National law firm Browne Jacobson LLP announced its partnership with O Shaped last week, a movement founded in 2019 that aims to drive “positive change” across the legal industry. 

The National Paralegal Awards, hosted by the Professional Paralegal Register, is taking place on Thursday 22 September at the Iconic Grand Hotel in Birmingham. This is the fourth year the awards has run.

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.

According to research by legal software company Clio, 54% of UK law firms expect fixed-fee billing to increase over the next 12 months.

City law firm Addleshaw Goddard is set to move to the heart of London’s square mile having signed a 15-year lease on a new office opposite the Bank of England. 

The UK government has announced a £24 million injection of cash into police station and youth court fees, marking the “start of the government’s work to support the sustainability of the justice system both now and in future”.

Salary (49.55%) and work/life balance (48.65%) were rated as the most important factors that candidates are looking for in their future legal employer in LawCareers.Net’s user survey. 

British FTSE 350 businesses expect the law firms they instruct to have gender diverse partnerships, but have a shocking lack of women in their own senior leadership teams, new research reveals.

The government has opposed calls from lawyers in the House of Lords to scale back the powers of the Legal Services Board, claiming instead that the current system is fit for purpose.

Barbara Mills KC has been elected as vice chair of the Bar Council 2024. 

BPP University Law School’s first ever Advocate of the Year contest has been won by a law student from the University of Bristol. 

Axiom Ince has been shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) following allegations of financial misappropriation – a closure that could end up being the most expensive SRA intervention in history.

Employment tribunal backlogs are continuing to spiral at an alarming rate, according to new figures, with the number of open cases hitting 491,000 at the end of March 2025 – up 11% from March 2023 (444,000).

Oxford Brookes School of Law and The College of Legal Practice have joined forces to offer the law school’s students discounted access to Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) preparation courses, as well as appropriate guidance and information on the new route to qualifying.

New measures to improve the quality of advocacy in youth courts have been announced by the Bar Standards Board.

Partners at CMS UK, Nabarro and Olswang have voted in favour of a proposal to combine the three firms, creating the sixth largest firm in the world (by number of lawyers) and in the United Kingdom (by revenue). The merger goes live on 1 May 2017.

Criminal barristers in Northern Ireland plan to withdraw their services from all legally aided crown court cases between 6 and 31 January.

The chair of Parliament’s justice select committee has called for fee-charging McKenzie Friends to be banned after the High Court ruled that an unqualified “legal adviser” was negligent in his handling of a clinical negligence case.

Labour has announced its spending plans for the justice sector at its annual conference, pledging £74 million to reverse cuts to legal aid and train more community lawyers.