The Scotsman has reported on the
Scottish Young Lawyers Association (SYLA) debate on the motion that 'this House believes that trainees are there to be exploited'.
It is understood that around 50 trainee solicitors in Scotland have already been made 'redundant', however, Iain Mitchell QC advised the audience that as a trainee was truly an 'apprentice' in law, it followed that they could not be made redundant. Mr Mitchell's Opinion is reported in
The Firm magazine.
GLC's Mike Dailly opened for the opposition by claiming that the eager-to-please nature of trainees made them vulnerable. He argued having trainees run personal errands or do excessive photocopying was contrary to the training contract, which compels employers to provide a reasonable standard of training, which "does not mean leaving a trainee to run a branch office unsupervised, shouting or bawling at them because of your inadequacies".
The motion was defeated, and a report of the event is available in
The Scotsman here. Mike's full contribution is available on
GLC's Scribd page here.
Trainee solicitor debate at The Scotsman
Posts
Last month the Firm published GLC's Principal Solicitor's contribution to the Scotsman debate on the subject of trainee exploitation, which challenged the Law Society's stance on key issues. Nick Taylor of the Law Society's Admissions Committee responds to Mike's points on The Firm online, with reference to the proposed changes to qualifying as a solicitor in Scotland, from September 2011.
The Scotsman has reported on the Scottish Young Lawyers Association (SYLA) debate on the motion that 'this House believes that trainees are there to be exploited'. 
The Scottish Young Lawyers Association have organised a guest speakers debate, with the support of The Scotsman, on Thursday 29 October 2009 at 7.30pm in Edinburgh. Further details from the SYLA. 
