THE Law Society of Scotland has, dramatically, shut down the Glasgow based law firm ROSS HARPER, suspending all of the firm’s solicitors practising certificates and appointing a Judicial Factor after an audit & investigation, apparently initiated as a result of “complaints”, revealed “substantial inconsistencies” in the firm’s client accounts. The move, which came after an application made in the Court of Session yesterday, has been highly publicised today after Law Society media team & senior officials put out a wide variety of leaks, statements & comments to the wider media to ensure the move was well publicised, purely on the basis of “concerns over the safety of client funds.”
The Glasgow based law firm at the centre of the story, founded in 1961 by Professor Ross Harper who was a past president of the Law Society of Scotland itself, has been regular finalists in the annual law awards for “Law firm of the year” & “Criminal law firm of the year” and celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2011. However, the firm has endured a difficult period with the loss of many of its high earning partners such as Cameron Fyfe, Professor Alan Susskind, Harvey Diamond and Richard Freeman after disputes over how the firm was being run.
The Law Society of Scotland released a statement today : The Law Society of Scotland, as part of its regulatory function, has asked the Court of Session to appoint a Judicial Factor to legal firm Ross Harper. The interim factor, Ian Mitchell from Henderson Loggie Chartered Accountants, was appointed by the court today, Thursday, 5 April 2012.
The application was made to the court to protect the clients' interests after the Law Society inspected the firm's books and became concerned about the accounting records. The appointment means that the practising certificates of the firm's partners have been suspended.
The firm has five offices based in Glasgow, Hamilton and East Kilbride. Any clients of the firm who have concerns can contact the Henderson Loggie office in Dundee on 01382 207060. Henderson Loggie will be contacting all of the firm's staff to inform them. Solicitors and trainees at the firm can also contact the Society's professional practice helpline during office hours: 0131 226 7411.
However, a Glasgow solicitor speaking to Scottish Law Reporter this morning alleged there is more to the Law Society’s “heavy handed approach” to Ross Harper, citing recent events which led to the firm joining the Glasgow Bar Association, which was reported in the Herald newspaper HERE
The solicitor, who does not wish to be named said : “I think you will find there are a great deal of politics wrapped up in the Law Society’s handling of Ross Harper rather than simply the reasons stated in the Law Society’s press statement.”
He went on : “It may well be there are anomalies in Ross Harper’s accounts however I understand from well placed sources this highly public move is more about the Law Society teaching the Glasgow end of Scotland’s legal profession a lesson after recent arguments between the Glasgow Bar Association and the Edinburgh based Law Society, who many solicitors now thing has definitely had its day.”
A former Law Society Council Member appeared to corroborate the claims from the unnamed solicitor, telling journalists from Scottish Law Reporter the Law Society are “growing concerned for their position” in the wake of dissent from within the legal profession particularly from Glasgow solicitors who now feel the Law Society can no longer represent the legal profession interests or those of the public.
The Law Society were keen to point out in their Press Release their duties regarding their alleged protection of client funds, stating : “The Law Society of Scotland's compliance team carries out regular inspections of all solicitor firms in Scotland to ensure that they comply with rules on dealing with clients' money. If an inspector suspects that client money is missing or the accounting records are so poor they cannot tell if client money is missing, the Law Society of Scotland can request the Court of Session to appoint a Judicial Factor to that firm to protect the public and other solicitors. The decision to make the appointment is for the Court.”
On occasions, it is found that a firm's accounting records have not been kept properly. Rarely, it may be suspected that client money is missing. To protect clients, the Society asks the Court of Session to appoint the Judicial Factor to examine the firm's records. The Judicial Factor will reassure clients that business is ongoing and, where necessary, try to put them in touch with other solicitors. You can find out more from the Law Society’s information sheet on judicial factors (pdf)
In reality however, the Law Society of Scotland and now the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission have failed on almost every occasion to guarantee the protection of client funds from law firms who continue to see their clients as “easy targets” for theft, either by way of deliberate overcharging for fees or via embezzlement & other types of frauds, both now sharply on the rise.
The Herald newspaper reports on the difficulties at law firm Ross Harper : Law firm in crisis over client funds
If you have a story relating to Ross Harper solicitors, why waste it on the Law Society. Tell us at Scottish Law Reporter by email to scottishlawreporter@gmail.com
89 comments:
all not as it seems with a Law Society press release whored out to the newspapers - what a s'prise!
even so RH' reputation is toast!
Ha-ha, what a truly pathetic thing the Law Society of Scotland is, forced to chase its tail to cover up the latest episode double dealing by a firm of solicitors, but only when it gets into the public arena - no doubt they have known about it for years and done nothing.
And this is the system the SNP tells us we are to be proud of!
Interesting the Law Society left out the name of the judge who granted their petition.
Wonder what they had on him/her to get their way?
Even the very full report in the Herald omits the name of the judge as does the story on STV.
