TOGETHER WITH

Table of Contents

• EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

• FEATURED REPORT 📰

• TOGETHER WITH GOWLING WLG* 🤝

• IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• AROUND THE WEB 🌐

• STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

Have you heard of “Bradstone Allington”?

Honestly, I hope you haven’t (I read about them in this article by RollOnFriday).

They‘re charging aspiring lawyers £1,995 for ‘paralegal training’.

In short, it seems like a scam to take advantage of aspiring lawyers who are trying anything to get their foot in the door.

Breaking into law is tough — trust me, I know. It took me four years and around 60 rejections before I finally secured my first vacation scheme.

The process can be demoralising, and it’s easy to feel desperate for anything to help you get an edge. But it's that very desperation that some companies prey on, offering overpriced 'training' or placements.

I don’t want people to be taken advantage of because they’re doing what they can to secure their dream career.

With LittleLaw, my aim is for you to start your legal career with confidence and transparency. Because, you deserve real support — not traps disguised as help.

Stay safe and stay cynical!

- Idin 

P.S. My friend Emma is running an event later today about legal opportunities up North and in the Midlands — check it out if you’re interested!

FEATURED REPORT 📰

💰 Your cheat sheet for discussing the Budget

What's going on here?

Labour’s Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, presented the UK’s Budget today. The Chancellor (short for Chancellor of the Exchequer) is the government minister responsible for managing public finances.

We’ll go over the main changes that impact companies — this way, you can talk about the Budget in your applications with confidence. 😎 

What is the Budget?

The Budget is a yearly statement which outlines the government’s plans for things like taxes and public spending for the coming year.

What’s the impact on businesses?

Employer National Insurance Contributions have gone up

What is it? These are payments that businesses make to the government based on their employees' salaries. It’s a kind of tax on having employees, and it helps fund public services like healthcare.

What’s changed? The budget increased Employer National Insurance Contributions from 13.8% to 15%, meaning businesses now pay a bit more tax for each employee they have. This change is expected to raise £25 billion for public services. Also, the threshold for paying this has been lowered from £9,100 to £5,000 meaning businesses now pay National Insurance on more of each employee's earnings.

What’s the impact? The increased contributions will especially impact companies with big workforces, adding more costs as they pay more on a larger portion of employee salaries. To handle this, businesses might rethink their pay structures, cut back on hiring, or consider layoffs and outsourcing to keep costs in check.

Capital Gains Tax has gone up

What is it? Capital Gains Tax is a tax on the profit made when you sell assets like property, stocks, or business assets that have increased in value. You pay Capital Gains Tax on the gain, not the total sale amount.

What’s changed? The budget raised Capital Gains Tax rates, with the lower rate increasing from 10% to 18% and the higher rate from 20% to 24%. This means companies and investors now pay more tax on profits from selling valuable assets.

What’s the impact? The higher Capital Gains Tax means companies with lots of assets, like real estate or shares, will pay more when they’re selling them. This might make some businesses hold onto assets longer, rethink buying or selling plans, or look for tax-friendly ways to manage their holdings—potentially slowing down how often they sell or reinvest in assets.

Minimum wage has gone up

What is it? Minimum wage is the lowest legal hourly pay that workers can receive for their work. It’s set to ensure employees earn a basic standard income.

What’s changed? The Budget raised the national living wage from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour over 21s — this means a full-time worker will earn about £1,400 more a year.

What’s the impact? The wage increase is popular with the public (because who doesn’t want more money). But businesses say it could make hiring tougher as staff costs are higher now (especially for companies with many low-wage roles). Some businesses may slow down hiring or raise prices to cover the added expense.

Private equity managers are hit with a higher tax

What is it? Private equity firms are subject to Capital Gains Tax on carried interest — this is a tax applied to profits their managers earn from their investments.

We wrote about this change here (if you’re interested in private equity, you should read it).

What’s changed? Tax paid by private equity managers on share of profits from successful deals to rise from up to 28% to up to 32% from April.

What’s the impact? This means private equity firms and their executives will pay more tax on their profits, which could slightly reduce the appeal of UK-based investments. Some firms had even threatened to leave the UK if this change took place. However, since it’s a smaller increase than expected, it might result in less of a reaction than expected.

Corporation tax remained unchanged

Corporation Tax is a tax companies pay on their profits — in the Budget, there wasn’t a change to the Corporation Tax rate itself.

So, is the Budget a success?

This Budget's all about raising taxes to boost spending on vital services like the NHS and schools — Labour hopes this will rebuild the economy.

But reactions are mixed — businesses are mostly concerned about higher costs from all the taxes.

This could hurt their hiring and growth, which could lead to lower employment levels and productivity.

As it always is with these things, time will tell if the approach actually delivers on the promised improvements.

TOGETHER WITH GOWLING WLG* 🤝

How a sector-focused law firm really works

That’s exactly what Gowling WLG (a global, sector-focused law firm) will give you in their upcoming events.

Their lawyers will be talking about:

• 💼 Private Equity

• 🛫 Automotive and Aviation industry

• 📢 Brands & Advertising (this one’s in just a couple hours – there’s still time to sign up).

There’s even a Q&A session with their Early Talent team about the application process.

If you’re interested, make sure you sign up.

* This is sponsored content

IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• 🚨 The SRA is being investigated for its handling of Axiom Ince's collapse, for failing to act "adequately, effectively, and efficiently." This is the first time an enforcement action like this is taking place against the regulator — the independent report urges the SRA to improve its procedures. Axiom Ince went under in 2023 after £64 million went missing (we wrote about it here). While the SRA's chief admits they don’t fully agree with the report, they’re committed to working with the LSB to prevent this from happening again.

• 🤖 Travers Smith has launched an AI Academy to train its entire team on using AI. The programme features live sessions and on-demand resources, aims to keep staff up-to-date with AI. The firm’s aiming to build on its past tech innovations like YCNBot (a chatbot used for high-volume tasks) and Etatonna (an AI-powered labelling platform which labels contracts to help with things like document review).

• 🏉 A law firm has added 50 more head injury claims to its growing legal action on behalf of retired rugby players. Representing 850 former players, Rylands Garth argues the sports governing bodies failed to protect athletes from brain injuries caused by repeated concussions. The SRA is now investigating these allegations. The next hearing for the rugby claims is scheduled for February.

• 🥤 Applied Nutrition, the supplement company, is set to go public on the London Stock Exchange this week. They’re floating with a market cap of £350 million. The UK-based brand is being advised by Addleshaw Goddard, while Pinsent Masons is advising Deutsche Numis, the bookrunner (they manage the IPO, handling investor outreach and securing the funds).

  

AROUND THE WEB 🌐

• 🧠 Intellectual property: There’s an ongoing trademark dispute between Iceland (the country) and Iceland (the supermarket). Check out this LinkedIn post from the supermarket’s Chairman.

• 🇬🇧 Britain: Could pie ‘n’ mash have special protected status?

• 🕹️ Infinite money: JPMorgan is suing customers who gamed a glitch in their ATMs to withdraw infinite money after it blew up on TikTok (some owe up to £250,000)

Credit: r/internetisbeautiful

STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

• 📹️ Free application help: If you're applying to commercial law firms, check out my YouTube channel for actionable tips and an insight into the lifestyle of a commercial lawyer in London.