It’s not just about the level of responsibilities in all honesty. It’s also working with the type of clients, and on similar size/complexity of matters. This is how it works now, and I don’t expect that to change much.
I think the big difference with the SQE will be a question over why you don’t secure a NQ role within the firm you are working with. This type of question happens now for training contracts, but I think the emphasis becomes much bigger. If ultimately you can work as a qualified lawyer but the firm you are working for won’t recognise you as one, I think other firms will have a big question as to why that is the case.
Obviously once you have a qualified lawyer role within a firm, then it will be easier to move. But basically moving from a paralegal job title to a qualified lawyer one I think it’s going to be super tricky. I think you’d have to have a set of extraordinary circumstances.