In this day and age we perhaps take it for granted that legal trainees receive adequate support, training and guidance from their firms. However, The Firm has uncovered two trainees who received quite the opposite. Here they share their horror stories and ask how firms can get away with this behaviour.

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There is a Japanese saying that suggests that a tree watered with love will grow as tall as a tree watered with hate, but a tree watered with apathy will wither and die to the root. There is nothing so damaging as neglect.

Despite a well structured training programme, The Firm has uncovered damning evidence of appalling treatment of the little acorns of the profession - the trainees -  taken advantage of at the most desperate stage of their career, subject to exploitation that can only be described as abuse. Every iceberg has a tip and whilst we do not believe abuse is universal there is sufficient anecdotal evidence which supports our hypothesis that mistreatment, exploitation and bad practice which crosses into illegality is rife within the law firms of Scotland.

We do not believe this is isolated. Such behaviour can only be sustained because it is endemic within the culture, a culture created through neglect and the certainty of bad managers that their appalling treatment of their staff will go both unnoticed, unpunished and worse, will not even be regarded as unusual. That is a deep rooted cultural failure that needs urgent redress by the only body capable of doing so, The Law Society of Scotland.

At The Firm, we want the legal profession to be a beacon of good practice and a model for other professions. By rooting out bad practice and cultivating a zero tolerance attitude to malignant partnerships, the legal profession can remain justifiably proud of its achievements. However, no achievements of The Law Society can be celebrated, no laurels may be rested upon nor any pride taken in the profession, whilst a culture exists that allows appalling abuse to carry on.     

The testimonies supplied to The Firm give an indication of the problem. Trainees starting their careers need the support of every member of the profession to allow them to flourish and lead Scots law in the future. Aside from creating misery, (and bad lawyers) poor training forces promising young trainees to quit, wasting both their invested time and a valuable training slot. It is quite simply intolerable, unacceptable and immoral and The Firm pledges to stay on the side of trainees until this problem is eradicated.


Trainee Testimony 1
I commenced my traineeship with a small high street firm in early Summer 2007 and I remember being very excited that I was starting earlier than most of my peers. I had been deeply concerned throughout the Diploma that I would not get a traineeship due to the notion that traineeships are not readily available, a notion that is heavily imparted on students throughout the Diploma. Along with the idea that you should accept a traineeship anywhere, doing anything just to ensure you qualify. Perhaps if I had not been so desperate, I would have noticed the mountains of files stored in hallways, windows and bursting out of filing cabinets at the interview. Needless to say, I didn’t notice anything except the job I desperately needed.

There’s no doubt I should have left the firm in week one. My role in the office was to manage the Executory Files and the job was to commence immediately under the supervision of the Second Year Trainee. My other daily tasks included searching for lost files/wills/titles, covering the reception and the Greggs run.

The senior partner, who had a reputation for having a fierce temper and tight purse strings, soon realised that it wasn’t cost effective to have two trainees in the one office. With one fell swoop I was left in charge of all the Executry Files less than one month into my traineeship.

I clearly ran into difficulties early on. I quickly discussed the matter with the partner informing her that I could not manage that volume of files without supervision, appropriate resources and training. I was referred to an outdated volume of a university text and promised that the second year trainee would be permitted to come in two mornings a week to assist me.

This assistance lasted for around two to three weeks until the Senior Partner got wind of it and called me for clarification. I explained my predicament to him and he discussed matters with the partner, or so I thought.

A commotion ensued in the office and I soon discovered that the partner was crying. About half an hour later she called me to her office and informed me that the senior partner had come to his decision. It was decided that the second year trainee was to stay in the other office all week, I was to handle the Executry Files and I was to start work on the Conveyancing Files too.

I couldn’t fathom what was happening. I had been to my superior to express concerns about my ability to manage my caseload, asked for assistance and training and had, instead, been penalised.

I decided to try a different approach and asked instead that resources be updated to enable me to do my job more expeditiously. The office itself was outdated without internet access, email and up to date texts/journals. This too was unsuccessful and I found myself appointed the office ‘I.T. Person’. My new tasks included finding the best prices to connect all three offices to the internet, supporting the partner to operate her PC and finding cut price training courses to teach office staff how to operate the internet (should the office ever be connected, that is).

The Law Society, although empathetic, did nothing to assist me and the firm has not been sanctioned for its shoddy service. I was informed that, without allowing the Law Society to make my complaint official, there was nothing they could do to investigate the alleged breach of the ethical rules and poor treatment of staff. Basically, I was on my own.

