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While alternative business structures are gaining all the headlines right now, something perhaps even more fundamental is going on this year: the Legal Education and Training Review. Many know it’s happening, but I suspect few quite understand how radically it could reshape the foundation of becoming a lawyer. I don’t think I did until last week, when I attended the first of a series of five seminars being run by the Legal Services Board, this one in association with the Legal Services Institute.

Divisions over quality assurance for advocates have deepened after solicitors were advised not to take part in a Bar Standards Board survey on the issue, while specialist Bar associations have been urged to oppose QASA as well.

Lawyers were this week told not to be discouraged from embracing social media after a barrister who was among the legal pioneers on Twitter was fined for messages he posted on the service. However, the case does raise questions over the role of regulators in policing lawyers’ activity on Twitter.

Barristers are showing only “cautious interest” in alternative business structures, although they are keener on barrister-only entities, according to a major survey released yesterday. It also found a “worrying lack of optimisim” in the profession.

The long-running saga over standard contractual terms between barristers and solicitors has hit another hurdle after the Legal Services Board issued a statutory warning notice that it is considering whether to reject changes to the cab-rank rule that would underpin them.