The body overseeing legal aid decisions in England and Wales is being taken to court by human rights organisation Liberty over its refusal to help homeless people challenge potentially unlawful treatment by local councils.

With the madness associated with extreme temperatures abating (for one day at least), employ this brief period of coolness to gather your thoughts. We suggest stepping away from the fan and concentrating on improving your commercial awareness in advance of the interviews that you’re (hopefully) going to have lined up following your successful applications.

As the UK’s political parties set off on the campaign trail this week, there has already been scandal, resignations, pacts and many a promise made. 

Thursday 20 January 2022 is the first results day for part one of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). Candidates who sat SQE1 in November 2021 received their results at 3:00pm today via their SQE candidate accounts. 

CILEX has awarded £123,000 in bursaries and scholarships this year as part of its CILEX Foundation scholarship programme, which supports those from under-represented and/or socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Seven students were awarded scholarships worth up to £13,200 each.

Find out more on our dedicated 'Paralegal' page.

International law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has announced the launch of a unique international summer placement programme for students taking the double degree in English and French law at Queen Mary University of London and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. 

The Law Society of England and Wales has announced its new AI strategy, which is based on three pillars: innovation, impact and integrity. 

City law firm Dentons becomes one of six law firms to achieve Menopause Friendly Accreditation across its offices in the UK, Ireland and the Middle East. 

The Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) have set up a steering group to address bullying, harassment and sexual harassment at the Bar and implement the recommendations of the Harman report. 

While your immediate concerns may centre on defeating the Beast from the East (mostly by staying inside, cancelling plans and drinking warm beverages), don’t let the Siberian weather freeze your ambition. In fact, what better way to warm up than with the absorption of all the hottest business stories? For which, you need look no further.

Twenty law firms and organisations have now been granted alternative business structure status, which allows legal services providers to be owned and/or managed by non-lawyers and operate in conjunction with other services.

The first part of the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam – a series of online multiple-choice exams testing legal knowledge – is likely to be too difficult with fail rates higher than the current LPC system, says Patrick McCann, global head of learning at Linklaters LLP.

On Saturday 16 November Gray’s Inn played host to the Chancery Bar Association annual careers fair for students interested in pursuing a career at the Bar.

The number of in-house lawyers will have grown much further by 2020, while technological advances could mean a legal profession with fewer solicitors and more paralegals and computers, a landmark report by the Law Society has predicted.

On 18 September, the seventh National Paralegal Awards, hosted by CILEX, recognised paralegals across 14 individual and three business categories, such as Paralegal of the Year and National Paralegal Business of the Year

LawWorks has announced the winners of the LawWorks and Attorney General’s Student Pro Bono Awards 2025, sponsored by LexisNexis UK. The awards celebrate the best pro bono activities undertaken by students and law schools across the nation. The awards were presented at a ceremony held at the House of Lords on Wednesday 23 April.