ILE study guide
ILE · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
ILE denotes a professional qualification for legal executives - paralegal and fee-earning staff who handle substantive legal work under supervision or in their own right. The abbreviation is used by more than one institution, so the first practical step is to confirm which awarding body's qualification you are sitting and to download that body's current syllabus. The ILE study guide has 7 sections and about 2,653 words.
01Legal Systems, Methods and Professional Conduct
A candidate must be able to rank the sources of law and explain the doctrine of precedent. Courts are bound by the ratio decidendi of a higher court in the same hierarchy; obiter dicta are persuasive only.
387 words, about 2 min02Law of Contract
Work through offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relations, certainty and capacity, in that order. Distinguish an offer from an invitation to treat - displays of goods, advertisements, auction calls and requests for tenders are generally invitations to treat.
329 words, about 2 min03Criminal Law and Procedure
Analyse every offence in the same sequence: identify the elements, then the actus reus (conduct, circumstances, consequences, causation), then the mens rea (intention, recklessness, knowledge, negligence), then confirm that actus reus and mens rea coincided. Understand omissions liability (only where a duty exists - statute, contract, relationship, voluntary assumption, creation of danger), transferred malice, strict liability, inchoate offences and secondary participation (aiding, abetting, counselling, procuring; joint enterprise).
317 words, about 2 min04Land Law and Conveyancing
Understand the estates that can exist (freehold/fee simple, leasehold, life interests) and the distinction between legal and equitable interests. Learn how title is investigated in both systems: registered title , where the register is conclusive subject to overriding interests and cautions/inhibitions, and unregistered title , where a chain of title deeds and a good root of title must be proved.
315 words, about 2 min05Equity, Trusts and Probate Practice
Know the maxims (he who comes to equity must come with clean hands; delay defeats equity; equity looks to substance not form) and the discretionary remedies - specific performance, injunction, rectification, rescission, account of profits, tracing. Understand equitable doctrines such as estoppel, part performance, election, satisfaction, conversion and laches, and that equitable remedies are discretionary and lost by delay or misconduct.
322 words, about 2 min06Client Care, Practice Management and Business Awareness
A retainer is the contract under which the lawyer acts. It may be oral or in writing, but good practice (and most regulators) demand a written engagement letter setting out the scope of work, the identity of the client, the fee basis and estimate, who will handle the matter, how the client may complain, and what is excluded.
651 words, about 3 min07Portfolio / Work-Based Evidence of Competence
The portfolio is evidence that you have performed competently across the required domains, not a description of what your firm does. Each piece of evidence should be linked to a competence statement, dated, attributable to you, and accompanied by a short reflective commentary explaining the legal or procedural rule applied, the decisions you took, and what you would do differently.
332 words, about 2 min