The coronavirus pandemic has delayed plans to change legal education and training in 2021 with the introduction of the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). Here is everything we know about the new exams, from the syllabus, to the format of the exams themselves, to the cost for candidates, to what law firms, universities and law schools are doing.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) has enrolled nine scholarship winners onto the CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ) – a new approach to on-the-job training which CILEX launched in 2021. 

Was the ECJ correct in its decision to prevent insurers from charging different premiums on the basis of gender?

White & Case LLP recently published a 100% retention rate for its trainees who are due to qualify in September, bringing the firm’s overall retention rate for 2024 to 87%.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has stepped tentatively into the debate around legal aid to highlight concern about the number of people now facing their legal problems without advice or support.

Dana Denis-Smith, founder of the First 100 Years and Next 100 Years, will become the eighth woman to take on the role of president of the Law Society of England and Wales. 

The Bar Council recently ran a week of events for sixth form students, designed to promote better access to the profession.

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Six lawyers have been promoted to international firm Simmons & Simmons’ global partnership this year, in what is the firm’s smallest promotion round since the 2008 financial crash.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has called for itself to be made fully independent from the Law Society as part of the governance review being carried out by the legal profession’s super-regulator, the Legal Services Board.  

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has been criticised for its response to the collapse of Axiom Ince in 2023, which led to the loss of 1,400 jobs.

As well as this week’s news round-up, you can also watch our latest webinar (live or via our YouTube), which will provide insight from a law firm partner at Squire Patton Boggs, a future Travers Smith trainee solicitor and a graduate recruitment officer from Baker McKenzie. For now, here’s the latest commercial news update from LCN.

The University of Law will launch a two-year specialist undergraduate law degree in international legal practice in 2014, the first of this kind of accelerated LLB in the United Kingdom.