A lot of love shared in the Legal Cheek comments
Lawyers have attempted to weather the Leigh Day Grenfell Tower storm this week, using social media and the Legal Cheek comments section to defend the firm’s embattled paralegals.
First a quick recap of the story: allegations two paralegals had been “touting” for Grenfell Tower business have recently come to the fore. The pair’s names, Harnita Rai and Sejal Sachania, reportedly appeared on a poster offering free legal support to fire victims. A disclaimer on the poster apparently stated that a third party “may charge for their services”. Significantly, it is being reported that the poster in question did not contain official Leigh Day contact details for the two rookies, but listed non-work email addresses instead.
The top human rights firm has suspended the training contract hopefuls while an internal investigation is pursued, but did the paralegals do wrong? Not everyone is convinced.
Take Richard Moorhead. In a lengthy Twitter thread, the UCL academic said that “the evidence of ‘touting’ by two clerks appears to be a poster. A poster is not touting”. He continued:
The two clerks appear to be working pro bono or for some third party without their empoyers permission. 4/?
— Richard Moorhead (@RichardMoorhead) July 8, 2017
That is the extent of the connection between the story and Leigh Day. It is weak. 6/?
— Richard Moorhead (@RichardMoorhead) July 8, 2017
Lawyer Andrew Vickerstaff suggested suspending the paralegals was a “heavy handed” move by the firm:
Seems pretty heavy handed by Leigh Day if no reference to firm or work email addresses in the poster? https://t.co/NgTtgk5tG8
— Andrew Vickerstaff (@AndyVickerstaff) July 8, 2017
While others expressed their concern via the Legal Cheek comments section. Here’s a flavour of some of the comments we’ve received:
This surprises me. At some outfits this would be deemed “showing initiative”.
Unclear why this is so wrong if they truly were only offering free legal support?
Provided the firm was not mentioned on the poster, what is the issue with this?
Some balance has been provided by the Mail Online comments section and other social media users. Over at the former, one commenter said the firm has “no morals or ethics at all”; another described its lawyers as “lower then a snakes belly” (sic). One reader commented: “Time to clamp down on legal aid….the system is being exploited and abused by lawyers and criminals/terrorists.”
It’s worth noting the likes of these tweets too:
Uproar as 'Ambulance Chasing Lawyers' try to drum up business from #GrenfellTower. Is anyone really surprised by this though? pic.twitter.com/4952AURkXj
— David Williams (@AXADavidW) July 8, 2017
I don't like anything I've ever heard about leigh day frankly and had they come unde the scottish jurisdiction would have been shut down
— FionaHarvey (@FionaHa09210946) July 8, 2017
When we got in touch with Leigh Day to get its take on all this, we were told the firm is unable to comment because an internal investigation is ongoing. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) too is unable comment at this stage, and will only be able to do so if and when a regulatory decision is taken. It is worth noting SRA rules prohibit cold calling and other similarly intrusive methods, but this does not mean all promotional/marketing material is banned.
For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub.