Commerciality and business nous: these are prized skills among lawyers and exactly the kind of thing that recruiters are looking for their trainees to possess.

This round-up of the week’s commercial news includes some big stories – keep an eye on them as they develop over the holidays.

If you want to succeed in the environs of fast-paced commercial law, you need to be adaptable.

This is the first in a weekly series of news digests, collecting together some of the key business stories that you should keep an eye on for two important reasons.

Short and to the point this week – read these to improve your sense of what’s going on in the commercial world.

Commerciality remains top of many recruiters’ list of ideal traits for their future trainees – where better to develop that skill than with a small collection of topical business news stories, designed to help you to start thinking like a lawyer.

Want to get a handle on what’s happening in the commercial world and how it might affect your clients of the future? Read this collection of stories from the past couple of weeks to get a glimpse.

The high-level chit-chat taking place between politicians and business leaders in Davos this week at the annual World Economic Forum is expected to cover eight key themes, with delegates looking at robots, gender equality and terrorism.

Another week, another set of business stories to keep on top of. Here are just some that you should lavish your attention on.

The EU referendum and the implications of a Brexit continue to dominate headlines, along with news from the retail sector.

Cameron and Carney were full of literary flourish this week, with metaphors that drew parallels with dashboards and apple barrels.

This week, the world’s business leaders, politicians and campaigners gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum.

News-wise, there is a lot to absorb this week, including some big financial losses being reported, as well as bad news for both the “flash crash” trader and the Co-op’s Fairtrade suppliers.

Note: it is just over a week until the main training contract application deadline - 31 July - so it is certainly reasonable to be focusing on that right now. 

What better way to round off the week than with a few topical business news stories, collated with the intention of getting you to think about the broader commercial issues that law firms’ clients may be grappling with. No, no – you don’t have to thank us.

The four-day weekend looms and while it’s hard to imagine doing anything much other than gorging on chocolate and hot cross buns, it’s also an opportunity to catch up on some light reading. 

There’s only one story this week: VW. Things have gone badly wrong for the global automotive giant, as it admits that it “totally screwed up” and heads start to roll.

Immerse yourself this week in some quite depressing economic news – of EU budgetary demands, Tesco's massive hole in its profits and increased government spending.

As you might expect, the potential Brexit has dominated news headlines following confirmation that there will be a referendum in June on whether Britain will be staying in the European Union. Implications for businesses of all sizes is one of the key features of the debate - here is just a small selection of this week’s Brexit (and other) stories:

There's no getting away from the fact that this week the business pages have been dominated by the "will they, won't they" saga of Greece's financial calamities and possible exit from the European Union.