Syla Debate 291009
This document was uploaded by user and they confirmed that they have the permission to share it. If you are author or own the copyright of this book, please report to us by using this DMCA report form. Report DMCA
Overview
Download & View Syla Debate 291009 as PDF for free.
More details
- Words: 1,081
- Pages: 4
Scottish Young Lawyers Association Debate Scotsman Newspaper Building, Edinburgh Thursday 29 October 2009, 6.45pm
Mike Dailly’s opening speech for the Opposition
If every society is judged by how it treats the least fortunate amongst them, then every profession must be judged by how it treats its newest members. We are all humble and eager to please when we start out in our legal careers, and it is those virtues which can make trainee solicitors vulnerable.
Whenever someone, or something, is vulnerable the free market response is to exploit that vulnerability, and make a profit.
Of course the free market
doesn’t have a code of ethics – which is why we have statutory regulators.
We, on the other hand, are permitted to regulate ourselves as lawyers because we adhere to a professional code of values and ethics, as a responsible and trusted profession. Lose that and what do we have?
If you support this Motion then I believe we do not deserve to call ourselves ‘a profession’ – we might as well let Tesco buy and sell us as a commodity and pay the Minimum Wage to everyone. But now is not the time to stray into the Legal Services Bill.
If we teach trainee solicitors that it’s ok for lawyers to exploit one another aren’t we paying lip service to the belief we’re something more than a simple supplier of services? More than a tin of legal beans?
1
The fact we treat our prisoners with dignity is a sign of a just and fair society. Of course, there have been contradictions such as the medieval practice of slopping-out. The recent slopping-out cases have been distasteful to Scottish politicians, but they were absolutely necessary to ensure we didn’t just pay lip service to our guiding principles.
Another medieval practice is for partners to treat trainee solicitors like serfs or skivvies.
These practices have no place in the 21st Century.
Just because
you were exploited as a trainee doesn’t mean you should continue the cycle.
I would like to set out an argument that as a matter of Scots law this motion must fall.
Having ‘your trainee’ spend most of their days picking up parcels,
running personal errands, filing, or occupying the same space as the photocopier is contrary to the Post-Diploma Training Contract.
The contract provides that ‘The Employer undertakes to provide the Trainee a reasonable training in the work of a solicitor within the scope of the employer’s practice …’.
‘Reasonable training in the work of a solicitor’ does not mean leaving a trainee to run a branch office unsupervised, shouting or bawling at them because of your inadequacies, requiring them to spend all day and night photocopying, or dumping unprepared cases or court appearances on them at the last minute.
The 2001 Admission as a Solicitor (Scotland) Regulations make provision for intervention by the Council of the Law Society where a trainee is not ‘receiving the benefits’ he or she ‘should receive from the training contract’.
And this is perhaps where it all breaks down. Last year, The Firm magazine reported that there were 632 traineeships in Scotland, and the Law Society of Scotland was happy to report that not one single trainee had ever ‘formally complained’ about the way they were treated.
2
No problem there then. This entire debate is apparently academic. Is it any wonder trainees can be exploited when technically no exploitation has ever taken place, and in practice firms can get away with it?
The elephant in the Law Society’s drawing room was the fact that many trainees had contacted them with serious concerns, but were told that in order for these to be acted upon they would need to make a formal complaint – which would then be disclosed to the firm.
The reality was exploited trainees were too frightened to make a formal complaint. For obvious reasons, they feared they might never qualify or have a stain on their future career. Was that a reasonable belief to hold? Well, I think so.
Consider this. The Law Society of Scotland says ‘we don’t take sides’ in these matters. So you have to ask yourself why not?
Only lawyers dealing with
other lawyers could score such an own goal.
There is no equality of arms between a trainee solicitor and his or her firm – so there is every possibility that a trainee solicitor would submit a complaint and lose hands down.
We all have a professional obligation to stick up for
our trainee solicitors and the current system is plain wrong.
Last year, a number of trainee solicitors told me about the way they had been mistreated.
I spoke to The Firm’s Editor, Steven Raeburn, and he and his
team kicked off a high profile campaign to tackle trainee abuse and injustice.
I say abuse and injustice. only two of them.
Exploitation comes in many guises and these are
Quite frankly, no-one should consider themselves an
officer of the court if they can go back to their firm and dole out injustice to junior members of staff. Some of the trainee stories that The Firm highlighted last year included the following examples:
3
Inappropriate sexual comments and verbal abuse on a daily basis;
Having to act as a waitress for the boss; and
Not being providing with a desk or chair to sit at.
One of the trainees said her morning routine consisted of waking up and crying before heading to work.
She said, ‘The Law Society of Scotland
need to wake up and realise what kind of power partners have over their trainees and that absolute power can lead to abuse’.
Ladies and gentlemen, not only should you reject this Motion but we should call upon the Law Society of Scotland to amend their 2001 Admission as a Solicitor Regulations to give detailed examples of what is, and what is not, acceptable practice and treatment for trainee solicitors.
Moreover, we should call upon the Law Society to review its current complaints procedure, and give consideration as to how confidential complaints can be investigated, and how trainees subject to exploitative behaviour can be better supported.
The word ‘trainee’ has become a term of abuse. In contrast, everyone knows that an ‘apprentice’ is owed a duty to be skillfully trained and treated with respect. We should scrap the term ‘trainee solicitor’ and go back to ‘apprentice solicitor’ and ‘apprenticeships’.
