience.

Do You Have Any Advice To Share With Others Embarking On Their SQE Journey?

The SQE is a mammoth task, but if you do a little bit each day it makes it more bearable. One of the hardest things with SQE is feeling like you’ve done enough studying/revising/covered enough topics. The amount you’re able to do will look different for every person. What kept me calmer when it came close to exam season was reflecting and asking myself “If I had to look back on myself right now, would I honestly think I could have given any more than I am giving to the SQE right now?”. If the answer was no (which it always was) then I just thought “well whatever happens, happens” because I gave everything I could and if it’s not enough then it was never going to be enough, and I won’t beat myself up about it. The SQE is as much a test of mental resilience as it is a test of knowledge. Being able to check in with yourself and self soothe in times of high anxiety is just as essential as knowing as many correct answers as possible. 

If you’re considering preparing for the SQE, don’t hesitate. BARBRI is the partner you need to make your professional development goals a reality.

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