The small window of time between the football-related jubilation of Tuesday night and the football-related anxiety of Saturday afternoon is the perfect opportunity to distract yourself with some of this week’s biggest business stories. Here is our collection for this week.

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.

Corporate firm RPC has entered an exclusive training partnership with the University of Law. 

As we lurch into July, the pressing matter of training contract applications may be foremost in your minds. It is worth considering that part of making a convincing application – and more importantly, being a convincing candidate at interview – is the development of your commercial awareness. To help, you need look no further than this selection of recent business news stories.

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has released its findings into how pupillages were advertised and the selection criteria used by barristers’ chambers in 2018.

New research by employee benefits technology provider Zest showed employees in the UK legal sector were leading calls for greater financial support, with private medical insurance the most in-demand benefit among law firm employees.

The outstanding pro bono and volunteering achievements of individual lawyers, law firms, charities and advice clinics were celebrated last week at the LawWorks Annual Pro Bono Awards.

The House of Commons committee of Public Accounts has produced a damning report on the Ministry of Justice’s cuts to legal aid spending.

Two more leading law firms have announced partnerships with Vantage, the online portal that matches diverse candidates with opportunities at top legal employers.

Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) exams will be moved online, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) has revealed.

Having delayed exams as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, the BSB recently confirmed that assessments for the BPTC (soon to be replaced by a new range of Bar courses), as well as exams for the Bar Transfer Test, will now take place online in August, with resits scheduled for December.

The number of practising solicitors in England and Wales has grown in the last year while the number of registered training contracts has fallen slightly, the Law Society’s annual statistics report has revealed.

Following the government’s pledge to end the cross-examination of domestic abuse victims by their perpetrators in court, a long-overdue and ‘enhanced’ version of the Domestic Abuse Bill recently returned to Parliament.

Mishcon de Reya is bringing a case on behalf of an anonymous group of clients against the government in a bid to ensure that Article 50, which would signal the United Kingdom’s intention to leave the European Union, is not triggered without the appropriate parliamentary process being followed.

The Government Legal Department (GLD) has announced in its Business Plan that it wants over 25% of senior employees to be from ethnic minority backgrounds, by 31 March 2022.

What with the sadness of last night’s World Cup defeat, the arrival today of the Donald, and the chaos surrounding this week’s government resignations and non-existent Brexit strategy, you could be forgiven for thinking that there’s really no reason to carry on. Don’t give up! There remain many reasons to be cheerful, not least the prospect of a fulfilling legal career. To help you make that a reality by boosting your commercial acumen, read this week’s selection of business news stories.

Barristers are taking more risks as a result of commercial pressures, while some senior barristers may be abusing their power over women, pupils and junior barristers, the Bar Standards Board has found.

The legal profession is facing a new challenge as leading barristers defy Bar rules by pledging not to prosecute peaceful climate protesters or represent companies involved in fossil fuel projects.