Note: it is just over a week until the main training contract application deadline - 31 July - so it is certainly reasonable to be focusing on that right now. 

With the excesses of Easter behind you, it’s time to really commit to the task ahead: developing your commercial awareness and thus significantly improving your chances on the recruitment frontline. Start here with this week’s curated group of topical news stories.

The first LCN Podcast episode of the new year covers what mooting is, how to develop your skills, tips for novice mooters and how to discuss your mooting experience in your applications to legal employers.

US firm Armstrong Teasdale has acquired London-based Kerman & Co in its first overseas venture. The move by the top 200 US firm adds 50 lawyers to its roster, bringing its headcount to roughly 340 fee earners and 300 support staff. 

Global law firm White & Case LLP has set out the plans for its new solicitor apprenticeship offering, with the first cohort joining the firm next year to receive a salary of £32,000. 

Magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is offering university students the chance to attend a two-day international workshop on 4 April and 5 April 2011.

As reported on Legal Futures, a Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) review into the continuing professional development (CPD) of solicitors is considering whether ethics training should become compulsory.

The government should not abandon access to physical courts in its drive to digitise the justice system because of the impact it would have on the poorest in society, leading judges and academics have warned.

Legal sector charity InterLaw Diversity Forum is inviting everyone who works within the legal sector to contribute to its 2023 Career Progression Report with the launch of its new survey designed to uncover workplace culture in the profession. 

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has launched a campaign to give the public an opportunity to say what kinds of action should be taken against solicitors whose conduct breaks the rules on professional standards.

New trainees at DLA Piper are being offered £10,000 to delay starting work until August 2021. Staggered start dates have been implemented at the international firm, which recruits around 70 graduates each year – one of the City’s biggest intakes, according to the Law Gazette.

Global disability network The Valuable 500 has reached its target to get 500 global businesses to add disability inclusion to their business leadership agenda, including several law firms.

CMS has launched a two-year non-law graduate training programme called the Business Development & Marketing Graduate Programme, which will take on four candidates at the firm’s London office.

The College of Law has announced 100 new awards of up to £3,000 toward course fees for students with top academic credentials.

Baroness Hale, deputy president of the Supreme Court, has warned that the growing disconnect between the opportunities to study law and the number of legal jobs available makes it "very hard" for her to encourage young people to seek a legal career.

A gay couple that was refused a double room in a hotel in Cornwall has been awarded compensation by a Bristol county court judge in a discrimination claim under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.

Who’s missed our virtual Bootcamp events with The University of Law? Well, they’re back!

The Alternative Business Structure model has facilitated two more firsts for the profession with the granting of ABS licences by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to long-standing advocates of the new ownership approach, Knights Solicitors and Quindell Portfolio.