A Crooked Lawyer - one of the 'cream' of the Scottish Legal Profession exposed as a drug runner - and now awaiting a jail term !

What an honour this must be for the Law Society of Scotland, and the reputation of Scottish lawyers everywhere ...... someone from the supposed 'cream' of the Scottish legal profession, found guilty for ... drug running .... and making plenty money at it too it seems ....

Yes folks, this is just another example of just how crooked, low down, and dirty, the Scottish legal profession has become - from running drugs, to threatening clients & ruining their lives, to buying off politicians, and to even apparently ordering murder hits on their own colleagues .... what a bunch ! - use a lawyer ?? we shouldn't touch those people with a barge pole these days - they are a danger & a menace to us all - including their own it seems .... when some of them are suspected of ordering murder hits on their own colleagues .....

All this makes you really wonder just why the Scottish Executive is so hell bent on clamping down on campaign & protest groups against the legal profession, such as Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers, Injustice Scotland ... and the rest .. to stop public critisism of the legal profession ... (example - Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson proclaiming the SACL website to be defamatory and using the Scottish Courts Service to shut it down .... ) kinda .. sinister, wouldn't you say ??? so why would the Government in Scotland be trying to shut up the critics of the Scottish legal profession, which is obviously riddled with so much corruption ? is it, that the Scottish Executive are getting some kind of backhander from the legal mafia to keep things quiet ? or is it something a lot more sinister we are missing maybe even something connected with the likes of the McKie case ? or connected with .. many cases involving crooked lawyers, some of them now promoted to .. .Judges .... do email me with your thoughts !

Still - it's good to see these kinds of things covered in the newspapers - and I am surprised it's in the Scotsman Tuesday edition - which is usually the legal edition for the lawyers you know .. to keep dwindling sales up ... and it makes a change from articles in the past few days extolling the virtues and seemingly godlike status of lawyers in Scotland ....

So - beware of your crooked lawyer - they might just be a murderer, a drug runner, a gun runner, an embezzler, a thief (especially of your money, your house, or a will) ... or just a plain crook .. take your pick .. there are around 10,000 of them to choose from in Scotland .. and plenty more law students up and coming to join their crooked ranks ... and my oh my, I could tell you a thing or two about some of those 'up and coming' law students ..

Read on for the article, from "The Scotsman", at : http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=380372006

Laywer who brought drugs into jail 'made £50,000'
JOHN ROBERTSON LAW CORRESPONDENT

* Angela Baillie caught smuggling heroin and diazepam for prisoner
* Prosecutors seeking £50,000 for alleged smuggling profits
* Case provoked outrage when judge ordered lawyer should not be named

A CORRUPT lawyer who smuggled drugs into prison has made more than £50,000 from crime, it was alleged yesterday.

Angela Baillie, 32, is awaiting sentence for taking heroin and diazepam tablets worth £1,558 to a client in Glasgow's Barlinnie jail.

However, in a parallel case under the Proceeds of Crime Act, prosecutors are seeking a confiscation order against her to the sum of £52,556. The figure has been calculated by trawling her financial affairs over recent years and working out her expenditure beyond her known income. Baillie, of Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, is contesting the application.

Her prosecution attracted widespread publicity last month when a judge initially made an order which temporarily prevented her from being named. The following day, after representations from the media, Lord Kinclaven lifted the ban under the Contempt of Court Act.

Baillie, who worked for a criminal law firm in Glasgow, had been caught after an insider claimed to the authorities that drugs were being supplied to an inmate by his legal representative during confidential prison visits.

The police were alerted and special screenings were carried out to ensure that none of the prisoners due to meet their lawyers had anything on them before a one-to-one meeting in an individual cubicle.

Baillie's client was strip-searched after his consultation with her and he was found to have a cigarette packet, which had been opened and resealed with sticky tape. It contained 158 diazepam tablets and 14.85g of heroin. DNA on the sticky tape matched samples from Baillie.

The advocate-depute, Peter Ferguson, QC, told the High Court in Paisley that, due to the quantities involved, it was "plain beyond doubt" that the drugs were "for supply to the prison system generally".

Baillie could face a jail term when she appears for sentencing later this month.

Yesterday, a preliminary hearing in the confiscation proceedings was held at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The Crown claimed that Baillie's expenditure over the last six years, funded other than from known sources - she was earning around £30,000 a year - amounted to £52,556 and "represents the benefit from general criminal conduct".

It added that she had a realisable asset, her home, which was worth an estimated £165,000, and she did not have a mortgage on the property.

John Scullion, counsel for Baillie, said both sides were requesting a continuation in the case "to enable these inquiries to be completed".

The judge, Lord Emslie, agreed to schedule another hearing for next month.

....and just to compare events over a few days .... I have tagged on this article from last Friday's Scotsman ... you would think that Kate Rafferty was talking about an entirely different profession .. probably on ... another planet ! I wonder who on earth at the Scotsman dreamt up this following article ?

Where does drug dealing, murdering, thieving, and embezzling come in to her praise of the Scottish legal profession I wonder ? .... and to answer her own last question .. "How far can a law graduate go ?" - well, ma'am - all the way to prison, is the answer ..... just remember - there are plenty LLB holders who are crooks, thieves, gunrunners, hoodlums, embezzlers & murderers - having an LLB doesn't give you an automatic pass to honesty ...

Link to this article, from "The Scotsman" (I don't know why they bother really - it's so obvious propaganda for the legal profession) .. at ;
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=359252006

Fri 10 Mar 2006
Guarding the legal system and protecting the people within
KATE RAFFERTY

THE legal profession may have been with us for centuries, but today's Law Society of Scotland has only been established since 1949.

Established by the Legal Aid and Solicitors (Scotland) Act, it is the governing body for solicitors in Scotland. When simply put, the society is the protector of the legal system in Scotland - protecting the interests of the solicitors and those of the Scottish public in relation to their dealings with the legal profession.

Any solicitor practising in Scotland must be a member of the Law Society, from which the Practising Certificate is issued.

At the moment, there are around 10,000 solicitors in Scotland, who can each provide advice on legal matters and represent clients in court. If a solicitor is also a Notary Public, they can record certain transactions and legal documents.

Advocates are also members of the Faculty of Advocates, part of the College of Justice. Most of the advocate's work involves the higher courts and providing more specialised advice. The initials QC (Queen's Counsel) indicate a senior advocate. Solicitor Advocates are the only other solicitors who can appear in higher courts. This was introduced in 1993, giving solicitor advocates equal rights to advocates.

The Law Society is the first port of call for anyone considering a career in the legal profession. The website www.lawscot.org.uk provides up-to-date information.

A law degree can be a passport to many different careers. Some graduates enter the civil service, go on to work in chartered accountancy, or even financial services.

There are qualified lawyers in industry and business as well as in the media. The police and the diplomatic service are also popular routes taken by those who have achieved the LLB qualification.

How far can a law graduate go? Well, his degree may not have been gained in Scotland, but a certain Edinburgh-born lawyer is currently celebrating his third term at 10 Downing Street.