Jasmine Coyne is a solicitor in the employment team at Gowling WLG (UK) LLP. She explains her route to qualification, day-to-day work and why Gowling stands out. 

On 25 September 2017 19 legal apprentices started at Gowling WLG as part of the firm’s two-year paralegal apprenticeship programme.

Gowling WLG (UK) LLP is looking at opening an office in Leeds.

A legal aid support package was unveiled last week, which the government claims will help legal aid practitioners through the coronavirus pandemic.

The government’s review into criminal legal aid fees will not be ready until 2020, despite warnings that the crisis is now so severe that the number of criminal duty solicitors is fast dwindling to nothing.

The government’s proposal to inject an extra £32-50 million into criminal legal aid funding is not enough to alleviate the current threat to “the very existence of criminal defence practitioners,” the Law Society has said.

As we near the end of another week, the global coronavirus pandemic is still dominating the front pages, twitter feeds and even our own LCN news stories.

The government's exceptional funding scheme for people who have been denied legal aid because of cuts has been ruled unlawful by the High Court.

The Ministry of Justice tried to stop the publication of research that expressed crown court judges’ misgivings about the number of people representing themselves in criminal cases due to cuts to legal aid.

The government is to continue with its plans to increase court fees for immigration and asylum cases by up to 500%, despite near-unanimous opposition from lawyers, law centres, unions and community groups.

The government has announced plans to implement a ‘good Samaritans law’ to protect people who take action in emergencies or volunteer for the public good from the threat of being sued.

Access to legal aid in civil disputes looks set to be widened slightly thanks to an offer by the Ministry of Justice to provide greater flexibility over the scope of provision.

The UK government is due to announce millions in extra funding for lawyers to represent asylum seekers in order to clear a backlog of appeals.

The government has announced its ‘triple lock’ plan, which enables students to either accept the grade they receive, create an appeal to get a valid mock result, or sit their exams in autumn.

The government’s plans for how an extra £15 million into the criminal justice system will be spent have been revealed, with critics claiming that junior barristers stand to lose out to their senior colleagues.

The government has rejected calls from lawyers and firms to lower employment tribunal fees, which have caused a huge drop in the number of employment tribunal cases being brought since their introduction in 2013. 

The government has rejected the Legal Service Board's recommendation that the interests of the public would be best served by making will writing subject to regulation

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed that it still intends to stop allowing soldiers injured while serving in the armed forces to pursue complaints through the courts, following speculation that the plans may have been dropped over the summer. 

Communities secretary Sajid Javid has promised new legislation to outlaw unfair and abusive practices within the leasehold system, including a ban on leaseholds for almost all new-build houses.