Does the judge really exist or has it all been done on a funny handshake as is usually the case?
as an employee of RH, i can safely say that the closure of RH is nothing to do with politics at all - the managing partners used clients funds when they shouldnt have - end of. Meanwhile myself and other innocent employees are being left to pick up the pieces
From the Law Society's press release we are led to believe all the solicitors at Ross Harper are thieves and their staff are complicit probably never to be trusted again.
Clearly something has happened in the background much more than just a simple fleecing of a client account which at any rate is an everyday occurrence in Scotland's diabolical legal profession.
My suspicionn also include the judge who went along with this dubious application for a JF.
This is what happens after all that loose talk at the dinner..
Oh I see there's an alleged RH employee sounding off now.Finally a chance to ask some questions the lazy journalists forgot to include in the rags/tv.
You of course knew nothing of what your bosses were up to,right?You never saw any papers or transactions worth spilling the beans on,right?
It will be expecting way too much of you to tell the full story to any client who has lost any money and of course you will omit any details that may implicate yourself,right?
Stand up @11:40 AM and talk the talk or walk the walk whoever you are..
"I was only following orders" will take care of any questions.
I wouldn't trust the dust mites from Ross Harper's offices let alone any of the employees.
I am disgusted at the comments being left on here about the staff, we are in the same situation as the clients where we don't know what is happening and face the prospect of no job on Tuesday.
I have nothing to be ashamed of and if I am working on Tuesday and a client contacts me I will do my best to assist them with their enquiries.
Whoever 2.25pm is you obviously don't know all the staff at RH when you are saying you wouldn't trust any of their employees!
2.25PM, I don't know who you think you are berating the RH staff. If you worked in a legal office which I presume you do not by your idiotic stance you would know that staff only act upon partner's instructions and I in particular have no details to hide which may implicate me, and my consciense is clear. I am sure all of my colleagues feel the same way.
I feel sorry for ALL staff we are ALL innocent and were told to go home on Thursday at lunch time for a Happy Easter and come back Tuesday morning. We then we find out via STV News about the judicial factor that we may not have jobs to go back too! I am concerned also for the clients in view of the fact that this happened on the eve a holiday weekend and they will not get any answers until Tuesday.
The staff are not complicit in any way and can be trusted. The 50 staff are as much the victims here as the clients perhaps moreso over what is being said about us and the effect this will have our future careers in the legal profession!
"I am disgusted at the comments being left on here about the staff, we are in the same situation as the clients where we don't know what is happening and face the prospect of no job on Tuesday"
Maybe you should be more disgusted with the Law Society media staff for laying it on so thick in the press.The usual quote from the Law Society in these cases is "no comment" so how come we were treated to multiple phone calls late Wednesday/all Thursday and umpteen requests to get the story out for Friday.
"I have nothing to be ashamed of and if I am working on Tuesday and a client contacts me I will do my best to assist them with their enquiries."
So where did the 300k go & who took it.Or if you really are a RH employee (doubtful) would you like to confirm the correct amount missing?
"Whoever 2.25pm is you obviously don't know all the staff at RH when you are saying you wouldn't trust any of their employees!"
Again with the shock horror.The Law Society have already done the job of tarring you all with the same brush in their press release.Clients will be disgusted you all failed to protect their funds.
Take your own disgust to Drumsheugh Gardens.You can chain yourself to the railings if you like!
As a RH Employee I am disgusted by some of the comments above. We have been conned too.
The Managing Partner's are responsible!!!!!!! Two in particular
"Solicitors con staff and clients" haha great headline should have been April 1st
I can assure you I am an employee of RH and I cannot advise of 1. whether the sums quoted above are correct and 2. where they went too, as you seem to know the two managing partners in question so well, maybe you can advise as you know more than the staff do. All I will say is those two have ran the firm in to the ground and we are the ones being left to pick up the pieces
12.34 nor 2.25 have obviously never worked in a law firm before - the only people who have the power to access client and firm money is the "managing" partners, and the cash room staff under the instructions of the "managing" partners. Anyway, no idea where you get the figure of a "missing" £300,000?? that is why a judicial factor has been appointed - to find out exactly what has been going on with the accounts. that is why the partners certificats have been suspended, as they are the ONLY ones who control movement in and out of the firm and client accounts. Maybe after the judical factor has finalised his work and possible criminal charges against one or more of the partners are brought, will you then believe that support staff at RH are just as much victims as clients. Clients can claim back any missing money through the Law Society Guarantee Fund - unfortunately for employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own, but due to mismanagement, we have no such recompense. If the high earning highly respected partners who knew how to properly run a firm werent pushed out in the place by the four existing partners, the firm wouldnt be in the sad state it is now.
Personally any RH employee to comment on a public forum about an issue still under investigation is playing a dangerous game and should know better.
Err I think the alleged Ross Harper employee is taking this debate off topic.The facts seem to be a law firm has been shut down by the Law Society after money allegedly went missing and coincidentally the same firm jumps on the Glasgow Bar Association bandwagon a few weeks before it all took place however we already know Law Society takes a year and a day to investigate.
The media attention to the Law Society's statement is staggering if so obviously planted by the Edinburgh based monster.Drinks all round on the LSoS for a virtual reprint of the PR?
