Together with graduate diversity consultancy, Rare, Allen & Overy are targeting graduates from ethnic minority groups for their winter and summer holiday schemes, open days and training contracts.

The firm sees it as a priority to recruit a diverse staff to serve their clientele.

Caroline Lindner, graduate recruitment manager at Allen & Overy said: “Attracting the best and most diverse candidates is a business imperative for Allen & Overy. We are a global business, which relies on recruiting the most exceptional people from the broadest range of backgrounds, cultures and nationalities to best serve our clients.”

Both in terms of the number of lawyers they employ and their revenue, Allen & Overy are one of the largest law firms in the world. With 39 offices in 26 countries, they employ in the vicinity of 5,000 members of staff.

The firm has teamed up with Rare because of their reputation for placing high quality graduates from diverse backgrounds in the world’s top firms.

Linder said: “By working with Rare, we are showing our commitment to getting those people from the broadest pool of candidates possible.”

Image by Brian Turner.

A new commitment to fighting for fair access to better quality legal industry work experience for people from less privileged backgrounds has been agreed by law firms in the UK.

Clifford Chance, Eversheds, Herbert Smith, Blake Lapthorn and Linklaters are amongst the 23 leading UK law firms who have come together to launch the undertaking, which is supported by the Law Societies of England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland as well as The Sutton Trust.

The member firms have committed to provide an agreed number of work experience slots that meets the following set of standards, as stated on Clifford Chance’s website:

“Firms must provide a number of places that is not less than 50% of the number of training contracts offered each year. The target for the profession is to provide 2,500 places by 2015, although firms who have already signed up must achieve their own individual target by July 2013.

Minimum standards include at least 30-35 hours of work experience per place and a commitment to developing key business and personal skills in areas such as oral and written presentation, networking and negotiation. Firms must offer a way to maintain contact after work experience has ended as well as provide financial assistance during the programme.”

The agreement under PRIME also commits to providing work experience which will highlight career opportunities for lawyers and non-lawyers. The firms should also help communicate the potential routes into the law careers for young candidates.

Laura King, Global People Partner at Clifford Chance, said: "We feel strongly that background should not determine eligibility for a career in the legal industry, and believe that the Prime initiative is an important step towards addressing issues of access to the profession."

To find out more about the initiative you can visit the PRIME website.

CMS Cameron McKenna have taken aboard Chris Watson as head of their telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sector group.

Watson will oversee 100 lawyers in the group, including 40 partners across the firm. Two of the key clients they work with are Royal Mail and BT.

Watson spoke to Legal Week, saying, "The main thing for me to focus on at the moment is ensuring that all three parts of TMT are functioning across all the teams in all of our offices. It is important to realise how interdependent they are and we want to make sure that this is reflected in our practice across Europe."

For vacancies in media related law jobs, browse media legal jobs on Simply Law Jobs.

Matrix Chambers and Atkins Thomson Solicitors are to represent another senior British politician who is bringing a claim against News International in the ongoing phone-hacking saga. Mark Thomson, Atkins, and Hugh Tomlinson QC, Matrix Chambers', are representing deputy Liberal Democrat leader Simon Hughes. Hughes appeared in the High Court on the 9th of August, when he brought the case against News Group Newspapers and former News of the World private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. The two have both worked on cases related to the phone-hacking scandal, including advising Sienna Miller on her claim against News of The World which won her £100,000 in compensation. Hughes is the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, claims that his voicemail had been hacked into by Mulcaire, for the News of the World.

The sale of Stormtrooper helmets from the Star Wars films has led to a Supreme Court battle between the Star Wars movie empire of George Lucas and a UK prop designer. The Twickenham prop designer, Andrew Ainsworth, got around the US copyright, which can be enforced in the UK, by selling the helmets as functional products rather than pieces of art. The court did rule that Ainsworth should not be allowed to sell his products in the US, however. Ainsworth has been selling the masks to US and UK buyers over the internet. Mayer Brown London litigation chief David Allen said, "In essence the Court held that it was the film which is the artistic work and not the helmet. It follows that full copyright protection for 3D articles in the UK will generally continue to be limited to the fine arts."

