As you’ll learn, being a good lawyer is so much more than advising on legal technicalities – it is understanding and absorbing what drives your client and then helping them with practical solutions that resonate with their unique set of business concerns and constraints. Want to know what some of those things might be? Read on.

Another week, another bumper crop of commercial news to consider. If your ultimate plan is to succeed as a legal professional, an interest in the business world – and the world generally – is a must. As everyone digests the news that the Bank of England is again leaving interest rates where they are (with the Guardian reporting that some analysts have called Mark Carney an “unreliable boyfriend” due to his habit of changing his mind), here is a selection of other stories for your edification.

Organisations from across the legal sector, including the Solicitors Regulation Authority will once again be attending the Birmingham and London Pride festivals in a show of support for and celebration of the LGBT community.

Held on Saturday 9 April, the biennial Minority Lawyers Conference brought together high-profile speakers to celebrate the achievements of black and Asian lawyers, and highlight the issues facing the profession in a year of both challenge and opportunity.

The government has asked victims of the Windrush scandal to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in return for fast-tracking their compensation claims, in the latest high-profile example of the controversial practice.

The new legal training organisation Accutrainee expects to see its first cohort of aspiring lawyers embark on their training contracts in the next few months.

City firms Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Herbert Smith Freehills, Slaughter and May, and Travers Smith have teamed up with 34 recruitment agencies to launch the ‘Recruitment Agency Race Fairness Commitment’ in an effort to improve racial diversity in the legal profession.

Any government decision to impose further increases to civil court fees would result in far more money lost in tax revenues generated by legal work than would be raised by court fees, according to City solicitors and barristers. 

Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, Baroness Carr, is “really interested” in filming more trials in a wider range of courts to “promote open justice”.

The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) will have a negative impact on students and academics, and represents a “step backwards” for diversity and equal access to careers in the legal profession, according to law lecturers.

Herbert Smith Freehills has launched its first ever Community Engagement Awards, designed to showcase the best social projects led by students in India. 

Newly qualified lawyer salaries at firms in the UK and US have skyrocketed in recent weeks as law firms continue to fight to attract and retain future legal talent.

The Law Society has awarded 14 scholarships to aspiring solicitors through its Diversity Access Scheme (DAS), which supports aspiring solicitors who are facing social, educational, financial or personal obstacles to qualifying.

The Co-operative Group's announcement of its intentions to create 3,000 jobs in the legal sector is the latest and clearest sign that alternative business structures are set to have a big impact on the legal profession.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) has opened the final stage of the CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ) to allow Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Bar course graduates to qualify as CILEX lawyers. 

The big news this week is yesterday’s budget – the BBC provides a useful outline of the key points, which include the removal of stamp duty for first-time buyers on properties up to £300,000; £1.5 billion to be devoted to addressing universal credit concerns; and new measures to crackdown on tech giants which route their profits through low-tax countries (otherwise known as the “Google tax”).