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.

A recent survey has revealed that 29% of legal aid practitioners and 38% of criminal practitioners are uncertain about whether to renew their practising certificate in 2021.

As part of the Sound Off For Justice campaign, three London black cabs have been transformed into mobile ‘sound-off’ booths in which residents of the capital can speak out against the government's plans to cut legal aid.

In what is thought to be a first in the United Kingdom, a High Court claim has been served via Facebook.

Media organisations will be able to broadcast crown court judges’ sentencing remarks to the public for the first time under new draft legislation brought forward by the government.

Barristers' clerks are keen to be regulated and, by extension, recognised as a profession in their own right.

Clifford Chance has published pay inequality data covering ethnicity, disability and sexuality, in addition to mandatory reporting on gender.

The Bar Council, which represents all practising barristers in England and Wales, announced new measures to help domestic abuse victims in family and civil courts. 

The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has unanimously passed a motion proposing strike action if the government implements further criminal legal aid cuts.

The first two people to have completed the Accutrainee programme have been taken on by the firms at which they trained.

Magic circle firm Linklaters has launched an ‘online internship’ inviting students to test how they get on with the types of work experienced by real-life vacation scheme candidates.

The Bar Council has confirmed that the Bar Placement Week, launched seven years ago in London, has been introduced in Leeds and Manchester for the first time.

In his speech to the annual Bar Council conference on 10 November, Bar Council Chair Michael Todd QC lashed out at the over-arching regulatory body.

The Bar Pro Bono Unit has announced that its new chief executive will be Jess Campbell, taking over from Rebecca Wilkie who is leaving after seven years in the role.