It’s been a busy start to 2023 for me, which is why I’ve been very quiet over on my socials… I’m thrilled to announce that earlier in January, I moved from Freeths LLP’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) team onto its legal assistant programme.

British FTSE 350 businesses expect the law firms they instruct to have gender diverse partnerships, but have a shocking lack of women in their own senior leadership teams, new research reveals.

The government has opposed calls from lawyers in the House of Lords to scale back the powers of the Legal Services Board, claiming instead that the current system is fit for purpose.

Barbara Mills KC has been elected as vice chair of the Bar Council 2024. 

BPP University Law School’s first ever Advocate of the Year contest has been won by a law student from the University of Bristol. 

Axiom Ince has been shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) following allegations of financial misappropriation – a closure that could end up being the most expensive SRA intervention in history.

Employment tribunal backlogs are continuing to spiral at an alarming rate, according to new figures, with the number of open cases hitting 491,000 at the end of March 2025 – up 11% from March 2023 (444,000).

Oxford Brookes School of Law and The College of Legal Practice have joined forces to offer the law school’s students discounted access to Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) preparation courses, as well as appropriate guidance and information on the new route to qualifying.

New measures to improve the quality of advocacy in youth courts have been announced by the Bar Standards Board.

Partners at CMS UK, Nabarro and Olswang have voted in favour of a proposal to combine the three firms, creating the sixth largest firm in the world (by number of lawyers) and in the United Kingdom (by revenue). The merger goes live on 1 May 2017.

Criminal barristers in Northern Ireland plan to withdraw their services from all legally aided crown court cases between 6 and 31 January.

The chair of Parliament’s justice select committee has called for fee-charging McKenzie Friends to be banned after the High Court ruled that an unqualified “legal adviser” was negligent in his handling of a clinical negligence case.

Labour has announced its spending plans for the justice sector at its annual conference, pledging £74 million to reverse cuts to legal aid and train more community lawyers.

Associates are considering leaving their firm due to feeling “underappreciated”, a new survey by Thomson Reuters has found.

International law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) is championing wellbeing efforts in the legal industry by offering its employees time-off bonuses.  

The new edition of The Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook was published this week and copies are winging their way to university campuses nationwide as we write.

For the first time, juries will be allowed to hear cases remotely in England and Wales due to the rising backlog of trials. 

International firm Herbert Smith Freehills LLP published an anthology of thoughts and experiences shared by Black colleagues across the firm and leading external commentators to mark Black History Month this October.