When Is A Trainee Solicitor Not A Trainee Solicitor? (2)

Regular readers will no doubt be delighted to hear the answer to yesterday's head-scratching riddle which is:

A trainee solicitor is not a trainee solicitor when s/he is a 'legally qualified professional'

Because you can't have it both ways, can you?

If you ask me, a person can't claim to be a 'professional' (i.e. a member of a profession) without completing their training, otherwise the Sorcerer's Apprentice would be a Sorcerer rather than an Apprentice.

Or, put more plainly, the Plumber's Mate would be a Plumber rather than a Mate.




Confusingly Companies House has Donna-Marie Gray's occupation recorded as a 'Trainee Solicitor' which is odd  since DM made the following bold claim on social media recently:

"4. DM Legal are well equipped with the skills, resources and experience to run this legal case. We are a team of four, we are hard working and legally qualified professionals; plus we have the best Advocate on our team."

Even more odd is the fact that DM Legal's web page states that Donna-Marie:

"has completed 6 months of her legal traineeship; she choose (sic) to take a career break to work on the equal pay cases for her clients."

So it seems that DM is not actually a Trainee Solicitor and that she has completed just 6 months of a two-year legal traineeship apparently, where and when I don't know at this stage but more on this subject later.

Interestingly, the Law Society of Scotland emphasises the importance of a legal traineeship on its web site with the following explanation:

"The traineeship sees you complete your training within the workplace working under the supervision of a Scottish-qualified solicitor. During your two years as a trainee you will be required to fulfill certain obligations in order to demonstrate you are competent and ready to qualify as a solicitor."

Nonetheless, Donna Marie has the cheek to call people nasty names on social media and caps it all off with the following crazy statement:

"To be honest I don't give a fuck about professionalism"

I can't imagine that many, if any, people (working class or otherwise) are impressed by all this 'effing and blinding' and other nonsense on Facebook.
  
So I suspect that Donna-Marie and DML will begin to regret this out of control behaviour in the weeks ahead.  

  

When Is A Trainee Solicitor Not A Trainee Solicitor? (28/01/20)

Question: When is a trainee solicitor not a trainee solicitor?

Answer: See tomorrow's blog - I might even come up with a suitable prize if anyone can solve this head-scratching riddle!

  

When Is A Door Not A Door? 2 ((28/01/20)

The answer to yesterday's riddle (When is a door not a door?) was dead easy, of course, and the correct answer is:

"When it's ajar" 

But there's a much tougher, more topical riddle coming up very soon, so watch this space and re-visit the blog again later today.

I'm pretty sure regular readers won't disappointed.

  

When Is A Door Not A Door? (27/01/20)

Question: When is a door not a door?

Answer: See tomorrow's blog!

 

Professions and Professionals (22/01/20)

I needed a new boiler last year and like any sensible person I made a point of finding a professional to do the job - someone qualified and registered as a 'gas safe' engineer.

Now you would think the same standard would apply in the other professions and for the most part it does, I'm pleased to say.

For example, a Dentist can't look after your teeth, a Teacher isn't allowed to school your children and a Nurse can't care for your loved ones - without being recognised and registered as members of their respective professions.

So you would think that people calling themselves 'legally qualified professionals' would have to be members of the legal profession - Solicitors and Lawyers - recognised and registered by the Law Society of Scotland.

Yet apparently not according to this Facebook post from Team DM Legal who claim they are all "legally qualified professionals" although, as far as I know, none of them have managed to finish their training and register on the professional roll of Scottish solicitors.

"4. DM Legal are well equipped with the skills, resources and experience to run this legal case. We are a team of four, we are hard working and legally qualified professionals; plus we have the best Advocate on our team."

Now if you asked a sample of reasonably intelligent people what the term "legally qualified professional" means, I imagine most would say that it means a person claiming to be a qualified professional is a solicitor or lawyer who has the ability to practise law and offer legal advice.

However before being let loose to practice law in Scotland a budding solicitor or lawyer must complete their two year legal traineeship which the Law Society of Scotland explains as follows:

"The traineeship sees you complete your training within the workplace working under the supervision of a Scottish-qualified solicitor. During your two years as a trainee you will be required to fulfill certain obligations in order to demonstrate you are competent and ready to qualify as a solicitor."

