Leicester-based legal advice charity The Community Advice and Law Service has become the first not-for-profit organisation to establish an alternative business structure.

The University of Law has announced that it will be running the Bar Professional Training Course at its Leeds centre from September 2016.

Following on from publication last week of the Lammy Report on racial bias in the British criminal justice system, the chair of the Bar Council’s Equality and Diversity and Social Mobility Committee has responded by saying that report makes an important contribution to the “urgent task of securing a fair and equal criminal justice system”.

Junior lawyers are being invited to apply for a short-term scheme with the High Court of England and Wales to assist judges with family and civil court cases.

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.

The Co-operative Legal Services has confirmed an operating loss of £5.1 million for the first half of the year, as reported by Legal Futures.

After setting up a £150 million funding pot, DLA Piper has become the biggest City law firm to join the third-party litigation financing market.

Almost constant disagreements between the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Law Society may mean there is a need for a change in the rules governing the two regulators’ relationship, the Legal Services Board has said in its latest consultation. 

Lord Neuberger, president of the UK Supreme Court, has said in an interview with the BBC that legal aid cuts could make people feel they cannot access justice and then "take the law into their own hands".

Following a morning walk-out in protest at the proposed cuts to legal aid earlier this month, criminal lawyers are planning to stage a full day of protest if the government’s planned cuts go ahead.

Following public consultation last year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed that changes to continuing professional development will come into force from 1 April this year.

City law firm Macfarlanes was the first non-magic circle firm to increase its newly qualified (NQ) lawyer salary in line with the ongoing NQ pay war. 

Elite corporate firm Travers Smith has become the latest big firm to announce that it is embracing flexible working.

Garden Court Chambers has launched a scholarship to enable refugee students to take the Bar Practice Course (BPC) at  City, University of London Law School.

The Bar Council has published its new guide on barristers’ shared parental leave, in which it urges chambers to do more than the bare minimum required to support tenants who become parents or carers. 

Lewis Silkin has been named the best law firm to work for in the country in The Sunday Times' annual "100 best companies to work for" supplement.

Linklaters has offered voluntary redundancies to all London-based secretaries. 

The Law Society has appointed a new president - Allen & Overy consultant and former partner John Wotton.

A new national award for law students, the Future Legal Mind award, has been launched by the National Accident Helpline.

Christina Blacklaws has become the 174^th president of the Law Society of England and Wales. She was inaugurated at a ceremony at Chancery Lane, London, on 5 July 2018.