I finally discussed the matter with another lawyer and left the firm. I knew that if I stayed there I simply wouldn’t be competent when I qualified. After all, I hadn’t spent five years at university and £4,000 on the Diploma to be utterly miserable. I secured employment with another firm, shortly after I left and have never looked back.

I realised no matter how deferential you are taught to be of Senior Colleagues, bullying should never be tolerated and ‘shutting up and putting up’ just perpetuates this behaviour.
 

Trainee Testimony 2
I commenced my traineeship in a medium sized firm in Glasgow last summer. On my first day I went in wearing my new suit brimming with excitement and eager to learn. However, my excitement quickly turned to disbelief and despair as I came to the realisation that my training partner was an obnoxious, sexist bully and sexual deviant.

Inappropriate sexual comments and verbal abuse was directed at me and others on a daily basis. I was particularly shocked to hear his derogatory discriminatory use of language when the majority of the clients were vulnerable people with learning difficulties. Everyone knew what he was like but they all turned a blind eye or explained that it was “just his way”. They all seemed to have been brainwashed into thinking that this was actually acceptable behaviour and it was an OK place to work.

Talking of brainwashing I know of many other trainees who are suffering similar treatment and seem to have some strange sort of prisoner of war syndrome. They are perfectly willing to moan about their traineeships but if anyone criticises their traineeship or suggests that they leave they state that it is not that bad.

My morning routine would consist of waking up, crying my heart out, wiping my tears, putting on a brave face and heading into work. I discussed my situation with other law students who all believed that the best thing to do was to shut up and put up with my treatment.
I am naturally quite a confident enthusiastic person but after months of this constant abuse I felt less able to litigate than when I started. Surely training is about inspiring confidence in people and not destroying what they have?

As I did not have a desk let alone a computer or a phone of my own I was the nomad of the office, wandering around every day trying to find a place to sit. Concerning the actual work that we had to do I did not have my own files but was given bits and pieces that no-one else wanted to do. This meant that I never knew the client’s background and had no idea how to progress a case properly on my own. Then there were the menial tasks.

Quite what a trainee will gain from ensuring that her boss has good stock of all his favourite sundries and stationary I will never know. I was also expected to be the silver service waitress - teaspoon on the right for important clients.

Eventually I could take no more and I left. I didn’t talk to any of the partners. What was the point? My training partner’s behaviour was openly accepted.

Then I got a new traineeship. Just like that. Not the great struggle I expected. Now I am in an environment where I am respected and encouraged to reach my full potential and I am slowly getting my confidence back. I would advise anyone who finds themselves in my situation to do the same. No one has to put up with abuse. There are other traineeships out there.

Then when you are at your wits end with your sense of self worth in tatters and contact The Law Society for assistance they will inform you that they cannot do anything unless you make a formal complaint and reveal both your own identity and that of your training partner - not something someone at the start of their career is eager to do.

The Law Society of Scotland needs to wake up and realise what kind of power partners have over their trainees and that anything unchecked, absolute power can lead to abuse. They need to monitor firms and assess what is really going on. Lawyers are there to help clients who are discriminated against, unfairly dismissed etc. Who is there to help us?


Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor at Govan Law Centre, and The Firm’s the Solicitor of the Year, is behind The Firm’s campaign, and is calling on the Law Society to actively tackle this hidden issue.
“The trainee solicitor experiences highlighted by The Firm are disgraceful. We were all humble and eager to please when we started out in our legal careers and those virtues can make trainees vulnerable.  I find it incredible that experienced partners charged with protecting the interests of vulnerable clients and acting with great probity can indulge in systematic gratuitous abuse of junior colleagues.  They should be ashamed,” he said.

“I would hope the experiences highlighted are in the minority but to be honest we don’t know as most trainees are too frightened to speak out.  It’s the legal profession’s secret shame and we need to root this behaviour out and root it out fast.

“I believe the Law Society of Scotland should provide a dedicated confidential free hotline for trainees and undertake random inspections of firms.  They could arrange for inspections to take place in response to hotline complaints with strong sanctions for those firms unwilling to meet the minimum standards we all expect.  There should also be a role for the Society in helping abused trainees find another traineeship, as I think as a profession we have a general duty to right the wrongs of our colleagues”.


Are you an abused trainee? Has your firm taken advantage if you? If so, we want to hear your story. Email The Firm’s editor in complete confidence at richard.draycott@carnyx.com.