From Dentons' latest combination to high profile hires and a larger than normal number of salacious stories, it's been a busy news week for the height of summer.

White & Case set a new record – albeit one it could have done without. The firm has been handed the largest ever single-firm fine by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, being forced to pay out £250,000 for conflict of interest and confidentiality failures.

It's far from the only institution garnering negative press during the past week. The gender pay gap furore at the BBC may have focused on the salaries of its top paid stars and the absence of women among them, but the report also put the salaries of its senior in-house lawyers into the public domain.

Any disparity in pay between male and female staff is an issue that all firms need to prepare for ahead of new legislation coming into effect next year.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, a Linklaters associate has denied any wrongdoing after last week being linked with insider trading allegations when her husband was arrested. It was alleged that he pocketed nearly $120,000 (£92,000) in illegal stock trades based on confidential information shared with him by the New York associate.

But it hasn't all been negative news. Scottish firm Maclay Murray & Spens has finally found its soulmate, becoming the latest firm to join the ever-expansive Dentons. The news comes after the Scots firm and Addleshaws broke off merger talks in 2015.