Anon by the tone of your posts i wonder what your motives are. Perhaps you are a friend /relative of one of the partners or even one of them! your beef seems to be with the staff and not the employers. I trust you are 100 percent honest and would risk losing your job by challenging your bosses if you thought they were doing something wrong. Unless you are one of the handful of employees directly concerned in this nightmare i respectfully suggest your information is WRONG. As an employee myself my conscience is totally clear. 50 people here are at risk of losing their jobs whilst the so called partners bound by a code of ethics have buggered off and left us high and dry!!!!
Anon I wonder at your morbid concern at the demise of Ross Harper. You seem more interested in the partners than the staff. Perhaps you have some connection to them? The tone of your posts seems to be that the wrong doing here is on the part of the Law Society and not the partners of the Firm? If you are a solicitor yourself are you not bound by the same code of ethics which states solicitors have a duty not to act dishonestly? The dishonest actings here were in no way the responsilibity of the staff who have been left high and dry by four partners who have disappeared. Further, as you seem to know so much about this situation you must be aware that the Law Society did not just turn up out of the blue on Thursday and appoint a judicial factor!!! Only the parties specifically involved know the absolute truth - and four of them (ALLEGEDLY) cannot be trusted. The staff are 100% blameless in this fiasco. Might I I suggest you channel your energies into something more useful like helping the unemployed and homeless which some of us might be shortly!!!
What we RH employees are doing on this forum are stating the FACTS, unlike some of the lunatics on this forum who seems to think that there is some sort of cover up by us. We are the ones who are most likely to lose our jobs and maybe our homes! there is no connection at all between RH joining the GBA and a judicial factor being appointed - the Court of Session would only grant a judicial factor if the LS had presented it with real evidence that it had grounds to believe that one was required, urgently. So maybe some of the people on this forum should learn more about the legal system before they make such unfounded comments.
4:16 PM
"Clients can claim back any missing money through the Law Society Guarantee Fund"
Really?
Anyone able enough to stand the six plus years of trying to claim through your Law Society Guarantee Fund usually ends up with 10p in the £1 at most making a loss of 90%.
The next part of it is the client is told to sue if not happy and then goes on to waste £20k on solicitors and a court action which everyone including the judge knows stands no chance of success.
I think you believe too much of your own pr whoever you are.
There must be 40 or more claims into the Guarantee Fund at any one time all of them taking years to be processed.
I hope you tell the clients who are now facing an eternity in oblivion trying to get their own money back.
Maybe they should talk to the press asap and get it all out in the open (assuming of course they are perfectly respectable clients and not gangsters)
If this is one of the staff who are squealing it will be easy enough to identify them.
Keep talking why don't you.
7:12pm - i am sorry that you seem to have had a personal bad experience with dishonest solicitors and with making a claim through the guarantee fund - but your gripe seems to be with the Law Society. I have to say that you seem to be missing the whole point of the Law Society using their power to ask the Court of Session to appoint a judicial factor - the main reason is to PROTECT clients money - the client funds are now in the hands of the judicial factor. Rather than use this forum to spit uncalled venom at us employees, please respect that we are innocent victims as well as the clients in this whole scenario. We all now face a very long weekend not knowing what the partners have done with the accounts, why or what will happen to our jobs, livelihoods and our homes.
is this a threat? empty one at that as there is not much change of being an rh on tuesday! if from the managing partners where have you been when the staff needed guidance the last few days!
While this may well have something to do with accounting concerns I agree that it is more likely a case of an Edinburgh clique and the Law Society of Scotland
'cracking the whip' and making any naysayers in the West sit up.
Re 4.16pm "Clients can claim back any missing money through the Law Society Guarantee Fund"
You jest of course, the said fund is provided by one of the most notorious and corrupt insurance providers in the world, just check out Marsh Insurance on this or any one of dozens of sites worldwide.
Nice company you Scottish solicitors keep, and are required by the Law Society of Scotland to rely on for your Professional Indemnity Insurance and the accompanying right to practise.
maybe its time for any of the 4 remaining partners, probably more so from the 2 managing than the two dealing with staff to post on here to support their ever diminishing staff to support staff and reassure them?? maybe there should be something said to reassure the staff and time for managing partners to stand up as they have voiced so many times prevously, come on Starksy n Hutch aka Alan n Jim!! staff want guidance to keep firm afloat and keep their jobs in a recession!!!
Round of applause for 10.40
It may well be that there are a number of entirely innocent solicitors working at Ross Harper, and if so they can no doubt sue those responsible for any loss of earnings and/or wrongful dismissal. How much easier this would have been had the legal profession in Scotland uttered so much as a single word of support for Lord Gill's Committee's recommendations on the urgently needed reforms of the Scottish
'justice' System - not least the Committee's endorsement of the introduction of class actions.
As it is however, some 2 years later these and other beneficial proposals have been effectively binned - i.e. subject to yet further review - a consequence of the what some might identify as the Scottish legal profession's chief distinguishing characteristic, namely it's miserable, self serving and thoroughly selfish complacency.
Recriminations over RH's swing to the GBA plain & simple.
