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Vocation, vocation, vocation

Universities this year saw a record drop of 5.2 per cent in applications to study law. Fees have risen at a time when interest in participating in apprenticeships has also increased – according to a recent report by the Office of National Statistics, 16.6 per cent more people took up apprenticeships in 2009/10 than in the previous year. Meanwhile in the legal market the advent of ABSs serves both to highlight the diversity of legal services offered and to change the models by which these are delivered. In doing so, will there still be a place for the law degree, or will the market be better served by on-the-job training?

Shaky ground

Introducing a new mandatory ground for possession is not an effective way of dealing with anti-social behaviour, say Emily Orme and Sarah Salmon

Sent to the dungeon

Both consumers and the profession are better off now that the Legal Ombudsman has begun to crack down on those who fail to cooperate with its requests, say Martin Varley and Steve Brooker

Experts and solicitors could be a lot clearer on costs than they would like to admit

Cases often have their own lives but that's no excuse not to have proper case management and realistic budgeting in place, says Mark Solon

Ganging up

Gang culture is more damaging now than ever before, but how can we tackle it? asks Felix

Doctor death

Anyone living in the south-coast town of Eastbourne in the late 1950s would be familiar with the name Dr John Bodkin Adams. His murder trial was (at the time) the longest in British legal history, but, instead of going to the gallows, remarkably, the overweight doctor was acquitted on 10 April 1957 and resumed medical practice in Eastbourne some four years later. But was he an angel of mercy or an unconvicted mass murderer who killed his patients decades before we heard the name Harold Shipman?

From Tesco law to John Lewis law

By Ian Jeffery, Managing Partner, Lewis Silkin

Staying the course

Increasingly innovative planning solutions are required ?to help high-net-worth individuals mitigate tax. ?Rhona MacKinnon negotiates the obstacles