Is this appropriate conduct for solicitors?

[AugustaFinkNottle]

A solicitors' firm which acts for councils in special educational needs tribunals has tweeted the following:

"Great ABA Trib win this week ... interesting to see how parents continue to persist with it. Funny thing is parents think they won ;)"

I can't link to it due to having been blocked but it's been retweeted, e.g here.

The original tweet resulted in numerous complaints and a quick change to the tweet.

The case they're triumphalising about will have involved a disabled child. Lovely.

I can't see any reason for this thread to be pulled.

Maybe he (I think it was the managing partner) was drunk or whatever but that's hardly an excuse.

My problem is with gloating that a child will have less support and making that child's parents look stupid. The Hillsborough analogy is a good one. If the inquest had gone differently and the police lawyers tweeted about how great it was that they had "won" then they would be pretty widely criticised for that.

Law firms on Twitter has such potential to go wrong, and really very little benefit if you ask me. We're not on there.

I hope there's enough screenshots around now that he's closed the account. Hopefully the papers/ROF/rest of the Internet will pick up too

I don't think the thread should be pulled. It is not identifying to the general public. It would only be identifying for the parents who were involved in the case and may have googled the solicitor. However, it brings the legal profession into enormous disrepute because it gives a horrible impression of lawyers as petty and gloating (despite the subject matter being very sensitive).

If when I was in practice, I had tweeted 'YES, my client got the house-stupid husband for thinking it would be sold' I would quite rightly expect to be sacked and possibly reprimanded by the SRA. I often had the party on the other side googling me (it would show on my linkedin profile) and even though the tweet would not be identifying to everyone reading it, it would to the people involved in the case.
I look forward to reading about this in the Gazette next week....

No, account still active

Ohhh because if you delete the tweets and apologise then that's all good!

Left this up though! Also love the timing of referring to his pro bono session...

That Twitter account is the gift that keeps on giving.

Totally unprofessional.

And what an absolute dickhead.

They must have closed it down and reopened it, if that's possible. Last night if you clicked on any links you got something saying the account didn't exist.

Well, he does advise on Social Media apparently!

Hoping daily mail actually pick up on this thread for once!

Yep! The one time we want the DM to read!

We might see it in Roll on Friday

Hope so!

Please report this to the SRA.

tummy yes I was just thinking ROF would be interested in this story.

Shockingly inappropriate.

Sent ROF a link yesterday. Will also do SRA but want to word it properly. Other people should too- it's really easy and you don't need any personal connection.

I really don't like people making us all look like unethical idiots

TheBouquets I am even sadder to hear that and shocked. I've seen the odd bit of sharp practice but not grasping and greed so I'm sorry to hear this has been your experience. Is there anyone you know who could personally recommend a solicitor? Perhaps from any support groups for your disabilities. I really hope you can find someone decent to help you.

Oh my word that "from the mob" tweet is awful too.

Breathtakingly unprofessional.

Haven't read ROF for ages, I shall look forward to doing so tomorrow!

I would be happy to give them legal advice on their tweeting.

I would suggest that parents of disabled children should complain to the SRA. It's tough enough without knowing that the solicitors acting for your local authority blatantly regard you as an appropriate subject for a laugh on a Saturday night.

You'd have to be off your head on something to be publicly committing career suicide and taking down your firm with you. Have any of the nationals picked this up yet?

Funny how all of his support is coming by private message isn't it? Convenient!

I wonder if those direct emails exist? Even his best friend surely can't say much more than "Stay away from Twitter on Saturday nights"!

I did my articles forty years ago. I was taught that you never discuss your cases with anyone - not even without identifying the parties - with anyone without a "need to know".

That's a counsel of perfection - we probably all have an amusing (well, we think so!) tale to tell. But it's a good starting point and would exclude this, which is disgraceful and unprofessional. Report it.