Magic circle firm Clifford Chance is cutting its training contract numbers by 20.

Watson Farley & Williams has asked its September 2013 trainee intake to consider deferring their training contracts for a year, sweetening the deal with an offer of £5,000 for those who decide to do so.

The proposed merger between Dundas & Wilson and CMS Cameron McKenna has caused upheaval at the Scottish firm, with a number of key partners leaving in advance of the change.

Legal Week reports that both Linklaters and Allen & Overy have announced a freeze on associate pay bands for the 2011-12 financial year.

Addleshaw Goddard has hired 10 new legal apprentices this month.

Nabarro has released its spring retention results and announced that all eight trainees will continue at the firm as newly-qualified solicitors.

The number of applications for Queen's Counsel status submitted by female barristers has dropped by a third this year.

While Gray’s Inn is the smallest of the four Inns, it still offers more than £1.5 million in scholarships, awards and prizes each year.

Freshfields and Slaughter and May have published their pay gap reports for the year, joining fellow magic circle firm Clifford Chance, which released its pay gap information last week.

Probably the Inn with the most accessible information, in 2026 the Inner Temple will have more than £1.8 million available in scholarships, the vast majority of this set aside for those on the Bar course.

Ogier, the offshore firm with offices on Jersey and Guernsey, is piloting a scheme which places potential trainees in paralegal roles before offering them training contracts.

Leeds-based firm Walker Morris has announced it will award travel bursaries of £1,000 to three of its future trainees as part of a wider support programme.

The Inns of Court Pupillage Matched Funding Scheme will create 30 pupillages for aspiring barristers, with 15 pupils due to start in both 2014 and 2015.

One year after launching its Wellbeing at the Bar online resource, the Bar Council is introducing a certification system for chambers, inns of court and other organisations which adopt mental health and wellbeing policies. 

The Legal Education and Training Review, launched in February 2011, has issued its first discussion paper.

There's cause to celebrate for the majority of SNR Denton's Spring 2011 qualifying trainees, as the firm reveals that it has positions for 11 out of the 14-strong intake.

In July 2010, the National Pro Bono Centre (NPBC), a central ‘hub’ that was based in Chancery Lane, was created to bring together the legal profession’s pro-bono work, helping individuals and community groups within England and Wales.

The Bar Council has come out in support of a new barrister training programme involving a two-part Bar Professional Course run by the Inns of Court, which should be cheaper for aspiring barristers. 

David Edmonds, chair of the Legal Services Board, has confirmed that the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has satisfied the criteria to become an approved regulator of alternative business structures.

A motion has been passed at the Liberal Democrats conference expressing “regret” at the party’s role in making swingeing cuts to the legal aid budget during the 2010-15 coalition government.