Crazy working hours, lockdown blues, uni rankings, NFTs — and of course the usual dose of lawyers behaving badly
It’s been another eventful year for the legal profession.
The Solicitors Qualifying Exam finally came into force after years in the works, and spelling the beginning of the end for the Legal Practice Course, while City lawyers saw their hours — and salaries — skyrocket due to a spike in work as result of the pandemic.
It’s also a year that saw a magic circle partner part ways with his firm after a spot of office canoodling surfaced online, a former solicitor hit headlines thanks to his involvement in that parish meeting, and Mumsnet users discussed the trials and tribulations of being married to a lawyer.
But which headlines got Legal Cheek readers clicking? Here are our 15 most-read stories this year…
15. A&O partner resigns after footage of office canoodling surfaces online
14. Magic circle vs US MoneyLaw: An associate’s perspective
13. What the non-fungible token craze means for IP law
12. Jo Maugham QC claims Allen & Overy blacklisted him and his chambers
11. The Bridgerton cast as the people you meet at law school
10. Lockdown issues trigger rise in calls to lawyer wellbeing helpline
9. UCL beats Harvard in top 10 world rankings for law
8. Trainee solicitor dismissed a month after revealing pregnancy loses employment case
7. ‘I wouldn’t wish this half-life on anyone’: Mumsnet discusses life married to a lawyer
6. UCL law student joins cast of Made in Chelsea
5. ULaw LPC students given exam on a topic they hadn’t covered
4. Revealed: Law firms’ average start work and finish times 2021-22
3. Exclusive: Freshfields trainee jokes to fellow rookies ‘the poor are nothing’
2. Councillor in chaotic parish meeting is a lawyer
1. Revealed: The extreme working hours of big-paying US law firms in London
