International law firm Dechert LLP has introduced mental health ‘first aiders’ among its staff.

The College of Law is encouraging attendees to its series of open days promoting its new two-year LLB, due to start in September 2012 at the College’s London Bloomsbury, Birmingham and Chester centres.

The winners of the LawWorks Pro Bono Awards 2012 have been announced following a glamorous awards dinner held in June.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is set to recruit its first solicitor apprentices in September 2025, joining Linklaters LLP and Allen & Overy LLP as the third magic circle law firm to embrace this alternative route. 

Several law firms are rewarding their staff with extra pay or holiday as a ‘thank you’ for their efforts during the pandemic.

Lightsource Renewable Energy has recently been granted SRA accreditation to take on trainees, joining a small group of companies in the United Kingdom that offer in-house training contracts.

The best commercial lawyers have their fingers firmly on the pulse of the business world.

The Co-operative Group launched its family law operation on 20 September, further evidence of the crucial role this organisation is playing in the post -Legal Services Act world.

LawBite, the online legal service, has launched its second round of crowdfunding; the initial funding round in May 2013 saw investors raise £240,000 in just 10 days.

The ‘Tesco law’ revolution continues apace with the news that two more top 50 firms, Kennedys and Hill Dickinson, have confirmed plans to convert to alternative business structure status

Irwin Mitchell and The College of Law have joined forces with an agreement that will see members of the firm offered tailored training at all levels of their careers.

Almost constant disagreements between the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Law Society may mean there is a need for a change in the rules governing the two regulators’ relationship, the Legal Services Board has said in its latest consultation. 

The bodies representing solicitors, barristers and chartered legal executives have pledged to “achieve gender equality in the senior ranks” by getting firms and chambers to sign up to specific gender targets.

The National Accident Helpline has launched the Future Legal Mind Award 2016, an essay competition open to undergraduate law and Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) students. 

Lawyers at magic circle firm Linklaters LLP are now able to work from home without having to provide an explanation why. The changes to policy mean that trainees and junior lawyers will be able to request working from home, while previously the firm followed the statutory requirement of employees having to have been employed for 26 weeks before being eligible to make a request.

As lawyers become increasingly sucked into the phone-hacking scandal, law firm Harbottle & Lewis has been given permission to defend itself over Rupert Murdoch's claim that the firm made a "major mistake" in the legal advice it gave the corporation in 2007 in respect of an internal investigation into phone hacking.

Magic circle giant Clifford Chance is piloting a new flexible working scheme where some lawyers at the firm will be invited to apply for a two-month unpaid sabbatical.

International firms Herbert Smith Freehills and Hogan Lovells are moving to encourage more experienced women lawyers who are on extended career breaks to return to practice.

For the second year in a row, The College of Law and the International Bar Association are offering scholarships towards fees for the full-time LLM in International Legal Practice, which runs at CoL's Moorgate and Manchester centres.

The legal profession had its biggest turnout yet at the London Legal Walk earlier in May.