Expect most news agencies to be preoccupied by the mayoral election today, but there is still lots of commercial news doing the rounds.

The Co-operative Group has bought up the Sheffield-based Collective Legal Solution Group – the retailer’s first legal acquisition since launching its legal services offering in 2012, when the Co-Op became the joint-first organisation to gain an alternative business structure license.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has announced that non-practising solicitors will need to pay a £20 charge to stay on the roll from next year. The change will affect around 60,000 non-practising solicitors who are already on the roll.

Much-needed domestic abuse legislation could be lost if the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson goes ahead with his plan to prorogue Parliament so that MPs are unable to influence whether the UK exits the European Union without a withdrawal agreement on 31 October.

The UK will not be a member of Europe’s planned Unified Patent Court, the government has confirmed in what intellectual property (IP) specialists have described as a blow to the industry.

The SRA has completed its first year or authorising and regulating alternative business structures.

A pupil barrister has won first prize in the Bar Council’s essay competition with a damning dissection of the legality of the UK government’s use of drones to kill people.

Members of the legal profession - including Miriam González Durántez and representatives from the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives - attended the government’s latest Inspiring Women campaign event.

BPP Law School has announced the introduction of £84,000 worth of scholarships and pupillage support for its Bar Professional Training Course programmes taught at its London, Leeds and Manchester centres

Magic circle law firm Allen & Overy’s targets to reduce its absolute annual global carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Ropes & Gray announced it will be retaining all its newly qualified (NQ) London-based trainees this month.

As we are all now in thrall to the displays of Olympic athleticism, it is clear why there is a strong commercial imperative for companies to sponsor the Games – but what of those that try to “bandwagon”? For other, non-sporting commercial news, read on for this small selection from the past week: 

Global law firm DWF has acquired Zing365, a specialist provider of compliance training to the insurance and financial services sectors, to add to its Connected Services offering.

Bar courses vary in format depending on the Authorised Education Training Provider (AETO)/law school, but they all combine teaching legal knowledge with practical skills. All Bar courses are designed to prepare students for life as a barrister.

An interim deal has been agreed between the Ministry of Justice and barristers over a fee dispute, which had disrupted complex fraud trials.

International firm Eversheds has announced that it will be running the Combined Study Training Contract from August 2012.

The presence of multiple-choice questions (MCQ) in the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) will make the assessment more rigorous than critics think, according to the person in charge of designing the SQE framework.

Summer is here! Not that you’d know it to look outside. Console yourself in the face of gloomy weather with this selection of interesting business-related news from the past week.

Norton Rose Fulbright has announced its partnership with the Financial and Legal Skills Partnership through the 'Get In Get On' initiative.

Employment in London's legal services sector is growing faster than any other financial or professional services industry, according to figures released by lobby group TheCityUK.