Legal education provider The University of Law (ULaw) has appointed Patrick Johnson as its director of equality, diversity and inclusion as part of efforts to remove existing barriers and create an environment “where everyone, from any background, can succeed”.

The Bar Council has extended its outreach programme, the Bar Placement Week, to Liverpool. It has been running in London for eight years, as well as in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds for shorter periods.

Stress, workload and a lack of work-life balance caused by funding cuts are taking a heavy toll on barristers and are leading some to seek a career change, according to a new report. 

The University of Law has announced a new and exclusive partnership with specialist professional legal qualifications provider the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.

In a sweep of BPTC related news, the Bar Standards Board has published statistics about students and providers of the BPTC, revealed changes to the centralised BPTC exams and deferred the Bar Course Aptitude Test until at least March 2016. 

Contextual recruitment practices like upReach’s REALrating are being increasingly adopted by law firms to enable employers to identify hidden talent and monitor socioeconomic data. 

A new conference aimed at anyone hoping to land a training contract with one of the international firms in the City has been announced.

The justice system will have to absorb further budget cuts over the next five years, meaning that the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) budget in 2023 will be half what it was in 2010 when the Conservatives came to power, centre-left think tank the Resolution Foundation has warned.

Liz Truss has been replaced as justice secretary by David Lidington, the MP for Aylesbury who has consistently opposed LGBT rights and also voted in favour of repealing the Human Rights Act.

The University of Law will provide Solicitors Qualifying Examination training to Mischon de Reya LLP’s future trainees and solicitor apprentices as they enter a new exclusive partnership. 

BPP University officially opened its family law clinic on 16 October following a successful pilot scheme which helped dozens of Londoners through the legal issues surrounding separation, divorce and child access arrangements.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has indicated in a letter to the chair of the Justice Select Committee that he would allow choice of solicitor to continue and would consider the Law Society's suggested alternative model to price competitive tendering.

Radical changes to firms’ approach to flexible working, improvements to parental leave and new mentoring and sponsorship programmes should be made top priorities to improve gender equality in the legal profession, according to women on the frontline.

Candidates from working class backgrounds are being locked out of the legal profession, says Alan Milburn, chair of the Social Mobility Foundation and a former cabinet minister.

Dozens of barristers’ chambers are refusing to take on new defence work in protest at the crisis in the justice system created by the government’s cuts and reforms, the latest being changes to the Advocates Graduated Fee Scheme.

A number of City law firms have collaborated to create a legal operations graduate scheme, which includes a four-week course and workshops. 

The University of Law has revealed its plans to reopen all its UK campuses for staff and students in September.