News

International legal strategy research company RSG Consulting is conducting a research project called 21st Century Lawyers.

There could soon be an interesting new option for law graduates who complete their studies without training contracts following plans to extend the Erasmus programme to include masters degree programmes.

Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger has suggested that the Alternative Business Structures (ABS) made possible by the Legal Services Act (LSA) could force solicitors to change their charging model.

As Dewey & LeBoeuf teeters on the brink of collapse, the firm is being described as the legal profession's Lehman Brothers. Certainly, the images of Dewey's lawyers exiting the firm with their belongings in cardboard boxes recalls the scenes at the stricken investment bank in late 2008.

Legal Practice Course (LPC) students can now register using the SRA's online enrolment system, which opened on 16 April 2012 and will be available until 1 September 2012 inclusive at www.sra.org.uk/enrol.

Applicants missing the deadline will have to use a paper-based method.

Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) chair Hekim Hannan fears that students from less wealthy backgrounds wouldn't be able to afford to become solicitors if the minimum trainee salary was scrapped. Many of his fellow JLD members agree.

An LPC graduate without a training contract wonders whether he made the right decision embarking on his legal training when he had no job lined up at the end of it.

70% of firms which currently do not offer training contracts would consider doing so if the minimum trainee salary was abolished, a Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) report has found. However, around half of trainees and students surveyed said they would be unable to train as a solicitor without the minimum salary.

The JLD is pleased to announce the launch of its essay competition 2012 for student and trainee members.

The Anglo-Dutch Exchange (ADE) is a biennial event for young lawyers from England, Wales and the Netherlands and is hosted by each jurisdiction every two years on an alternate basis. This year, the ADE will take place from 19-23 June in the Netherlands.