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Manchester University has launched what is understood to be the first legal technology course for law degree students in England and Wales. The course will combine classroom study of different approaches to access to justice with building an app for use by legal non-profit organisations.

A law firm in London has launched what it believes is the first training scheme in psychologically based supervision to help family lawyers manage work-related stress. Its creator said: “I think it should be compulsory for all family lawyers, both for their wellbeing and the wellbeing of their clients.”

Training law students in emotional competency, and a change in culture, led from the top, in law firms and chambers are among the shifts needed to combat the growing problem of stress in the legal profession, according to a roundtable held in the run-up to Mental Health Awareness Week, which begins today.

International law firm Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) is facing a $100m (£73m) class action over claims that it discriminates against female staff when they return to work after childbirth. Three female associates currently employed at the firm alleged that MoFo subjected them and other female staff to lower pay and delayed advancement.

Two-fifths of junior lawyers have looked for another job as a result of the level of stress their current role is causing them, according to a survey out today. Over 82% of the 959 respondents reported either regularly or occasionally feeling stressed in the month before completing the survey, with 26% of them being severely or extremely stressed.

Failure to make criminal practice – whether for the prosecution or the defence – an attractive career choice will have “long term and detrimental consequences” for the quality of justice, the president of the Queen’s Bench Division has warned.

Small and medium-sized law firms will get free help and advice from some of the biggest firms in the country on how to become more inclusive employers under a pilot scheme launched this month by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A judge has dismissed a claim by a law firm paralegal that he was the victim of disability discrimination, finding he had “dishonestly” altered a document about his medical condition and that, in any case, he had not told his employer about his supposed post-traumatic stress disorder.

A London-based law firm has filed a claim for judicial review against the Law Society’s decision not to reaccredit a solicitor who had been on its mental health panel for nearly a decade. She said the decision meant she has had to stop working in an area about which she is “passionate”, and longstanding clients have had to find new representation.

The Legal Services Board has approved an initial application by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to introduce the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. Despite intense pressure, LSB chief executive Neil Buckley said there were “no grounds” to reject the SRA’s application, setting out the framework for the regime.