CILEX [1] is the professional body for over 18,000 legal professionals, including CILEX Lawyers, Chartered Legal Executives, and Paralegals.
We’re transforming access to the legal profession, offering flexible and affordable routes into law that remove traditional barriers like high costs, family background, or academic qualifications. Whether just starting out, switching careers, or looking for new opportunities, CILEX opens the door to those who might otherwise be shut out of a career in law.
Our members work in every sector, from private practice and in-house legal teams to government and the judiciary – across areas like conveyancing, litigation, family, probate and employment law. We work in close partnership with law firms and organisations of all sizes, helping them with their talent development strategy to build skilled, cost-effective teams, upskill and retain existing staff, and embed career progression.
The CILEX qualification route lets individuals earn while they learn, combining hands-on experience with structured study to build practice-ready expertise. CILEX students specialise from early on, with CILEX Lawyers able to practise independently in their chosen area with the same standing as solicitors, becoming partners, coroners or even judges.
In 2025, we launched a new experience-based route to CILEX Chartered Paralegal status, recognising experienced paralegals with no formal qualifications and bringing regulation, standards and professional recognition to this fast-growing part of the sector.
CILEX is also an approved regulator, through CILEx Regulation Ltd, ensuring high standards of competence, ethics and accountability across our profession.
We’re proud champions of diversity, social mobility and inclusion. Nearly three-quarters of our members are women, and many come from non-traditional or working-class backgrounds. We’re helping to shape the future of legal education, training, and regulation so the legal profession better reflects the society it serves.
Find out more at cilex.org.uk [1]