The 'employee' may well turn out to be one of the Law Society's media team engaged in frantic efforts to prop up Drumsheugh Gdns.
Mark my words what happened to RH can happen now to all of us.Stand up and be counted before the Law Society turn on you.
11:33 AM
Couldn't agree more.
Anyway if the staff view themselves as being innocent parties to whatever happened at RH I'm sure they will be quick to make carefully worded statements to the LSoS supporting the decision to install the JF firm wrecker,thus ensuring a cushy number at a more pro-Edinburgh firm or even a job at Drumsheugh Gardens.
The Law Society are self-serving and not fit for purpose. How on earth can any body expect to represent AND regulate a profession? Conflict of interest much?
In relation to vendettas from the Law Society, if clients' money has been taken then the Law Society are entirely justified to appoint JF. 'Politics at play or money worries' are not mutually exclusive i.e. the Law Society may have taken some satisfaction from this but would also be correct in applying for the JF.
As for the trolls on here gloating over employees losing their jobs and implying they were complicit - your humanity is lacking and you ought to hang your head in shame.
As for the managing partners,if the rumour mill is true, they are going to jail. Or at least one is.
11.33am - if you read the previous posts you will see that there is more than one RH employee posting on here - we simply want to set the record straight with the facts as we know them. As an employee, i can corroborate what my fellow employees have said on this forum. All we want, and all we have ever wanted, is for the managing partners to tell us the truth about the firm, but sadly I think that we will be lucky if we ever see any of the partners again -they didnt even had the guts to tell us on Thursday lunchtime what had happened - we all found out through the media. What happened to RH cannot cannot to all legal firms - most legal firms have partners who know how to manage a firm honestly and realistically. This mess would never have happened if Cameron Fyfe,Professor Susskind, Harvie Diamond and Richard Freeman had not been bullied out by the four remaining partners.
The one who claims to work for RH was doing fine until they came out with all that guff about the Guarantee Fund.
The only people promoting the GF are the Law Society.Reason being subs are required to be paid to fund it.
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/new-scottish-president
How times have changed! (adding to the fact I dont recall the Law Gazette being online in 1988!
The fact that a 50th dinner bash was thrown just two weeks ago and staff were subjected to a speech from Jim Price advising of how he hated redundancies and we had done well over the last year is just a joke.
He is the one who deserves to go to prison for all the stories he told.
Alan Miller has been easily lead by Jim Price and the other two partners didn't have much say about anything. They were too busy trying to see clients and doing their job rather than sitting in a room hatching plans!
I have to ask - if these alleged employees at RH are so sure of their position why are they not revealing their identities and producing evidence to back up their position?
If they have any leg to stand on surely they will tell us who they are and provide some proof,right?
Simply relying on a Law Society appointed stooge to ransack what is left of the firm and supposedly 'reveal' the truth of the matter is not very confidence building,especially if you consider what was said about the Law Society at the Court of Session last week
Gd luck to the ross harper employees
Too public an announcement from the Law Society clearly designed to send a message to dissenting law firms of west Scotland/Glasgow.
Who is next?
2.05pm - we are RH employees cannot contact the law society about the judicial factor - he has been appointed by the Court of Session. the only person we will get any information from on our jobs is the judicial factor. Why on earth do you think if we give statements to the LS supporting appointment of the JF that that will guarantee us jobs??? unfortunately politics will not help us employees, our future is in the hands of the JF. nothing we say or do will change whatever the JF has to do. We have no idea nor ever will of what the managing partners have done to the books, until we find out that one or more of the partners ends up in Court.
3.10pm - i apologise about my comments about the guarantee fund - obviously i only know of it, you obviously have first hand experience of it.
The RH employee (alleged) appears to have a case of major OCD regarding the Law Society/GBA relationship.
Presumably among the 50 staff someone will know what really happened and may have the evidence to prove it.Publish this and we will believe it.
The managing partners created a culture of fear, paranoia and confusion at that firm. They inflicted misery on their employees - sometimes with malice and sometimes via a total lack of awareness. Promoting their incompetant clique and punishing and pushing out the lawyers of talent and repute. They sat in a board room all day long talking inane drivel and hatching crack pot ideas like the X-Factor Trainee. Instead of earning fees, they fiddled whilst Rome burned. They made out their role was to 'manage' the firm. To make it run more efficiently. They did neither. Their self appointed roles were mere fig leafs for their lack of legal ability. Maybe they stole money for the 'right reasons' i.e. to keep people in a job. This does not forgive their total disregard for the feelings of their employees and the affect their bizarre, incompetant and callous actions had on the collective mental well being of the staff. Moreover, they perpetually lied to staff and about staff and former partners and employees. As for the clients, one must sympathise fully with them and hope they are fully re-imbursed.
Well well well, Ross Harper employees ranting. I do not trust lawyers or the admin staff of law firms. "If you fly with the crows you are liable to get shot" as the old saying goes. I told one of Ross Harper's secretary of the former partner Cameron Fyfe's I was delighted to hear he had lost his money to a man who was smarter than he was. His secretary was most displeased with my comments but did she give a damn what happened to me? No chance. Ross Harpers staff do not give a damn about us. If they try and help clients against the Master Policy they will never work in the legal arena again, the Law Society will make sure of that.
