Barrister apprenticeships are set to be introduced next year in an effort to improve access to the profession. It’s hoped that the proposed new route to qualification will enable aspiring barristers to earn while they learn, avoiding the costly fees required to attend university and then Bar school.

Only a small percentage of students on Legal Practice Courses are succeeding in their pursuit of a training contract.

Walker Morris, a distinctive and independent top 100 UK law firm, has introduced a new sabbatical scheme for lawyers.

On almost every job or internship application form – legal or otherwise – there will be a section detailing any past experience you may have. This is frequently a tricky section for students to complete. How are we meant to gain experience when the role we are applying for is experience but requires prior experience to secure it?

Mishcon de Reya LLP has partnered with legal education provider BARBRI Global to refugee lawyers for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam and help them requalify as solicitors in England and Wales.

Happy new year! We hope that you had a good Christmas break and that it offered at least a brief respite from work (and worrying about Brexit). Here is a selection of important business news stories that you might have understandably missed while you had a face full of chocolate orange.

UK Disability History Month (DHM) is in full swing and runs this year from 16 November until 16 December 2022. The theme for this year’s DHM is disability, health and wellbeing.

If commercial awareness means keeping up with the latest commercial news stories affecting law firms and businesses, then there can be no more timely news than that of the Brexit mayhem currently taking place.

The University of Law will offer the Bar Practice Course and BPC LLM at Newcastle University from September 2022 as part of its ongoing legal education partnership with the university. 

People who attended state schools are still underrepresented in the legal profession, with criminal firms employing the highest proportion of state-educated solicitors and corporate firms the lowest, research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority reveals.

With MPs embarked on a marathon, five-day debate about Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the EU ahead of a crucial vote on Tuesday on whether to accept the terms or not, the issue of Brexit is dominating the business sections more than ever.

Diversity, equal opportunity and the end of the ‘old boys network’ remain a long way off in the legal profession, a study by the Sutton Trust and PRIME showing that three quarters of judges and 71% of Queen’s Counsel (QC) barristers were privately educated has revealed. 

The Bar Standards Board has published its framework for the development of education and training in response to the Legal Education and Training Review.

Just as the solicitors' profession has a 'magic circle' of law firms, so too does London's commercial Bar. 

The Solicitors Qualifying Exam has been granted final approval by the Legal Services Board, confirming that the new route to qualifying as a solicitor will be introduced in September 2021.

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.

Staff at the magistrates’ court are set to begin a nine-day strike from the 10th to the 18th of September, adding to existing disruption in the UK’s criminal justice system. 

The Bar Council is this week celebrating a decade of its flagship social mobility initiative, Bar Placement Week, as well as launching a related online campaign, entitled ‘I am the Bar’.