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A Magic Circle law firm has increased its starting salary for junior solicitors to £100,000. Solicitors qualifying at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer this year will benefit from the £15,000 increase over last year's figure.

A former Uber driver was an employee of the taxi company rather than an independent contractor, a Swiss court has ruled for the first time. Lawyer Remy Wyler told AFP that the ruling from Lausanne Labour Court was the first of its kind in Switzerland.

The Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi has been cleared of sexual harassment allegations after an inquiry ruled there was no substance to the accusations – as it withheld its report. Mr Gogoi previously claimed the accusations were "false" and intended to "destabilise the judiciary".

Magic mushrooms would be effectively decriminalised under proposals to be put to a local referendum. Citizens of Denver in the US state of Colorado will be asked to vote on a measure banning officials from "spending resources to impose criminal penalties" for the use or possession of the psychedelic

A Polish national convicted of a series of offences and accused of other crimes in his home country who claimed that extradition to Poland would breach his human rights has had his legal challenge dismissed in a test case. Patryk Maciejec, 27, argued that new laws and procedures brought in by t

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is likely to be investigated over alleged failures as part of an inquiry into historical child abuse, The Sunday Times reports. The Crown Office said it anticipates being part of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry's (SCAI) investigation.

Two solicitor advocates with Brodies have been appointed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), to its panel of counsel in Scotland. The EHRC in Scotland works to eliminate discrimination, reduce inequality, protect and promote human rights, build good relations between people and

More than £1 million has been clawed back from fraudsters selling puppies on the black market in Scotland. A taskforce established by HMRC in 2015 to tackle the problem found people selling the dogs on a mass scale for large, undeclared profits.

Pinsent Masons has announced that four Scottish lawyers will be promoted to legal directors. Glasgow-based Susannah Donaldson, Elaine MacGregor and Katherine Metcalfe and Edinburgh colleague Pamela Gilmour make the step up from senior associate level.

Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP has announced growth in Inverness with seven new recruits and an office expansion. Broadening the law firm’s service offering, the raft of new hires sees staff numbers hike from 18 to 25 while the premises have been extended to almost 3,000sqft.

One of Scotland’s leading legal experts on medical negligence has retired after more than 45 years. Fred Tyler, who spent his entire 45-year career with Balfour+Manson in Edinburgh, won a landmark ruling at the UK Supreme Court in 2015 for Nadine Montgomery.

In the recent case of Jacqueline Shuttleton v Procurator Fiscal, Glasgow, the High Court of Justiciary clarified the its earlier dicta in Gubinas and Radavicius v HM Advocate in respect of the status of CCTV footage in criminal trials, writes David Cairns. The appellant was convicted of careless dri

From Belfast, from Dublin and from London – barristers and judges are heading to Edinburgh as the Faculty of Advocates hosts one of the most eagerly-awaited events in the legal calendar. The Four Jurisdictions Conference is held annually in one of the participating countries, and this year it

DWF Group plc has acquired a Polish legal services business for £3 million. Lawyers formerly employed by K&L Gates Jamka will now be running a DWF office in Warsaw with 11 partners as well as 45 lawyers and 31 support staff in a deal expected to complete this month.

A retired pastor has called on European countries to pardon tens of thousands of people who were convicted of witchcraft and executed from the 1400s to the 1700s. Hartmut Hegeler, 73, is a long-time campaigner for the rehabilitation of witches in Germans and has inspired towns like Cologne, Leipzig