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.

Appalling. They've now posted a tweet apologising for any offence caused by some 'inappropriate' tweets last night.

God. Paralegal in family law firm here. (We are all talking about it) They are idiots.

Now referring to internal disciplinary action being taken. So maybe not the managing partner, or maybe him but trying to distance himself by implying a minion was behind it

In my opinion, that is exactly what has happened, it is trying to imply that someone junior was behind it. Possibly not true though, especially if you look at previous interactions on social media which were by Mark Small.

Whoever is running the account this morning is still merrily blocking everyone who stands up to them. Not much of an 'apology' either, I have the image in my head of a middle aged man frantically running around trying to catch bank notes that are blowing in the wind.

One of the tweets said that they owned a mediation company. As well as being a conflict of interests, it indicates that it was Mark Small tweeting.

Just seen this Facebook post about this

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1268944649790323&id=100000244016388

Most larger law firms will employ PR firms and if they win a case they will issue a press release about it. That is not illegal. Indeed it is a fundamental principle of British justice that most cases are in the public domain and anyone can turn up and sit in court or report on them.

Secondly however sometimes a client does not want publicity so in most of my work (commercial clients wanting everything fairly secret) I would not mention a public court victory even then. I do tweet but just about new cases and new laws which are not mine.

We do need to be careful on this thread - presumably no one is saying a law firm cannot issue the standard press releasde or tweet saying we won XYZ case (as all cases are in the public domain in most areas of law)? Views on that point from everyone?

I am seriously pissed off about this. Those poor parents. They'd got enough on their plate without being laughed at by the Council's legal team.

user1464519881 I think the consensus isn't that law firms shouldn't have a social media presence, it's that this particular person from this particular firm is sneering at the parents of disabled children.

LMAO at this being done by a junior. If that's the case, the salaries are massive, judging by the pictures from their pool.

Of course you can release a press statement on a case which is (or could have been if anyone was interested) pubically reported. But unpleasant comments and gloating are a bit different!

How ridiculous, no one on this thread has suggested that there can not be press releases.

I think it's perfectly fine for law firms and other professional service firms to have a social media presence. Imperative in fact if they want to be seen to be keeping up with the rest of the world.

But they should be run properly and this shambles is not it.

I think the point is that this firm sought at one point to justify what they were doing by reference to the fact that lawyers regularly do put out press releases. They just seem to be unable to tell the difference between that and putting out a tweet that is gloating over the parents of a disabled child and saying they think it's funny.

user1464519881 your Twitter feed is completely professional and you don't post 'LOL' in response to comments or make personal attacks.
Your feed is a good example of how to use social media.

It's the gloating, nasty style of the tweet that makes it so bad.

You can almost hear the sneer in the tweet.

It's bad enough that Local authorities get away with blatant disregard to the law when dealing with the needs of children with disabilities.

For someone who works for a firm of solicitors to tweet this is totally unprofessional and in no way appropriate.

Fine for law firms to have Twitter accounts (though I don't like it) if their tweets are informative and professional.

Now referring to internal disciplinary action being taken. So maybe not the managing partner, or maybe him but trying to distance himself by implying a minion was behind it

Hmm. It read to me as if it was the person who actually dealt with the case and/or someone senior in the firm who posted the tweets, because s/he
clearly knew a lot about the case. And the style is very similar to all the other tweets on the account.

This sort of thing

And who gives access to their business Twitter account to a minion on a Saturday evening?

I spy bullshit.

That is very helpful. I hadn't read their full twitter feed. In general in work (and in life and relationships) I saw "if in doubt, say now't" which tends to work well.

If you concede 90% of your case but win 10% it is not necessarily that you lost it of course. You still won 10% and sometimes that 10% is enough to win you costs too.

Yes one reason I avoid anything beyond commenting on cases which are not mine on the whole is because of the risks of back lash (as well as clients even in cases which are public often not wanting publicity).
(I don't think they use the word "funny" to mean funny ha ha though. They are saying parents lost 90% of case and yet parents are saying they won and that it is not a win.
Have any of the parents tweeted or put comments on facebook describing their win and have we seen the words they used to compare it all fairly?)

What the parents said doesn't matter though as they're not (supposed) professionals. In a divorce plenty of people will FB or tweet about having "won" in court but that doesn't mean their lawyer should brag about it.

People commenting on the ABA4All Facebook page who have dealt with the senior partner direct seem to think it was him - www.facebook.com/ABAAccess4All/posts/1009904895753990

Totally inappropriate to tweet about these kind of cases.

The more people who report to SRA/ press the better

Also can't tell which LEA was his client but might be worth tweeting them / emailing their chief exec and leader of the council there?

I have looked and can find nothing comparable, after all, winning some of the support that is desperately needed for a disabled child is hardly the same as gloating over denying it.