The accreditation scheme offers recognition of solicitors who develop specialist knowledge during their careers and also helps the public choose a solicitor with the necessary expertise, particularly in more complex cases.
Accreditation acts as a hallmark of expertise that clients can trust – increasing your potential for fees and referrals and strengthening career prospects.
Currently around 500 solicitors have accreditation in one or more specialisms.
Make the most of your specialist knowledge!
The benefits for your career:
- Advance faster – accreditation can be a stepping stone to career advancement and can help to elevate your position in the firm. This will in turn help with career progression and offer the potential for increased fee earning;
- Increased profile – raise your profile within the profession. A specialist accreditation promotes awareness of your skills and reputation with your chosen sector.
The benefits for the business:
- Boost income – accreditation allows you to promote your expertise to prospective clients;
- Inspire trust – it provides clients and colleagues with a recognition of your skills and knowledge;
- Referrals – specialists may offer support to other firms who lack in-house expertise.
"Clients want and deserve specialist advice when going through one of the most life changing of events such as a relationship breakdown, separation and divorce. Family Law is a rich, sometimes complicated, speciality deploying good legal knowledge as well as excellent people skills. It’s also an area that’s hard work. When setting up the North East’s first specialist family law practice, accreditation as specialists in family and child law helped Patience and Buchan stand out from the crowd. Since then, it’s remained an important part of our business – encouraging our solicitors to pursue accreditation as part of their career development and providing clients with specialist advice in family and child law and offering family mediation. The Law Society’s accreditation system rightly recognises those lawyers who are proven experts in their field of accreditation whether that’s family law, child law or family mediation."
"I head the Family Law Team at Brodies LLP and I have practised as a solicitor in Scotland for over 30 years. I have been involved in family law since qualifying in 1988 and was accredited by the Law Society as a family law specialist in 2004. My practice often involves instruction in high value financial provision on divorce claims. Sophisticated clients are used to instructing specialist professionals in other disciplines. Increasingly such clients are attracted to Law Society accredited specialists when choosing their solicitor. To achieve accreditation, solicitors have to demonstrate a high level of knowledge and experience in family law. They require experience at Sheriff Court and Court of Session level but should also be able to demonstrate a good track record of resolving cases extra-judicially. Many accredited specialists are qualified in Collaborative law or as family law arbitrators. Accreditation by the Law Society as a family law mediator can also be important. I would highly recommend a career as a specialist family lawyer. There is no typical day in the office. The work in this area is varied, challenging, thought-provoking and rewarding."
Areas of specialism
Find out about the different areas you can become accredited in. We have over 500 solicitors accredited in 30 areas of law.
Become an accredited specialist
Find out about what you need to do to become an accredited specialist.
Propose a new specialism
Don't see the area that you work in on this list? You can apply to the Society to create a new area of specialism.
