UK Legal industry turnover dropped to £2.91 billion in May 2021, down 23% on April 2021, according to recent Office of National Statistics data. The statistics show that April 2021 was the second-highest month on record after March 2021.

Most people do not feel that the justice system works for them, according to new research.

Cuts of £13.8 million to universities' bursary and scholarship budgets could disadvantage less wealthy students during their time in higher education.

The criminal bar has secured additional hardship provisions from the government in a bid to support practitioners as the pandemic continues to impact the profession and chambers report huge reductions in income. 

The 2016-17 Law School Challenge pro bono competition was announced last week by LawWorks and the Bar Pro Bono Unit.

Law firms and their staff have been putting in extraordinary efforts to support their local communities during the coronavirus pandemic, according to reports.

Barristers’ chambers are in talks about downsizing their offices in a bid to cut costs and encourage more remote working, following the coronavirus outbreak. However, there is still a need for physical space for career support and wellbeing, the Bar Council has stressed.

Last night the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) unveiled the winners of its second annual National Awards.

An exciting new public legal education project called Take to Law has seen secondary school students across London meeting judges, solicitors and barristers to learn more about the legal profession.

As details of the laborious and confusing Brexit negotiations continue to seep out – today’s highlights alone include the possibility that UK will remain under EU judicial remit and warnings that an absence of EU workers will seriously damage the economy – there is much to consider about where we will be from an economic point of view when the split becomes final. For news on this, and more, read on.

This week all eyes were on the "meeting of the century" (so described by North Korea’s official state newspaper), which was "tremendous" (so described by Trump). 

Metro Bank is offering a professional studies loan for legal studies exclusively to students at the University of Law, which is now open for applications.

Following on from publication last week of the Lammy Report on racial bias in the British criminal justice system, the chair of the Bar Council’s Equality and Diversity and Social Mobility Committee has responded by saying that report makes an important contribution to the “urgent task of securing a fair and equal criminal justice system”.

The Solicitors Regulations Authority and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives have signed up to the government’s Trailblazer project, which will standardise legal apprenticeships across the profession.

Thirteen City firms have launched the ‘Noticed toolkit’, alongside inter-firm diversity network Noticed, to tackle racism.

Beyond London, the most active cities are Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool, Cardiff, Newcastle and Nottingham. 

Linklaters launched its Ally programme earlier this month – the firm’s first LGBT-focused network supporting minority groups.

In a week that marked International Women’s Day, the staggering lack of equality for women in terms of pay and positions of seniority was widely reported. Clearly on board for change were the senior law firm leaders that called for 40% female leadership within the next three years.