On Saturday 25 February the first CityLawLIVE student conference was held in London, bringing together around 160 students keen on a career in the City with firm representatives and industry experts.

You may find yourself being quizzed on your knowledge of economic affairs in vac scheme interviews, so it pays to be prepared. Here’s a selection from the past week to get you started.

The Law Society has announced the awards on offer as part of its Diversity Access Scheme, which this year includes two guaranteed training contracts.

Magic circle law firm Allen & Overy expanded its offering with a new Los Angeles office earlier this month, after merger talks with international firm O’Melveny & Myers came to an end in September 2019 without a deal.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has finalised its most recent set of reforms, which is designed to provide solicitors and firms with a flexible approach to how they operate and provide their services to the public.

Solicitors in England and Wales celebrate Ramadan, wishing Muslim employees well as they balance fasting with working.

Visualisation software StructureFlow, a tech start-up created by previous magic circle lawyer Tim Follet, has received a £3 million investment boost.

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. 

The introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam in 2021 could enable four times as many graduates to become solicitors than currently qualify every year, according to Mark Edwards of online legal advice provider Rocket Lawyer.

The four-day weekend looms and while it’s hard to imagine doing anything much other than gorging on chocolate and hot cross buns, it’s also an opportunity to catch up on some light reading. 

The annual celebration of pro bono achievement went ahead in a ceremony on 5 December, organised by LawWorks, hosted by Allen & Overy, and sponsored by the Law Society and LexisNexis.