Lawyers must learn from Red Cross
Annmarie Carvalho’s article (‘Law firms: are you supporting your people enough?’, Gazette, 10 October) on World Mental Health Day rightly highlighted the shortcomings of employee assistance programme ‘helplines’, compared to the support that should be provided in the legal sector.
Having worked with British Red Cross on a number of very intense and draining cases, I was able to see the way they support their staff. That is so different to how lawyers are supported. The provision of in-house psychosocial support provides an opportunity to debrief, unload and better prepare to return to a difficult case.
I have shared this model with anyone in our field who will listen. With the destruction of social and mental health services, social welfare lawyers often become far more entangled in the lives of very vulnerable clients than you would expect a lawyer to be. The impact on mental health and the increase in vicarious trauma are palpable.
I very much believe that large social welfare lawyer providers and organisations, such as the Law Centres Network, should be studying this model (which has been developed following many years’ experience on the frontline of trauma) and find ways to implement it in our sector. Annmarie is absolutely right. The current situation and provision are entirely inadequate, which is especially depressing at a time when so much needs to be done on the retention of lawyers in our sector.
Siobhan Taylor-Ward
Housing solicitor, LawStop, Birkenhead
On a mission to save historical documents
I was interested to read the article on archives and the legal profession’s important role in preserving documents (‘Is there treasure in your vaults?’, Gazette, 8 November). Although my firm was started comparatively recently, we have been able to donate legal documents over the years. I enjoy looking at old deeds with wax seals and marvellous handwriting.
When a neighbouring firm that had been around for 200 years was closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority this year, I contacted the SRA twice asking if anyone had thought to see if there were any historically important documents in the building. I got no reply. I was prepared to help by going to the offices and taking anything of value to the local archive office.
To be fair, the SRA was helpful in contacting previous clients and transferring documents to other firms. Perhaps preserving the historical documents has been looked into by someone else, or it is the responsibility of whoever is selling the building. My offer is still open.
David R Pickup
Partner, Pickup & Scott, Aylesbury
SFO cash sets the clock ticking for corporates
I write in relation to the government’s announcement of £9.3m extra funding for the Serious Fraud Office to fight financial crime.
In times of strained public finances this clearly demonstrates the government’s confidence in Nick Ephgrave QPM, the SFO’s director, to lead the SFO in the fight. The government will expect to see a return on that investment in faster and more consistently successful outcomes.
Convictions will lead to sentences for those responsible, as well as the prospect of recovery of substantial financial penalties via DPAs, fines and confiscation.
It is interesting that this announcement comes hot on the heels of the publication of Home Office guidance to organisations on the new ‘failure to prevent’ fraud offence. This has set the clock ticking for corporates to work on fraud prevention procedures, which will provide them with a defence against failing to prevent fraud committed by their employees.
Katie Wheatley
Partner and head of the crime, fraud and regulatory team, Bindmans, London WC1
Integrity hollowed out
A cornerstone of our profession is integrity. I talk about it quite a lot in our offices because I feel that creating the right atmosphere and culture is my job.
How we deal with each other, clients and others is fundamental. Sometimes what gets left out of the mindset of some employees is how an employee deals with employers when it comes to handing in notice and moving jobs.
It seems that for some, creating a version of reality that ignores the contract and the principle of integrity, and relying upon that to advance their own career, is just fine. No need for integrity when it is personal, it seems.
As I write, the Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned. This has been an absolutely disgraceful episode in the history of the Church of England. After initially saying he would not resign, Justin Welby has now done what many believe to be the right thing.
But what about the Solicitors Regulation Authority? Apparently, the fact that there is a damning report about the conduct and decision-making of the SRA in relation to Axiom Ince is not a matter of concern for the chair and CEO.
Failing to act in the interests of consumers of conveyancing legal services, leaving it to technology companies and their evangelists to lead the ‘reforms’; and the inability to look at how referral fees have distorted the market to the disadvantage of consumers could be said, by the weary and the cynical, to display a lack of institutional integrity at the Law Society, SRA and Council for Licensed Conveyancers.
Am I wasting my breath in focusing on the core principles when training my employees, given that they can legitimately ask why the SRA leadership do not appear to act with integrity? Why is so much placed upon our shoulders when others seem to be able to shrug off this obligation?
Whatever others might do or say, one must always act with integrity. But it is all beginning to feel and sound hollow.
Arthur Michael Robinson
Director, Emmersons Solicitors
Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne
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