We must be suspicious of this secretive Law Society of Scotland's motives here. Has God arrived in Edinburgh and told them to clean up their act if they want to be forgiven for years of client torture and suicides? All law firms embezzle clients money, legal aid, who will stop them other lawyers?
The only court suitable for policing lawyers is the internet court of public opinion. Anyone who works for lawyers these days deserves all they get when it goes tits up.
To 11.33am
No doubt Cameron Fyfe,Professor Susskind, Harvie Diamond and Richard Freeman are all intelligent men and must have at the very least had suspicions about what was going on.
Their silence does nothing to recommend them.
6.24pm - firstly, none of the employees can or need to reveal their identity - the main reason being that we may be called as witnesses if criminal charges are brought against the managing partners. Secondly, what sort of evidence do you think that we have that has anything at all to do with a judicial factor being appointed??? the only people who knew what was happening with the firm accounts were the managing partners. All support staff and even solicitors do not have any idea what goes on behind the scenes of solicitors firms. Some people on this forus have some very strange ideas about how a legal firm works!!
11.30pm - you have told it exactly as it was - the managing partners, in particular one, did barely any work and spent the majority of their time talking drivel to each other in the boardroom, which does not bring any fees in. Their egos drove out some of the most talented and hard working solicitors the firm has ever seen. They even managed to force out a talented young trainee solicitor who had the courage to complain about her "training" to the law society!!
10.23am - the four partners who were forced out know that if they said anything about the four remaining partners that their lives would be made hell by the managing partners who run the firm.
Good luck to all the Ross harper employees and jail for the lawyers
No doubt Cameron Fyfe,Professor Susskind, Harvie Diamond and Richard Freeman are all intelligent men and must have at the very least had suspicions about what was going on.
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I totally agree and urge the public to be wary of these men. I dealt with one of them, and it seems to me the rats have abandoned a sinking ship, and their silence is a serious indication of their real motives for leaving Ross Harper.
APPEAL TO THE FORMER EMPLOYEES OF ROSS HARPER SOLICITORS
It is awful that you have lost your jobs.
Nobody would wish that on anyone.
However, (and forgive me if I generalise too much) there are comments coming from supposed RH employees which highlight the problem with the whole Scottish Legal fraternity.
Quite simply, all Scottish Law firms have been operating in a totally non regulated industry for far too long, where there has been little need for Scottish Lawyers to abide by the law.
This is the environment of default.
Now, it is not an excuse to complain that the system is corrupt or even certain employees at RH were corrupt.
All RH employees had a MORAL DUTY to their clients.
THIS DUTY COMES FIRST before any other measure.
i.e. 'stealing from clients is NOT AND NEVER CAN BE doing the "right thing" to keep the staff employed'
and in any event, I am sure you would agree that the Managing Partners only thought of the staff's wellbeing long after they thought of lining their own pockets.
But there is betrayed a definite lack of care and consideration of the firm's Clients (some may say contempt) as it is clear the Client has not been the reason and purpose of the firm's existence keeping them serviced, rather it is clear that the Client is there to service the expectation of the firm as a cash resource.
This is what is wrong at RH and at all other Scottish Law firms.
It is inconceivable that money could be stolen from clients and the staff be unaware of it.
It is similarly unnacceptable for RH staff to correspondingly claim a clear conscience.
This fraud has been going on for years and the Law Society of Scotland have gladly allowed it to go unpunished (saving up the favours as they go along so that they can 'call-in' those favours when it is expedient to do so.
Clearly the Law Society of Scotland are in open warfare with the Glasgow Bar Association and the Law Society of Scotland are exerting force on their perceived opponents.
If money has been stolen from Clients, then you can be assured that those Clients will miss out as there is zero protection in practice for them.
The best thing that the former RH staff can do is to go straight to the Police and tell them everything they know about RH's dodgy dealings and all the other crooked Scottish lawyer firm's dirty dealings with RH.
If nothing else it will make them feel better and it would be morally the right thing to do
If you choose to work for an employer who's modus operandi as a Scottish Lawyer is to tell lies, then it is somewhat absurd to then decry that same employer when they do the dirty on you....
Ignore the Law Society of Scotland's attempts to protect themselves, go straight to the police and dob them in.
If I could just appeal to the employees who are posting on here to say if you email the Scottish Law Reprter lot they will run your own version of what happened at RH just make sure you tell them who you really are and no probs!
2.10pm - the four partners who were more or less pushed out from RH are under no obligation to say anything about this whole mess - as is widely reported, they disagreed with the other four remaining partners over how to manage the firm - and for this they were more or less voted out of the firm. Two of the departed partners had many years of successfully managing and running Ross Harper. I have no doubt at all that if the four departed partners were still at RH the firm would not be in the state that it is in now.
To be rest of the posts - we as employees did not have ANY knowledge of what the managing partners were doing with the client funds. RH is a large firm with thousands of clients.
The latest Law Society of Scotland is yet another example of what happens when thieves fall out.
