Magic circle firm Clifford Chance has announced that its summer vacation scheme will go ahead virtually, as coronavirus social distancing measures look set to remain in place for an extended period.

Magic circle giant Allen & Overy has joined top-end firms Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells, Herbert Smith and Travers Smith in signing up to a specialist agency which actively recruits high-achieving African Caribbean graduates.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been granted an ABS licence by the SRA, the first of the ‘big four’ accountancy firms to receive one.

Mayer Brown, the only City firm to run an ‘articled apprenticeship’ programme, has recruited a third apprentice.

Lincoln’s Inn brings to life the stories of six practising barristers from unconventional backgrounds in its new outreach film Becoming a Barrister.  

Herbert Smith Freehills and The Times are running their annual student advocacy competition, with submissions due by 22 July 2013.

As pressure continues to mount on the legal sector regarding the diversity of its workforce, Herbert Smith has announced that it will commence piloting unconscious bias training for its partners on 30 May.

Thousands of Asda employees have won a major victory in their battle for equal pay after taking their employer to a tribunal.

Criminal barristers in England and Wales have reported that they feel overworked and underpaid and would be willing to take direct action.

Several firms have agreed to provide new homes for as many of Dewey & LeBoeuf's current and future trainees as possible, following the US firm's much-publicised collapse - though the number of trainees without new firms remains unknown.

The three regulators who were the prime movers behind the Legal Education and Training Review have dismissed the suggestion of setting up a formal Legal Education Council, instead preferring to refer to their commitment to "greater collaboration".

Kaim Todner, an eminent London criminal defence firm, is to close this month.

Two mergers went live on 1 February. Howard Kennedy and Finers Stephen Innocent have rebranded to become HowardKennedyFsi following their merger, while Oxford firm Henmans has merged with leading regional firm Freeth Cartwright to become Henmans Freeth.

Leading solicitors’ firm Leigh Day is advertising for black applicants to apply for solicitor apprenticeship vacancies, as part of a move to address an imbalance of “many fewer Afro-Caribbean and African qualified staff than we ought to have for our geographical area”.

The new chairperson of the Bar Council, Maura McGowan QC, has set out her vision for the Bar’s future in her inaugural address.

Small and medium-sized firms are increasingly turning to mergers as a way of coping with a lack of growth, research has suggested.

Leading regional firm Michelmores has launched an exclusively London-based training contract, with the first intake of trainees set to start in September 2019.

City firms are expecting an increase in the amount of corporate merger & acquisition work thanks to some recovery in the business economy.

Baroness Hale is to become the first female president of the Supreme Court, taking over from Lord Neuberger in October this year. She will earn £225,000 a year as head of the court.

The legal sector is set for another decade of change, with increased consumer protection and provision high up the agenda in the Legal Service Board’s (LSB) new 10-year strategy.