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.