Mike Dailly Principal Solicitor Govan Law Centre Edinburgh 29 October 2009
4
Mike Dailly’s opening speech for the Opposition
If every society is judged by how it treats the least fortunate amongst them, then every profession must be judged by how it treats its newest members. We are all humble and eager to please when we start out in our legal careers, and it is those virtues which can make trainee solicitors vulnerable.
Whenever someone, or something, is vulnerable the free market response is to exploit that vulnerability, and make a profit.
Of course the free market
doesn’t have a code of ethics – which is why we have statutory regulators.
We, on the other hand, are permitted to regulate ourselves as lawyers because we adhere to a professional code of values and ethics, as a responsible and trusted profession. Lose that and what do we have?
If you support this Motion then I believe we do not deserve to call ourselves ‘a profession’ – we might as well let Tesco buy and sell us as a commodity and pay the Minimum Wage to everyone. But now is not the time to stray into the Legal Services Bill.
If we teach trainee solicitors that it’s ok for lawyers to exploit one another aren’t we paying lip service to the belief we’re something more than a simple supplier of services? More than a tin of legal beans?
1
The fact we treat our prisoners with dignity is a sign of a just and fair society. Of course, there have been contradictions such as the medieval practice of slopping-out. The recent slopping-out cases have been distasteful to Scottish politicians, but they were absolutely necessary to ensure we didn’t just pay lip service to our guiding principles.
Another medieval practice is for partners to treat trainee solicitors like serfs or skivvies.
These practices have no place in the 21st Century.
Just because
you were exploited as a trainee doesn’t mean you should continue the cycle.
I would like to set out an argument that as a matter of Scots law this motion must fall.
Having ‘your trainee’ spend most of their days picking up parcels,
running personal errands, filing, or occupying the same space as the photocopier is contrary to the Post-Diploma Training Contract.
The contract provides that ‘The Employer undertakes to provide the Trainee a reasonable training in the work of a solicitor within the scope of the employer’s practice …’.
‘Reasonable training in the work of a solicitor’ does not mean leaving a trainee to run a branch office unsupervised, shouting or bawling at them because of your inadequacies, requiring them to spend all day and night photocopying, or dumping unprepared cases or court appearances on them at the last minute.
The 2001 Admission as a Solicitor (Scotland) Regulations make provision for intervention by the Council of the Law Society where a trainee is not ‘receiving the benefits’ he or she ‘should receive from the training contract’.
And this is perhaps where it all breaks down. Last year, The Firm magazine reported that there were 632 traineeships in Scotland, and the Law Society of Scotland was happy to report that not one single trainee had ever ‘formally complained’ about the way they were treated.
2
No problem there then. This entire debate is apparently academic. Is it any wonder trainees can be exploited when technically no exploitation has ever taken place, and in practice firms can get away with it?
The elephant in the Law Society’s drawing room was the fact that many trainees had contacted them with serious concerns, but were told that in order for these to be acted upon they would need to make a formal complaint – which would then be disclosed to the firm.
The reality was exploited trainees were too frightened to make a formal complaint. For obvious reasons, they feared they might never qualify or have a stain on their future career. Was that a reasonable belief to hold? Well, I think so.
Consider this. The Law Society of Scotland says ‘we don’t take sides’ in these matters. So you have to ask yourself why not?
Only lawyers dealing with
other lawyers could score such an own goal.
There is no equality of arms between a trainee solicitor and his or her firm – so there is every possibility that a trainee solicitor would submit a complaint and lose hands down.
We all have a professional obligation to stick up for
our trainee solicitors and the current system is plain wrong.
Last year, a number of trainee solicitors told me about the way they had been mistreated.
I spoke to The Firm’s Editor, Steven Raeburn, and he and his
team kicked off a high profile campaign to tackle trainee abuse and injustice.
I say abuse and injustice. only two of them.
Exploitation comes in many guises and these are
Quite frankly, no-one should consider themselves an
officer of the court if they can go back to their firm and dole out injustice to junior members of staff. Some of the trainee stories that The Firm highlighted last year included the following examples:
3
Inappropriate sexual comments and verbal abuse on a daily basis;
Having to act as a waitress for the boss; and
Not being providing with a desk or chair to sit at.
One of the trainees said her morning routine consisted of waking up and crying before heading to work.
She said, ‘The Law Society of Scotland
need to wake up and realise what kind of power partners have over their trainees and that absolute power can lead to abuse’.
Ladies and gentlemen, not only should you reject this Motion but we should call upon the Law Society of Scotland to amend their 2001 Admission as a Solicitor Regulations to give detailed examples of what is, and what is not, acceptable practice and treatment for trainee solicitors.
Moreover, we should call upon the Law Society to review its current complaints procedure, and give consideration as to how confidential complaints can be investigated, and how trainees subject to exploitative behaviour can be better supported.
The word ‘trainee’ has become a term of abuse. In contrast, everyone knows that an ‘apprentice’ is owed a duty to be skillfully trained and treated with respect. We should scrap the term ‘trainee solicitor’ and go back to ‘apprentice solicitor’ and ‘apprenticeships’.
Mike Dailly Principal Solicitor Govan Law Centre Edinburgh 29 October 2009
4
Related Documents
Syla Debate 291009
June 2020 0
Afrim Syla
June 2020 0
Publicacion31a(291009)
July 2020 4
Publicacion31b(291009)
July 2020 2
Publicacion31d(291009)
July 2020 3
