The Social Mobility Foundation revealed its top 75 UK employers for social mobility earlier in the week, with law firms making up 30% of the listed employers.

The Law Society is asking its members to participate in an online discussion on education and training.

Students enrolling at the College of Law will now be able to start the Graduate Diploma in Law in January, in addition to having the option of starting in September.

The Bar Standards Board is set to look at whether there are “unjustified and discriminatory barriers to pupillage” at the advertising and recruitment stage.

International firm Hogan Lovells has joined the DiversCity mentoring scheme, the first programme specifically designed to provide informal support to LGBT students who aspire to a career in City law.

The legal sector's drive to improve social mobility across its professions stepped up a gear on 2 March 2012, with the launch of the social mobility toolkit.

Leading national firm Penningtons Manches and shipping specialist Thomas Cooper have agreed to merge, the firms have announced.

As the Lawyer reports, flexible working has come under scrutiny at Ashurst as part of a long-term project to improve the firm's working environment.

Commerciality remains top of many recruiters’ list of ideal traits for their future trainees - where better to develop that skill than with a small collection of topical business news stories, designed to help you to start thinking like a lawyer.

The chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s equality, diversity and inclusion committee has emphasised the SRA’s commitment to addressing the disproportionately high representation of black and minority ethnic solicitors in the regulator’s disciplinary work.

Submissions are now open for the 2019 Future Legal Mind Award essay competition run by National Accident Helpline.

International firm Dentons – the largest law firm in the world by headcount –is opening its first office in Ireland.

Prominent in-house appointments have made the news this month, with Royal Dutch Shell naming Donny Ching as its new legal director and HSBC Holdings hiring Shawn Chen to lead its global litigation and regulatory affairs group.

The Times has released its annual list of the country’s 100 most influential lawyers, as judged by the paper.

Future lawyers with a taste for insurance law should take note: a major new force in the specialist insurance law sector is coming on the scene after a merger between two insurance heavyweights.

As you might expect, the potential Brexit has dominated news headlines following confirmation that there will be a referendum in June on whether Britain will be staying in the European Union. Implications for businesses of all sizes is one of the key features of the debate - here is just a small selection of this week’s Brexit (and other) stories: