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As the biggest vacation scheme deadline of the year looms and you are busy sending off your final applications, don’t forget to stay up to date with the latest news from the business and legal worlds. Read on for this week’s commercial news round-up.
Summer is finally here! After a year of pandemic-induced lockdowns, it’s time to let your hair down and catch some rays! Here is a variety of business news stories that you might have missed while basking in the glorious sun. Whether on vacation or staycation, try to keep abreast of significant commercial issues affecting the business and legal worlds.
Criminal barristers are voting on whether to stage a one-day walk-out as their dispute with the Ministry of Justice over fees continues.
It’s vacation scheme application season and subsequently a crucial time to think about the commercial issues affecting businesses and the legal industry. By considering the below news stories and working out how these issues could affect law firms and their clients, you are thinking commercially.
It’s vacation scheme season and that means it’s the perfect time to take a glance at the business world and ensure that your commercial awareness is up to scratch. Our commercial awareness page is a great place to start working out how to develop your understanding of the business environment and how to demonstrate this in applications, but first take a quick read of some interesting commercial stories from this week.
Is the realistic aspiration to own your own home becoming a thing of the past?
As National Apprenticeship Week 2018 launches, Browne Jacobson – one of the profession’s earliest adopters of legal apprenticeships – has announced plans to add to its stable of apprenticeship programmes. Over 100 new positions will be offered across the firm’s various offices in two new schemes, with a commitment to invest 100% of its apprenticeship levy into the new programmes.
The government recently announced a pay rise for criminal legal aid solicitors, set out in a new publication by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The changes introduced, informed by 214 consultation responses, are expected to come into force on 22 December 2025.
The number of firms taking on legal apprentices continues to increase steadily, with Withers LLP and Hill Dickinson both confirming schemes for school leavers.
A third increase will be applied to the fees associated with the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) assessments from September 2025, taking the costs to £1,934 for SQE1 and £2,974 for SQE2.
The criminal justice system will lose more than 2,000 duty solicitors in the next five years, according to data published by The Law Society.
Lawyers at Linklaters LLP be offered new flexibilities around when they take their bank holidays under the firm’s new holiday scheme.
Newly qualified lawyer salaries at firms in the UK and US have skyrocketed in recent weeks as law firms continue to fight to attract and retain future legal talent.
We’ll keep it short this week as many of you are completing vacation scheme or pupillage applications. Commercial awareness is a key attribute that you must demonstrate in your applications as recruiters want to see that you have a knowledge of what is going on in the business industry, and how key issues might affect the law and the businesses that operate within it.
Baker McKenzie and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) have become the latest firms to announce increases in trainee and newly qualified (NQ) lawyer salaries, as firms continue to battle it out in the pay war.
How should I ask for feedback after a vacation scheme or training contract interview?
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City firms Nabarro and Simmons & Simmons have both won national recognition for the quality of their work experience and internship schemes at the National Council for Work Experience 2012 awards.
While you may be breathing a sigh of relief that the biggest vacation scheme deadline of the year has now passed, there is no time to rest on your laurels when it comes to improving your commercial awareness – if you get invited to interview, you need to have a few aces up your sleeve. The best place to start is by keeping an eye on the big business stories of the day – a task that we are only too happy to help with.