To be rest of the posts - we as employees did not have ANY knowledge of what the managing partners were doing with the client funds. RH is a large firm with thousands of clients.
---------------------------------
I wonder how many of the thousands of clients were ruined. I would not tuust any of you.
In reply to;
10.23am - the four partners who were forced out know that if they said anything about the four remaining partners that their lives would be made hell by the managing partners who run the firm.
1:06 PM
Please read the soliciotrs code of professional practise, I believe you will find there confirmation that a solicitor has at all times a primary duty to represent the best interests of his/her client.
Quite how the 4 managing directors could have 'made life hell' for fellow professionals employed elsewhere is not explained, nor does it address the fact that those who might allegedly suffer could of course seek redress via the Courts.
To JP
Follow the 3 RES. RESpect for others. RESpect for yourself. RESponsibility for all your actions.
Dalai Lama
9.22pm unless you actually worked with the four remaining partners (which I did for a number of years) then you would know that (two in particular) did not abide by any rules or codes of conduct and thought that they were above any rules etc. I can assure you that two of the remaining partners did and would make anybody who dared to get on the wrong side of them suffer. All normal convention would fly straight out the window.
9.38pm - i dont quite know what your problem is, obviously you have had a bad experience with solicitors and/or their staff, but do not take your anger out on innocent employees who through NO fault of their own were made redundant.
6.40pm - In reality the Law Society does not have to have any evidence of wrongdoing to get a Judicial Factor, simply lodge a petition stating in their opinion there is or might be client money missing, and it will be granted automatically if no defences are lodged. However, as the firm has at best a day to receive service copy, work out what the allegation is, then get someone to act for them in an Inner House Court of Session case (which isn't cheap either)
Please read the soliciotrs code of professional practise, I believe you will find there confirmation that a solicitor has at all times a primary duty to represent the best interests of his/her client.
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A solicitor HAS NO DUTY TO HIS OR HER CLIENT, self regulation always gets round that one. Where there is a corrupt solicitor there will be a Douglas Mill to protect them. The SLCC and Law Society and many scumbag MSP's make sure that lawyers crimes are dealt with behind a screen of bureaucracy so the solicitors code of professional practise is simply words.
Only clients can control lawyers via bad internet feedback, just like the system on E Bay. Lawyers don't like this idea because they have a great deal to hide.
To be rest of the posts - we as employees did not have ANY knowledge of what the managing partners were doing with the client funds. RH is a large firm with thousands of clients.
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I was one of them that is why I have no compassion for you.
What I can I say, it was only a matter of time before this happened, and I'm not the only one who thought so.
As for the trolls on here gloating over employees losing their jobs and implying they were complicit - your humanity is lacking and you ought to hang your head in shame.
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No Cameron Fyfe should hand his head in shame for taking on litigation cases for clients who's employers are insured by Royal Sun Alliance, when he knows lawyers including himself are insured by Royal Sun Alliance through the Law Society Master Policy, a conflict of interest that ensures his clients never get damages for occupational injury. He pays insurance premiums to the company his clients are seeking damages from just like all lawyers. He will never tell you this when he takes your case on.
so much for the jf and law society helping innocent staff its a disgrace
It was only a couple of weeks ago I read about a young lass who had won a £70000 scholarship from RH how must she be feeling
Funny how Ross Harper staff are annoyed at clients attitude to their plight. Did you care when the partners were ripping off clients, did not hear about you bleating them. As for any solicitor landing in court, it will be because the Law Society are at war with Ross Harper for joining the Glasgow Bar Association they are doing this. If Ross Harper embezzled millions in clients funds, the Law Society would get a slice of that. Lawyers and their staff are all the same as far as I am concerned, those who work for rats should sink with them.
Anonymous said...
So much for the jf and law society helping innocent staff its a disgrace.
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Ross Harpers staff are superflous to the Law Society just like clients. They will protect lawyers or in this case themselves. The staff and clients are the same to them, plebs to exploit for the benefit of lawyers. The staff should tell A Diary of Injustice what has been going on. Turn on the Law Society using the pen just like they will do with you.
I have read all these posts with interest, and feel that as an ex RH employee who worked with the firm for nearly 4 years, I am in a position to clarify some things. Firstly, it is sadly no surprise to me that the firm has had its doors closed by the JF. When four of the hardest working, most respected, highest earning partners were more or less pushed out the door by the four remaing partners, it was merely a matter of time when, not if, the two "managing partners" would bring the firm to its knees. They managed the firm so badly it is no coincidence that in the space of around 2 years over 30 staff left or resigned. The only people (n any law firm, not just RH) who had any control of the client and firm accounts are the partners and the cashroom staff (under the instructions of the partners). I was a trainee solicitor with Ross Harper, but in the 4 years that i was with RH i did not learn a single thing - my only duties were typing and answering phones. This was an excellent arrangement for RH, as it saved them money having to pay another typist to cover for typists who were on maternity leave. Despite repeated attempts to contact my supevising solicitor, Jim Price, to try and get my training sorted out, I was not successful. I eventually had no option but to contact the law society to complain about my training. However, rather than admit that I had not received any training, Jim price and Alan Miller took umbrage at the fact that I had had the courage to complain about my training and told lies about my character and training to the Law Society. Their lies and bullying caused me so much grief that I had no option but to resign. The two of them have put me off law so much that I have not worked since August 2012 and will never work in a solicitors firm again.
caroline rundell
I note your comment. I was the same with a construction company when I was meant to be training in Quantity Surveying. As for the four partners who were forced out I would not trust any of them either. I hope Drummond LLP go down the tubes too.
