Following recommendations by the Civil Justice Council costs committee, and campaigning from CILEx, there is good news for Fellows of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (FCILEx). The Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, has agreed that those Fellows holding over 8 years post-qualification experience can now be classified as Grade A fee earners, on a par with Solicitors. Previously, according to the SCCO fee earner definitions, a FCILEx was restricted to Grade B rates.

Further recommendations accepted are that qualified and regulated Costs Lawyers should be paid at Grade C and Grade B levels, depending on the complexity of the work.

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Some ideas that were thrown out were the proposed creation of a new Grade A* category for those qualified fee earners holding over 20 years’ post-qualification experience, and a Grade E category for Paralegals with less than 4 years’ experience. It appears that for now, the school grading system wont be applied to fee earners, but who knows what the future holds…