Commercial awareness is a vital skill for trainee solicitors. For candidates applying for vacation schemes and training contracts, becoming commercially aware involves building an understanding of how law firms and their clients work as businesses and how the wider world impacts them. This concise guide rounds up a range of key commercial stories and talking points from 2021.

A report by YouGov SixthSense has revealed that students studying in the United Kingdom had a collective debt of almost £20 billion in 2012-13, and are also spending more than their collective incomes.

The Windrush Legal Initiative, a pro bono advice scheme, has been relaunched in an effort to support more victims of the Windrush immigration scandal. 

The BLD Foundation (BLD) recently held a reception at the House of Commons to raise awareness of the need to increase diversity in, and access to, the legal profession.

Solicitors have recently reported a rise in legal battles over incapacity as dementia cases rise. Disputes centre around inheritance and “who should actually have control of someone who hasn’t got capacity”. 

BPP University Law School has partnered with the O Shaped Lawyer to introduce O-shaped attributes into the education provider’s Solicitors Qualifying Exam preparation courses. 

The Law Society of England and Wales has confirmed that a regional solicitor admission ceremony will take place in Leeds on Monday 11 September 2023. 

New statistics revealed in The Solicitors’ Charity Big Report highlighted that in 2022 the charity helped 50% more new clients.  

The proportion of women and BAME people who make up the solicitors’ profession has increased in the last decade, the latest annual statistics report from the Law Society shows.

For the past 18 months, members of the Crown Prosecution Service, police chiefs, lawyers, the Ministry of Justice, and the HM Prison and Probation Service formed a working party to update guidelines for judges in what’s been labelled a “change in culture”. The guidelines were rolled out from 16 January.  

What’s to be done when you feel that your commercial awareness is lacking? Here’s an idea: try absorbing what our Feature has to say on maximising your chances at interview by honing your commercial awareness skills well in advance – and that means now. In addition, check out the following key business/economic stories from the past week.

Mental health charity LawCare’s recent report revealed a 35% increase in people reaching out for support in 2024. 

Formidable new powers to enforce equality legislation are needed to prevent Britain returning to the rigid class inequalities of the 1930s, David Isaac, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said. 

A woman who alleges that she was raped and sexually assaulted by her ex-husband has been left alone in court without legal representation or support to face her alleged abuser, in another distressing example of the crisis in the justice system caused by cuts to legal aid funding.  

Legal education provider The University of Law (ULaw) has appointed Patrick Johnson as its director of equality, diversity and inclusion as part of efforts to remove existing barriers and create an environment “where everyone, from any background, can succeed”.

Demonstrate that you take being green seriously by getting your hands on a copy of this year’s verdant edition of The Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook, enrobed in this year’s most on-trend colour.

Some 12 City firms have been named among this year’s top 100 LGBT-friendly employers by leading equality charity Stonewall. 

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.

Law centres have been granted permission to challenge the Ministry of Justice in the High Court over changes to housing possession court duty schemes, which provide on-the-day advice and advocacy services to people facing eviction.