Medium-sized London commercial law firm Edwin Coe has teamed up with Mosaic, a support organisation for the career aspirations of young people from disadvantaged communities, to establish a legal ambassadors programme.

What with Brexit and Trump v Clinton, there is a lot of juicy news to fill newspaper columns at the moment.

The total number of training contracts on offer has decreased by 10.5% in the last year.

The Government Legal Department (GLD) has warned that its lawyers face serious capacity challenges as they work on Brexit, which will be additional to the full range of legal services that they already provide in all areas of government.

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

The three regulators who were the prime movers behind the Legal Education and Training Review have dismissed the suggestion of setting up a formal Legal Education Council, instead preferring to refer to their commitment to "greater collaboration".

Leading law firm Shoosmiths has announced a 100% trainee retention rate for its spring cohort of nine trainees, with the newly qualified solicitors based across the firm’s UK offices, including London and Manchester. 

The Criminal Bar Association last week voted to accept the deal offered by the Ministry of Justice to suspend legal aid cuts to Graduated Fee cases for a year.

Cardiff University has become the latest education provider to be authorised by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) to deliver the vocational component of Bar training from September 2020.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that lawyers cannot be "equated with journalists" to speak out on sensitive and high-profile cases.

The BBC is to continue its trainee solicitor recruitment programme following a successful first two years. 

Extended court sitting hours in the early mornings and evenings will be tested for the first time from 2 September, which marks the start of a six-month pilot scheme.

Global law firm DLA Piper UK LLP has raised its London newly qualified (NQ) salaries by 18%, moving from £110,000 to £130,000. 

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.

Three US law firms are among the top five earning legal practices for UK corporate work, researchers at The Lawyer reveal, stating that the figures demonstrate further “Americanisation” of the UK’s legal market.