‘Commercial awareness’ might sound like a daunting term to begin with but once you’ve got to grips with what it actually means – understanding the environment in which law firms and their clients operate (in short) – it’s all about being consistent. 

Following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s admittance into hospital, in a government briefing earlier this week Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab claimed it is too early to consider how the UK will exit the current coronavirus lockdown. As the UK heads into the Easter bank holiday weekend and nears the end of its third week in lockdown, here are the top news stories from the business and legal world.

The best commercial lawyers have their fingers firmly on the pulse of the business world. If that is the role to which you aspire, starting to get a grip now on the business and economic news of the day is essential, but it can be hard to know where to start. Look no further.

Before we go any further, here are a couple of longer articles to sink your teeth into. The first is all about what might be featuring in the global economy in 2016, while the second is an insider’s view of the mysterious Bank of England – both worth your time. As are the following news stories.

While you may be breathing a sigh of relief that the biggest vacation scheme deadline of the year has now passed, there is no time to rest on your laurels when it comes to improving your commercial awareness – if you get invited to interview, you need to have a few aces up your sleeve. The best place to start is by keeping an eye on the big business stories of the day – a task that we are only too happy to help with.

Without a little prompting, we can all let good intentions slide – especially so when it comes to the sort of preparatory work that requires long-term commitment. Developing your commercial awareness is one such example; it’s not enough to read the FT on the way to your training contract interview. You have to put in hours well in advance of that, so where better to start than with another collection of the week’s most interesting business news stories?

With covid-19 dominating the news over the past year, it’s important for aspiring lawyers to take a step back to think about the legal, economic and social impact the virus has had on businesses and how they operate. After reading LawCareers.Net Weekly try to decipher what is relevant to your target firms and their clients.

Law fair season is upon us, and as LCN lurches from uni to uni, you should be focusing on developing your commercial awareness as a way of impressing the recruiters that you meet.

It’s been a rough week: Glastonbury is over for another year, England’s Lionesses were knocked out of the World Cup by the USA and to top it all off, Facebook and Instagram have been hit with a glitch that prevents images from loading on the social media sites.

You may well be in the midst of a training contract application frenzy, but don’t panic; one of the best things you can do to help your chances (other than NOT submitting your applications at 11.45pm on 31 July) is hone your commercial awareness skills. Here are a few news stories that you should probably know a bit about.

The global landscape is once again being reshaped as geopolitical tensions, economic pressures and technological risks converge. Oil prices have soared despite an unprecedented International Energy Agency intervention, and airlines are raising fares and cancelling flights as jet fuel costs spike. In the UK, fraud cases have hit a record high because of AI-powered scams and, in a historic shift, the Bank of England (BoE) is preparing to retire its long-standing tradition of featuring notable figures on banknotes. Read on for LawCareers.Net’s picks of this week’s top commercial stories!

This week has been punctuated by political speechifying, with economic theory taking centre stage. For the business news that should be on your radar, read on.

This week we launched the latest episode of The LawCareers.Net Podcast which covers all things commercial awareness. Give it a listen to find out more about the importance of being commercially aware, and to hear a case study in the airline industry that can be analysed in a commercial way.

This week’s round-up from the business world covers almost as many stories as there are candidates competing to be chosen as the next prime minister by Conservative MPs and 124,000 or so party members.

Since it’s spooky season, it seems only right to provide a round-up of business news that’s been haunting the City this week.

Today’s collection of commercial news stories is as varied as the weather at the moment and much more likely to help you in your search for a legal career. It’s important to maintain a holistic view of the world of business and to stay up-to-date with the issues that might affect your future employers, and their clients. Use these four stories as a starting point for your research.

What’s going on in the news this week? US President Donald Trump has pressed pause on steep trade tariffs and UK secondary schools have been forced to cut more staff.

This week started with Prime Minister Boris Johnson setting out the roadmap to begin easing lockdown in the UK, with all restrictions due to be lifted by 21 June. But what else happened this week that you, as an aspiring lawyer, should know about? Read the round-up below for insight into some of the week’s news.

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a number of LED face mask adverts, and a new land law is set to cause reforms in Scotland. Meanwhile, King Charles III has warned Nvidia CEO about the dangers of AI innovation in a letter and John Lewis has released its Christmas advert earlier this year, following the trend of businesses pushing earlier festive spending.

Today is International Women’s Day, undoubtedly a time to celebrate the achievements and fortitude of women everywhere. However, it is also a time to reflect on women’s place in the world of business and law – for example, the number of female CEOs is still woefully low and female partners in law firms remain underrepresented. And dare we mention gender pay parity – not yet a reality, despite legislation requiring it. Gender politics aside, read on for this collection of interesting business news from the past week.