I hear the Law Society have been determined to shut down Ross Harper for a long time.
It seems they got their wish and the JF will do the right thing [for the Law Society]
Anonymous said...
As for the trolls on here gloating over employees losing their jobs and implying they were complicit - your humanity is lacking and you ought to hang your head in shame.
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Perhaps some of the trolls as you call them have lost relatives to suicide because of the torture lawyers put clients through. I see no distinction between a lawyer and the support staff, you all earn your salaries through client misery.
Seems to be true it was RH's GBA membership and the partner's plans to challenge the Law Society ending up the last straw to the JF.
Its also now going around the Law Society were going to try and shut down/takeover Mike Dailly's precious Govan Law Centre in retaliation for his resignation from the Access to Justice Committee and all the trouble he caused.
All this rubbish from these so-called employees yet not one has dared to come forward and identify themselves.The employees are as much to blame as anyone else for the Ross Harper failure and don't let anyone persuade you otherwise.
I keep hearing people on here talking about the 4 partners who where pushed out and if still had been there the firm would of been ran differently, I'm sure I read that two of them stole 200 files from the firm so I doubt they really cared about any of the staffs welbeing.
The JF is hearing all kinds of tales from the employees "it wisnae me" etc
All the blame piled on Jim Price and no one else involved BS you lot knew the story and did nothing just pocketed your wages and hoped the Law Society would turn a blind eye.
Ross Harper Staff, a message for you and the former partners, about the Human Rights Abusers lawyer are.
Here is what Ross Harper do. The Partner who left partner X will recognise the case from the following.
The former Ross Harper partner X [litigation case] had an arrangement with my sisters GP, and the employer he was (claiming damages from for my sister when he actually was secretly working against her for her employer. He covered up her injuries. They stopped her medical certificates, the GP sent her back to work telling her he would later cover her (he refused) with a medical certificate, the employer would not let her into the factory and partner X refused to help her.
Partner X, told the GP to send her back to work, the employer would not let her in, and the partner would not challenge it. A cosy arrangement. So she had no money for five months, they expected her to leave her employment so that her case would collapse. But partner X we know YOU NEVER INTENDED TO TAKE THE CASE TO COURT FROM THE DAY SHE SIGNED THE LEGAL AID FORMS. YOU CLAIMED THREE YEARS LEGAL AID MONEY TO SAVE HER EMPLOYER.
Yes partner X you know who I am, I am the brother of the women you arranged to starve into submission, because you, the employer and GP were all insured by March UK Royal Sun Alliance. Human rights abusers, who get away with it because she would need a lawyer to stop you. The Law Society refused to investigate you because as you know they are insured by March UK Royal Sun Alliance too.
Partner X, you taught us to never trust a lawyer and the torture you put my sister (THERE WILL BE MORE CLIENTS WHO HAVE HAD SIMILAR TREATMENT) through proves you have no morals, pure evil and we tell everyone your name and what you are. When the GP was caught distorting her medical records, he admitted in his consulting room you worked with him and the employer to starve her into submission to save Royal Sun Alliance. You are evil people, how you sleep an night is beyond us.
This is how self regulators operate, never trust a lawyer. And the GP, he wanted us to trust him again, I told him to book and appointment with a psychiatrist. It is the self regulators of this country who have mental health problems.
I am disappointed to read the criticism of the partners who left. In my view having known them all for a long time, they are all honest men. In business there will always be individuals who one dislikes, that does not make the person dishonest and those who speculate that CF, AS, RF and HD must be dishonest are wrong. They had little option but to leave having been outvoted by smaller men. None have escaped intact, the effects of the subsequent mismanagement of RH will affect all the recent partners including some who have retired. The only real mistake they made was allowing small men into a position where they were able to outvote the only 4 individuals who were capable of keeping the ship afloat. To correct one inaccuracy the vote was 5 to 4 not 4 against 4.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/ross-harper-is-told-to-pay-50000-rent.17344336
Ross Harper is told to pay £50,000 rent
Alison Campsie
Senior News Reporter
Troubled law firm Ross Harper has been ordered by a court to pay almost £50,000 in unpaid office rent as it emerges that a number of staff have now left the company amid a major investigation of its finances.
The bill relates to the company's former premises in Paisley Road, Glasgow, with the owner of the property taking the claim for the outstanding sum to Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Anthony Deutsch ruled that Ross Harper must pay £49,810 to Hopetoun Estates Developments Company, plus interest and costs.
Note it says "a number of staff have now left the company"
Any of those squealing like pigs on here per chance now the money has run out?
