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Calls from legal professionals about anxiety more than doubled in 2020, the chief executive of welfare charity LawCare has said – a third of all contacts related to Covid.

Trainee specialist Accutrainee has launched a scholarship programme for Black law graduates to help provide the work experience they need to become solicitors and pay for the SQE.

The average number of legal jobs posted every month in 2020 was 60% down on the previous year, while applications increased by 53% for each one, a recruitment website has reported.

An judge has refused a second application from a law firm to reconsider his decision to award a property solicitor damages of £13,200 for age discrimination when he applied for a job with it.

A law firm dismissed a paralegal because he was close to his supervisor, with whom it was in dispute, rather than due to the allegations levied against him, an employment tribunal has ruled.

A distributed firm which trebled the number of its self-employed consultants last year has launched an internship programme for postgraduate commercial law students from a London university.

A solicitor who “fobbed off” three members of staff who repeatedly requested employment contracts has been ordered to pay nearly £10,000 for constructive dismissal.

The head of the first ‘teaching law firm’, Nottingham Law School’s Legal Advice Centre, has said it is “busier than ever” helping clients, many of whose problems are related to the pandemic.

A law firm was entitled to exercise its contractual right to recoup from a solicitor the cost of recruiting her after she left within a year, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Pro bono work has become a “mainstream part of legal education” and a significant number of law schools plan to integrate it with the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, a major study has found.

One of the leading figures in legal education has hailed the introduction next year of the SQE as a “revolution”, with another saying it will break down the barriers between academia and the profession.

Actions to improve race inclusion in the solicitors’ profession are not delivering change quickly enough, Law Society research has found, highlighting a significant ethnicity pay gap and the need for targets.

Homeworking has led to many solicitors at small firms experiencing feelings of isolation and lack of motivation – but also most want it to continue in some form post-Covid, a survey has found.

QLTS School has become only the second training provider to announce how much it will charge students to prepare for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination from next year.

Leading black women lawyers have spoken about the challenges of succeeding in City law firms, including the problem of acquiring ‘gravitas’, and the fear of being seen as an ‘angry Black woman’.