The Law Society of Ontario has approved the implementation of a new Indigenous cultural training course for licensees. The course is intended to enhance competence for licensees who may represent Indigenous clients or deal with Indigenous legal issues across a wide range of practice areas, including corporate and commercial matters, estates, civil litigation, administrative and…
LexisNexis report highlights the mentorship gap in the age of AI
LexisNexis has published a report on what it describes as the mentorship gap created by the increasing use of AI in legal work. Drawing on a January 2026 survey of 873 UK-based legal professionals, the report identifies clear productivity gains from legal AI, while also raising concerns about how junior lawyers develop judgment, argumentation and…
International Bar Association report identifies barriers to women’s leadership in law
The International Bar Association has published a new global report drawing on survey responses from 5,000 women working in the legal profession across 100 jurisdictions. It identifies persistent structural barriers to senior leadership, as well as widespread burnout and continuing gender inequality, notwithstanding growing attention to diversity and inclusion within the profession. The report points…
Four-year review of the SQE highlights early impacts on entry to the profession
The Solicitors Regulation Authority of England and Wales has published a four-year review of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, providing a substantial dataset on candidate demographics, pass rates, and performance trends since the SQE replaced traditional qualification routes. The review reports changes in the profile of SQE candidates, including higher representation from some minority ethnic backgrounds…
Bar Council of India allows final-year students to take bar exam
The Bar Council of India has amended its rules so that final‑semester LLB students can take the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) and the exam will be held twice a year. In January 2026 the BCI told the Supreme Court it had “framed rules enabling final-year law students to take the AIBE” and that the…
Nigerian Bar Association responds to debate over proposed Legal Practitioners Bill
On 18 January 2026, discussions around the Federal Government’s proposed Legal Practitioners Bill gained momentum within Nigeria’s legal community following its transmission to the National Assembly. The bill, which seeks to repeal the long-standing Legal Practitioners Act, proposes a comprehensive overhaul of the regulatory framework governing legal practice in Nigeria. Key elements of the proposed…
United States Supreme Court in Florida moves to limit American Bar Association role in law school oversight
The Florida Supreme Court’s 5-1 ruling on 15 January 2026 removed the ABA as the sole accrediting agency for law schools whose graduates can sit for Florida’s bar. The order allows the court to consider other federally recognized accrediting bodies (none of which currently accredit law schools) in future. The Court said the change aims…
Ireland’s Legal Services Regulatory Authority publishes annual pathways report on admissions to legal professions 2024
The Legal Services Regulatory Authority of Ireland (LSRA) has published its Pathways to the Professions 2024 report in July 2025, detailing admissions to the solicitor and barrister professions and trends in training and practice. The report shows a slight decline in new entrants but continued growth in overall numbers, with 12,175 practising solicitors and 3,071…
Germany sees another decline in the number of concluded lawyer, legal assistant and notary assistant training contracts
In 2023, the number of newly concluded contracts for legal training or legal and notary assistant positions decreased, according to statistics published by BRAK. These figures, based on feedback from bar associations to the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB), account for contracts finalised between October 1st of the previous year and September 30th 2023….
American Bar Association Consultation on removing standardised entry requirements for law schools closes
The comment period for a proposal to do away with the American Bar Association’s standardized admissions test requirement for law schools closed Sept. 1 with more than 100 comments posted, laying bare the divisiveness of the issue. The topic appears to have garnered the most feedback of any issue posted to the ABA website’s Notice and Comment section since…