The successes of legal professionals and firms were recognised at the Law Society Excellence Awards, held earlier this month at the Park Plaza Hotel, Westminster.

Ropes & Gray’s newly-qualified solicitors will continue to earn a minimum of £130,000 this autumn, including the five trainees being retained who are qualifying in September 2020.

City law firm Macfarlanes was the first non-magic circle firm to increase its newly qualified (NQ) lawyer salary in line with the ongoing NQ pay war. 

Diversity organisation Aspiring Solicitors has opened team registrations for its national commercial awareness competition 2017-18. 

City firms have lined up in support of diversity organisation Rare’s new ‘Vantage’ scheme, an online recruitment tool designed to help candidates from less-privileged backgrounds break through the artificial barriers holding them back from careers in law.

In a pilot LGBT mentoring scheme being launched in April by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, 10 large law firms have signed up to offer free help and advice to small and medium-sized firms on how to become more inclusive employers.

More than 80% of lawyers consider flexible working to be more important than salaries when job hunting, according to a recent report. 

Law firms including Allen & Overy, Pinsent Masons and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner have increased the salaries for their newly qualified (NQ) lawyers in the UK in response to NQ salary surges in the US.

Simmons & Simmons has announced that it will donate £2 million to charities to support covid-19 relief efforts worldwide after a strong financial year.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has launched his 'Opening Doors' social mobility campaign together with James Caan, businessman and TV personality, and Peter Searle, chief executive of the recruitment company Adecco.

Top earners at Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP and Pinsent Masons LLP have had their remuneration increased to approximately £3.1 million.

Jones Day’s newly qualified (NQ) lawyers in London are set to receive a 27% pay rise, which will see their annual salaries reach £140,000. 

The Law Society - working in collaboration with law firms and charity LawWorks - has established a telephone helpline to provide free legal assistance to riot victims.

Statistics in a recently published annual report show that The College of Law’s Pathways to Law scheme has actively helped young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to gain places at leading universities.

London firms have reacted to the proposed Brexit deal with “cautious optimism” despite lawyers advising business to prepare for the worst, as reported in the Law Gazette.

The College of Law, in collaboration with the City Solicitors’ Educational Trust, hosted a forum to investigate the best ways of promoting social mobility in the legal sector on 28 September.

In the first year since its transatlantic merger, A&O Shearman reported global revenues of £2.9 billion and a pre-tax profit of £1.1 million.

The University of Law has been sold to Global University Systems by Montagu Private Equity, less than three years since it was first purchased.

Magic circle firm Slaughter and May has revealed that its trainees will be permitted to work from home one day a week, meaning 80% of their time will be spent in the office and 20% will be remote working.