So I wonder what the Law Society of Scotland might say about people describing themselves as "legally qualified professionals" when they are not actually registered as members of the legal profession or recognised by its professional body.

More to follow - so watch this space.

 

Glasgow - Are You Professionally Koalafied? (13/01/20)

A kind reader sent me this Facebook post which claims that 'Team DM Legal' are 'legally qualified professionals'.

"4. DM Legal are well equipped with the skills, resources and experience to run this legal case. We are a team of four, we are hard working and legally qualified professionals; plus we have the best Advocate on our team."


Now this is a bold claim on which I'll have more to say soon, but it does sit oddly with the following statement made by DM Legal as well which I posted on the blog back in June last year:

"To be honest I don't give a fuck about professionalism"

Hmmmm......what a strange way for anyone to behave never mind someone who claims to be a 'legally qualified professional'.

 

Unguided Missiles 2 (20/01/20)

A kind reader sent me this Facebook post from Donna Marie at DM Legal who seems to think she can attack people and call them nasty names with impunity on social media.

More on this subject to follow soon, but in the meantime DM seems to have taken a leaf out of an old Unison playbook with her ugly nonsense about 'English companies appearing on the scene and causing hassle for us legal companies in Scotland'.

What a load of old baloney - see posts below from the blog site archive.

 

Unguided Missiles (10/01/20)

I see that the resident 'unguided missile' at DM Legal Ltd has gone off on another of their ill-judged, ill-tempered rants - only this time the target is none other than Frances Stojilkovic, a long-standing champion of the fight for equal pay in Glasgow.

Now I struggle to understand how anyone in their right mind would even dream of calling Frances a 'Traitor' (see below) because Frances has done more than anyone I know to support the cause of her fellow workers in Glasgow City Council over many years.

'Selfless' and 'tireless' are the words that spring mind and I think it's fair to say that Frances and her campaign has encouraged thousands of council employees in Glasgow (trade union members and non-union members alike) to protect their interests by registering equal pay claims against the City Council.

Yet not content with this awful trash-talking, disparaging nonsense on Facebook, DM Legal Ltd go on to make a false and damaging claim about a Glasgow employee's equal pay settlement - which is of course none of their business, as well as having the disadvantage of being completely untrue.

So why do DM Legal Ltd who, in their own words, are "legally qualified professionals" think it's OK to speak in this nasty way?

I suspect we may not have heard the last of this story because if you ask me, it's completely unacceptable for supposedly professional people (and their organisations) to be so irresponsible and out of control on social media.

Meanwhile it's worth reminding readers that DM Legal Ltd have played absolutely no part in the long fight for equal pay in Glasgow City Council and are not involved in the work that is currently underway to replace the Council's 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme.

 

Out of Control (21/06/19)

Anyone who is dumb enough to say, in public, on social media: 

"To be honest I don't give a fuck about professionalism" 

Has a big problem if you ask me and is drawing attention to the fact that they cannot control themselves.  

For some reason I keep receiving infantile messages from these 'Facebook chancers' who tell me that they want to be taken seriously.

Yet they keep slagging off the Glasgow Claimants for accepting equal pay settlements which have been the subject of a fierce battle, both in and out of court, for the past 12 years.

Here's another of their dumb Facebook comments:

"I would never take any settlement knowing my friends and colleagues were only getting 5 years money and £17,000 if they were lucky."

Now I have no idea what would drive someone to speak in such an arrogant and condescending manner, but it's embarrassing and unprofessional for sure.

One of my New Year resolutions for 2020 is to spend much less time on social media. 

Now don't get me wrong because Facebook and Twitter are a force for good in many ways - both played a significant role in Glasgow's fight for equal pay, for example, by sharing vital information and mobilising people.

But the downside is that far too much valuable time and energy can be spent trying to reason with 'armchair experts' who really don't have a clue what they're talking about - beyond their own self-obsessed, self-serving opinions.   

However, the good news is that I am, as ever, happy to respond to all and any readers who have genuine questions or sensible points to make.