The prison population in England and Wales has reached a record high, increasing by nearly 1,000 people in just one month. The number of jail sentences given to individuals involved in recent riots is said to have contributed to this spike.

Fieldfisher has launched a new Apprenticeship Career Excellence programme focusing on business services, which will start in September 2022 from the firm’s London and Manchester offices. 

Legal education provider The University of Law (ULaw) has appointed Patrick Johnson as its director of equality, diversity and inclusion as part of efforts to remove existing barriers and create an environment “where everyone, from any background, can succeed”.

The Bar Council has extended its outreach programme, the Bar Placement Week, to Liverpool. It has been running in London for eight years, as well as in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds for shorter periods.

Stress, workload and a lack of work-life balance caused by funding cuts are taking a heavy toll on barristers and are leading some to seek a career change, according to a new report. 

The University of Law has announced a new and exclusive partnership with specialist professional legal qualifications provider the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.

In a sweep of BPTC related news, the Bar Standards Board has published statistics about students and providers of the BPTC, revealed changes to the centralised BPTC exams and deferred the Bar Course Aptitude Test until at least March 2016. 

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. 

A new conference aimed at anyone hoping to land a training contract with one of the international firms in the City has been announced.

The justice system will have to absorb further budget cuts over the next five years, meaning that the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) budget in 2023 will be half what it was in 2010 when the Conservatives came to power, centre-left think tank the Resolution Foundation has warned.

There are many different kinds of barristers' chambers. Where you train has a significant influence on your career, as the style, size and clientele of each chambers will vary. Consider the following broad categories to establish which type of set might best match your career goals and working style.

I am choosing where to study my Legal Practice Course (LPC). With some firms exclusively partnering with certain law schools, does this mean that where I study will affect where I can apply for a training contract?

Multinational law firm DWF will adopt the Solicitors Qualifying Exam from January 2022 and launch the firm’s new graduate entry-level apprenticeship programme in partnership with BPP University Law School.

Bishop & Sewell and Monro Wright & Wasbrough have announced their merger, as part of Bishop & Sewell’s planned expansion strategy.

A new study, published by the Department for Education, found that of the occupations most exposed to AI, solicitors ranked 12th on the list when considering exposure to all AI applications and second for exposure to large language modelling.

The government’s proposal to inject an extra £32-50 million into criminal legal aid funding is not enough to alleviate the current threat to “the very existence of criminal defence practitioners,” the Law Society has said.