Translations for the SRA, Bar and legal professions

Turkish lawyers and the English regulators

There are three ways a lawyer trained in Türkiye enters the legal profession of England and Wales. The main one is the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA): a qualified foreign lawyer can sit the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) and may apply for exemptions from parts of it on the basis of prior qualification and experience. The Bar Standards Board (BSB) handles transfers to the Bar for foreign-qualified lawyers. CILEX, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, is the route many Turkish lawyers take into paralegal and chartered legal executive roles while they prepare for the SQE. Each body examines your Turkish paperwork: the hukuk fakültesi diploması (law degree), the transcript, your avukatlık ruhsatnamesi (practising licence) and your registration and good standing with your bar association (baro). Every one of those documents is in Turkish and must be translated before the regulator will read it.

What the regulators require

We could not find published wording from the SRA or the BSB that deals specifically with translations of Turkish documents, and we do not want to put words in their mouths. What their qualified-lawyer guidance has in common is a requirement for evidence in English of the qualification and of current good standing, and both accept certified translations that meet the general UK standard: a full translation, a statement that it is a true and accurate translation of the original, the date, and the translator’s or company’s name and contact details. Requirements for exemption applications can be more detailed and change between SQE cycles, so check the SRA’s current qualified-lawyer guidance and, for the Bar, the BSB’s transferring-lawyer pages before you order. If a regulator specifies a format we have not seen, send us the text and we will match it.

Turkish documents that come up

• The hukuk fakültesi diploması and any yüksek lisans or doktora certificate.
• The transcript, and for exemption claims the course descriptions that show subject coverage.
• The avukatlık ruhsatnamesi issued by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (Türkiye Barolar Birliği).
• A baro levhası kaydı (bar roll entry) and a good-standing letter from your baro, dated close to the application.
• Legal internship (avukatlık stajı) completion documents and work references from law firms for experience-based exemptions.
• An adli sicil kaydı for the character and suitability assessment, where requested.

Common reasons legal applications are queried

• Regulators cannot tell whether you hold a practising title. Turkish law graduates are not lawyers until they complete the internship and are admitted to a baro; a translation must make that sequence visible rather than call everyone a lawyer.
• Turkish legal terms are anglicised loosely. An avukat is an advocate admitted to a bar, not a solicitor or a barrister; icra, dava vekili and hukuk müşaviri each need a precise rendering. Our Turkish legal terminology policy explains the choices we make.
• Good-standing letters are out of date by the time the application is decided.
• Experience letters omit the areas of practice or the supervising partner’s contact details.
• Name changes after marriage are not linked to the earlier documents.

How we prepare legal-profession bundles

Legal translators with Turkish law training translate; a second linguist checks statutes, court names and dates. Every page carries our certification statement, the company’s Ankara registry details, the date, stamp and signature, and the original is attached. Degree and licence certificates are one page each (£10); transcripts £30–60; baro letters £10; course descriptions are quoted per page on the economy tier. A typical SRA qualified-lawyer bundle comes to £60–120 and is delivered as a PDF within 2–4 working days, with hard copies by courier from Ankara (£30) or UK Special Delivery (£8) if the regulator asks for paper. No UK VAT is charged. See Turkish lawyers: SQE and SRA documents for the application sequence.