In order to be trained you have to pass examinations
anon 9.09pm none of the staff knew anything of the finances,the staff havent left they have all been told by the law society that they will be contacted, they are in limbo you muppet.
12.48am - in order to pass examinations you have to be trained (and supervised)
9.40pm and 10.55pm - you have told it exactly as it is - the four outgoing partners were more or less pushed out by small boys wanting to pay big boy games. Sadly they werent mature enough to deal with the challenge - how can you take a partner who calls everyone "dude" seriously?
The money ran out ages ago, duh. Anyone with a scintilla of intellect knows that if the staff knew the money had 'ran out' and the partners, probably not JM or PM (both ostensibly decent guys and unlikely to be aware of what was going on), were dipping client funds they would have left. And what is wrong with staff 'pocketing' their wages? That is how labour relations work i.e. you sell your labour and you are remunerated for it. The vile comments being made here about staff are, at best, paranoid and moronical. The idea that staff were complicit can only be countenanced by the following classes of people a) Those trying to shift blame for their own actions b) Paranoia laden individuals intent on demonising everyone in the legal industry. History tells us what kind of people demonise whole swathes or classes of people (look up Nazism, Kyhmer Rouge etc) c) People that have never worked and therefore cannot comprehend that in any company/organisation there is a division of labour and responsibilities precluding the need for everyone in an organisation to have intimate knowledge of the finances or the decisions made thereof for a company. The idea that everyone was complicit is preposterous and I would urge RH staff to ignore the wicked and frankly disturbed comments made about them.
As for those baiting RH staff to identify themselves, please look up the word 'irony' as you post anonmously. Show us your courage and mettle. Tell us your name and tell us which industry you work in - if indeed you have a job.
Well said 04.49am
Can I ask what the finance manager or the outsourced accountant were doing instead of constantly blaming partners and former staff?
I believe there was no finance Manager in Ross Harper however there was a finance Partner, unfortunately he was Alan Miller.
Anonymous said...
I am disappointed to read the criticism of the partners who left. In my view having known them all for a long time, they are all honest men. In business there will always be individuals who one dislikes, that does not make the person dishonest and those who speculate that CF, AS, RF and HD must be dishonest are wrong.
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No we are not. They take on litigation cases where if their clients won damages the Law Societies insurers would be paying the damages. All law firms pay into the same insurance arrangements their clients are claiming against. Lawyers, doctors, accountants, employers, all Royal Sun Alliance, so the lawyers take on the cases to make money but the client never gets to court. It is a racket for these professions to make millions. These lawyers know that no one ever wins damages for occupational injury. The purport to act for clients when they are stabbling them in the back because they know clients are rightless.
Message to the 4 partners DON'T DROP THE SOAP! hehe
The Law Society are henchmen of MacAskill who control the press to some extent, and dominate policymaking at the Scottish Parliament. So irrespective of which candidate you vote for in any party the situation will not change. In matters of law therefore we have our elected representatives supporting an unelected omnipotent profession of thieves, thugs, and torturers of their voters. Democracy is a sham because lawyers who hide their criminality in office structures will be allowed to keep doing so because the MSP’s are Law Society puppets who are against the people who voted for them. The Law Society is one branch of a modern form of dominion “bureaucracy or a system of bureaus where it is impossible to identify culprits and no one is accountable for what is being done”. Hannah Arendt. In this case your MSP’s are accountable because they can change this outrageous system. MSP’s are supporters of Scotland’s legal dictatorship. Voters who break the law face the public courts. Lawyers face their colleagues. “The first lesson of civilisation is the desire to exercise power over others, and disinclination to have power exercised over themselves” John Stewart Mill’s statement applies to the Law Society whose members belong more to the Nazi Party than a so called democratic country. Who said democracy meant equal rights?
Can i just say to the trainee that gave up law as a result of bad training that please dont give up law. My experience as a trainee has been very similar at another well known firm. I didnt complain as i knew at this stage theres no point. The law society is the biggest farce existing in modern times. We need honourable honest lawyers and we can only make changes if we are in the field. We might fail but at least we tried.
10.56pm - thank you for your kind comments. Unfortunately I dont really have any option but to go back to being a legal secretary, as I have emailed just about every law firm in lanarkshire and glasgow to ask if it would be possible to continue my pre diploma training with them, but none of them are able to help me out. you are right about the Law Society though - although they were quite helfpul, the whole process of them investigating my complaints about my training,and trying to resolve them, was incredibly slow and didnt help matters at all
why all the anon posters afraid to reveal their names?
Ross Harper has screwed me for money that was left via a will, just before they closed i went through their complaints procedure and have heard nothing since? Anyone know how i get my money am 16?
I know some of the employees are saying they had nothing to do with it but I know of one employee who embezzled £8,000 from Glasgow Print Works, worked for a mental health association and had a couple of tribunals taken out against her bullying and was not only psychotic but a thief and liar. Nice to know she may be out of a job - her cv is full of lies, wonder who she sided with? Defo she'd be a big part of all the trouble, I knew when I heard she was working for RH they'd be ruined.
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