Two major international law firms have announced new rounds of promotions in their Irish offices. 

City law firms and accountancy firms are updating their application guidelines to consider the use of AI, with some prohibiting the technology and others celebrating it.

Law firms are increasingly focusing on growth in the US through partner promotions, according to analysis by CityAM. Recent figures from magic circle firms, including Clifford Chance and Freshfields, point to a “quiet rebalancing” in the global legal market.

Formidable new powers to enforce equality legislation are needed to prevent Britain returning to the rigid class inequalities of the 1930s, David Isaac, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said. 

Contextual recruitment practices like upReach’s REALrating are being increasingly adopted by law firms to enable employers to identify hidden talent and monitor socioeconomic data. 

Law firms signed for more than 380,000 square feet of office space in the third quarter, which is 52% higher than a year ago, according to property consultancy Knight Frank. This recent increase in demand is largely down to US firms’ expansions.

The Law Society has conducted its most comprehensive ever study into the legal services market, presenting a detailed analysis of the global and UK legal markets.

More than 90% of UK law firms that responded to a survey by accountancy network MHA said they had made a profit since March 2020.

Solicitors should refuse clients’ instructions if they are discriminatory, the Law Society has said after an Afghan-born woman barrister was asked to return her instructions because the client wanted “a white male barrister”.

Barristers, solicitors, charity workers and law centre volunteers will congregate outside the Ministry of Justice tonight (18 April) in protest at the crisis in the justice system.

Bates Wells, Browne Jacobson LLP and Freeths LLP have become the latest firms to back Project Rise – “a cross-firm enterprise” initiated by the Law Society’s Disabled Solicitors Network that aims to encourage more part-time training opportunities across the legal sector. 

The topic is in for this year’s Times Law Awards essay competition sponsored by One Essex Court, and it is “Cameras in court: justice’s loss or gain?”

Law firms have seen demand in services drop globally over the first half of 2022, according to new research by Thomson Reuters.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has indicated in a letter to the chair of the Justice Select Committee that he would allow choice of solicitor to continue and would consider the Law Society's suggested alternative model to price competitive tendering.

Commerciality is an important part of being a successful lawyer, but law firms won’t expect you to be a fully formed, business guru when you arrive as trainee – they appreciate it takes years to develop. However, what they will expect is that you have started to gain some understanding of what is required to advise your clients in a business-appropriate way. The best place to start is by keeping up with big business news stories of the day; examples to follow.

HM Revenue and Customs and Carillion Advice Service have both separately announced the expansion of their legal apprenticeship programmes, as legal apprenticeships continue to take off among law firms and companies’ in-house legal teams. 

Leading experts from several international law firms have given their verdict on MPs’ rejection of Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal to exit the European Union (EU), which leaves the UK on a default course to exit the EU without an agreement on 29 March.

Candidates from working class backgrounds are being locked out of the legal profession, says Alan Milburn, chair of the Social Mobility Foundation and a former cabinet minister.