The Co-operative Group has pulled out of a £750 million deal to buy 632 high street branches from the Lloyds Banking Group.

With people in the Midlands and the North of England in “dire need of early legal advice”, the Bar Council has called for the government to invest in local court systems ahead of today’s spending review.

Last week the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced that 20 Nightingale courtrooms, across nine venues, will remain open this year to tackle the huge number of outstanding cases. 

The number of practising solicitors in England and Wales has grown in the last year while the number of registered training contracts has fallen slightly, the Law Society’s annual statistics report has revealed.

Autumn tends to bring with it a renewed sense of vigour and the chance for a fresh start – make one of your autumn resolutions a commitment to honing your commercial awareness skills in a bid to impress future employers. Where to start? Look no further than this selection from the past week.

The use of video-link technology as a replacement for face-to-face hearings is not yet “sufficiently advanced” enough to be effective, says Jo Hynes, a PhD researcher at Exeter University.

Addleshaw Goddard, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Hogan Lovells have made it into the Times' Top 50 Employers for Women list.

MPs have sharply criticised the government’s courts modernisation programme because it “risks excluding the most vulnerable in our society from access to justice,” and called for a halt in the process of court closures.

Legal aid firms are being urged to claim a potential £100 million in unbilled fees as they try to weather the effects of the coronavirus crisis, a minister reported in early May.

The annual Law Society Diversity Access Scheme (DAS) has reopened its system and is accepting applications until 6 April 2016.

Much like last week’s round-up, there is only thing on the business pages and that is the effect that the referendum result is having on the pound, markets, deals, consumer spending and so much more. 

Quotas are needed to address the overwhelming and continuing male dominance of legal, political, media and arts roles, the Fawcett Society has said.

Legal apprenticeship specialist Damar Training and legal education provider BARBRI have announced a new technology partnership that embeds BARBRI’s learning technology into Damar’s solicitor apprenticeship programmes.  

A panel of 18 firms and chambers has been set up to provide free legal advice to athletes, coaches, team officials, national Olympic committees, national Paralympic committees and international federations at the 2012 Olympics.

The backlog of crown court cases in England and Wales has hit a record high of 60,000 cases, with one-fifth of cases taking more than a year to be heard.  

Trigger warning: rape

The LawWorks Annual Pro Bono Awards has once again recognised the outstanding contributions made by the firms and individuals who give their time and expertise for free to help others who cannot afford to pay for legal services.

A long-running pilot scheme trialling a new way for students to qualify as solicitors has come to a close at Nottingham Law School.

Dentons has cut emissions by 44% through a new pilot scheme, which sees lawyers work from home, digital dashboards and a ban on printing.

Outstanding contributions to pro bono work by firms and individuals across the legal profession were celebrated at the LawWorks Annual Pro Bono Awards 2017 earlier in December.