The Bar Standards Board has published a report on how to improve race equality at the Bar. The report was based on an event the BSB held last month, entitled “Heads Above the Parapet: How can we improve Race Equality at the Bar?”

With the deadline for first round Bar Professional Training Course applications looming on Thursday 12 January, the Bar Standards Board has published its annual standards-monitoring reports on every UK institution providing the course.

While diversity is improving and the barristers’ profession is becoming more transparent about diversity data, it still falls short of representing the demographic of the society it serves, the Bar Standards Board’s (BSB) report on Diversity at the Bar 2020 shows.

In a sweep of BPTC related news, the Bar Standards Board has published statistics about students and providers of the BPTC, revealed changes to the centralised BPTC exams and deferred the Bar Course Aptitude Test until at least March 2016. 

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) will scrap the Bar course aptitude test (BCAT) despite opposition from the Bar Council.

The Bar Standards Board has questioned the appropriateness of allowing wannabe barristers more than a single attempt at passing the soon-to-be-implemented Bar course aptitude test.

The Bar Standards Board will host a debate on the different options for training and qualifying as a barrister set out in its Future Bar Training Consultation. 

The Bar Standards Board is set to look at whether there are “unjustified and discriminatory barriers to pupillage” at the advertising and recruitment stage.

The Bar Standards Board is set to introduce an aptitude test which wannabe barristers must pass to gain admission to the BPTC.

Despite pressure from students, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) will not reinstate spring Bar Professional Training Course exams. The regulator said it would be impossible to create a “suitable, secure alternative” to in-person assessments by April.

BT has announced the launch of BT Law after becoming the latest famous brand to be granted an alternative business structure licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A new strategic partnership unveiled between BT and DWF could see in-house lawyers at the telecoms giant move across to work for DWF, a first for the international firm that recently floated on the stock market.

BT has declared an intention to enter the legal market, via its subsidiary BT Claims, which has applied to the SRA for an alternative business structure licence.

Another week, another bumper crop of commercial news to consider. If your ultimate plan is to succeed as a legal professional, an interest in the business world – and the world generally – is a must. As everyone digests the news that the Bank of England is again leaving interest rates where they are (with the Guardian reporting that some analysts have called Mark Carney an “unreliable boyfriend” due to his habit of changing his mind), here is a selection of other stories for your edification.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has contradicted suggestions from the top levels of the government that judges are politically biased and not truly independent.

Has the 2017 Budget actually made any big changes?

What does the 2014 Budget Report mean for businesses?

Why is climate change a hot issue for property owners?