Charity urges SRA to investigate education law firm in storm over tweets
A leading charity that helps parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities, IPSEA, has urged the Solicitors Regulation Authority to investigate the conduct of Baker Small, the education law firm that sent social media messages boasting of a ‘great win’ in a tribunal case.
The string of messages on the firm’s Twitter account (now deleted) has seen a number of councils this week either cut ties with the legal practice, suspend work or put their arrangements under review. (Click here for our earlier story, including details of managing partner Mark Small’s apology)
In a statement IPSEA said: “[We are] aware that many parents were offended by the message that this firm had ‘won’ a case for a local authority.
“Appeals to the SEND Tribunal do not create winners and losers. In the case referred to, it appears that the Tribunal enabled an outcome that was satisfactory to both parties. Sometimes parents may think for example that they need a different school, but once they get properly specified provision and hear what the LA school is able to do, they are happy with the named school.”
The charity warned that if law firms for local authorities referred to winning a case, parents would become suspicious of any provision they had obtained as a result of the tribunal procedure.
“The outcome is inevitably that the working relationship is ruined. IPSEA are also aware that other parents may well question what they achieved in the past, particularly if this firm represented the local authority,” it added.
IPSEA claimed that Baker Small’s tweets demonstrated that some legal representatives were “too adversarial in a system which is not designed to work in that way”.
The charity’s formal complaint to the SRA can be viewed here. The letter claims, amongst other things, that the actions of the firm had breached the principle that a solicitor must “behave in a way that maintains the trust the public places in [them] and in the provision of legal services”.
A user of Twitter had already complained to the SRA and the Daily Mail has reported that Mark Small has referred himself to the watchdog.
An SRA spokesperson said earlier this week: “We take all complaints seriously and we will look at all the available evidence before deciding on an appropriate course of action.”