Places have been awarded to DWF, Pinset Masons and Foot Anstey in Halfords’ newly formed legal panel. The introduction of the legal panel comes off the back of a competitive tender process. For DWS, Leeds litigation partner James Haddleton will lead the relationship, which is a newly formed one for the firm. Paul Harkin of Pinset Masons has been working with Halfords since 2002, and Foot Anstey has a two year long working relationship with the cycling and car product retail outlet. The three teams will now act together to help guide Halfors’ processes and procedures. Halfords company secretary Alex Henderson said, "We are looking forward to working with our newly-appointed panel of firms - helping us to build on our commercial and legal achievements over the last year."

After failing to pay back debts, including almost £1 million owed to Barclays, Dawsons has gone into liquidation.

Earlier in the year the firm merged with Penningtons, taking on the new name of 2 New Square LLP. The aim was to work out a repayment strategy involving a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), but they failed to make a deal with those to whom they owed money.

Comment came from Martin Cod, a former managing partner from Dawsons, who said, "It was originally the intention of the Dawsons partners to use a CVA structure to wind up the activities of Dawsons LLP. Unfortunately, this has subsequently been found to be unworkable because of the stance taken by certain parties and the liquidation of the business was the only remaining option open to us.”

The firm plans on resolving the debt, and Codd said, "We will work closely and co-operatively with the liquidators to deliver the best result possible for the creditors."

A corporate governance review at ENCR (Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation) has caused the resignation of Randal Barker, the company secretary and general counsel. Barker had been with ENCR since 2008.

In the last few weeks the company has come under intense scrutiny. Labour MP Eric Joyce, speaking in the House of Commons, said it was a "shambles of corporate governance."

Prior to Barkers resignation, Sir Richard Sykes and Ken Olisa (two non-executive directors at ENCR) were ousted by a shareholder’s vote.

Contrary to some media reports, ENRC chairman Johannes Sittard has not stepped down. He has decided to wait for the outcome of the review. He will then make a decision about his future.

Barker was previously a senior associate at Lovells and a former European general counsel at General Electric.

The site, which is a market leader in the niche legal job site market has witnessed an impressive increase in traffic of late, making their market share increase to approx 26%.

This increase in market share comes as no surprise to Simplylawjobs, as the site has recently noticed a significance shift in the market place. It’s no longer only legal recruiters who are advertising on their site, but nowadays law firms are turning to them directly to fill their legal vacancies.

Howard Whitehead, Legal Account Manager for SimplyLawJobs stated ‘Law Firms are becoming more internet savvy and realising that it is where the "new age" candidates are looking for employment’.

Such short term success has caught the attention of reputable National and International firms like Sky, Tesco, RBOS, Santander and PriceWaterhouse Cooper who are currently advertising on the site.

As well as being a reputable platform for advertising law vacancies, the site expressed how employers have turned to them due to the increasing costs in recruitment agency fees.

With the UK’s economy in recovery, could it be that more and more legal recruiters are looking to fill positions online than ever before. This is something Simply Law Jobs can prove.

Three black taxis have been transformed into mobile "sound-off" booths equipped with iPads and iPhones so that Londoners can voice their opinions about the Government’s plans to cut Legal Aid, reports the Telegraph.

Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, has proposed civil legal aid should only be routinely available to those who face losing their life, liberty or home under the biggest shake-up of the system in its 50-year history.

Created by Sound Off For Justice to help raise awareness, propose alternative reforms and give Londoners a chance to have their say, the taxis will tour the capital for five days from Monday.

Each cab will be equipped with both an internet capable Apple 3G iPad and iPhone 4, so supporters can sign the campaign’s online petition or join its voicemail protest.

These voice messages will then be sent to Mr Clarke, asking him to rethink cuts that could leave millions of Britons without access to justice and a voice in court.

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