CRIME SOCIETY: Law Society of Scotland 'unfit for purpose' as calls grow for Scots solicitors to be stripped of self regulation powers used by lawyers to investigate themselves

Scots solicitors should be stripped of powers to police themselves. FROM SCANDAL to scandal, the all too powerful Law Society of Scotland has managed to dodge calls for the legal profession to be stripped of their self regulation powers which ensure lawyers investigate themselves, and ultimately look after their own.

No matter the amount of damage to personal lives, families & businesses of clients, tens of millions a year in clients cash and property lost to cheating solicitors with a practising certificate backed up by their trade union body – the Law Society of Scotland - the legal profession has sailed through each scandal to blag another day.

Even after two Scottish Parliamentary inquiries, the same faces sit proud at their Law Society desks, revelling in their defence of their colleagues. Grim.Almost, horrific.

Those Parliamentary inquiries? The first - in 2003 was compromised by its pro self-regulation approach right from the start.

After taking tea with the legal eagles, the Justice Committee went onto conclude there should be no change to lawyers patting themselves on the back after another successful burglary well done.

And the second Justice 2 Committee inquiry in 2006 which promised so much - ended in the brutally watered down Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007 courtesy once more of vested legal interests, hysterical threats from legal chiefs and Law Society arm twisting.

Today as much as yesterday, rogue lawyers still pat themselves on the back for every fraud dodged, every ruined client and complaint put to sleep. Why not? They have ultimate protection from clients, delivered by their very own colleagues at the Law Society of Scotland.

And of course, let’s not forget the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) - trumpeted by the Scots legal establishment as the ‘independent’ face of legal regulation in Scotland since 2008.

Independent? Not.

The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission is run by the same people who looked after lawyers at the Law Society of Scotland - 'Independent' Scots legal watchdog consists of solicitors’ husbands, wives, sons, daughters, cousins, friends, & employers.

The Law Society also appointed Neil Stevenson -  one of their own former Directors - to the top CEO post at their friendly ‘indy’ £3m a year SLCC quango earlier this year.

What stunning successes for clients has the SLCC produced since it was created in 2008? Not one: Scottish Legal Complaints Commission - A history of pro-lawyer regulation.

With the accumulating scandals of Scottish lawyers up to no good – from Christopher Hales to John O’Donnell to the usual suspects and more - where the Law Society of Scotland investigates its own, over and over, and pats itself on the back for a job well done protecting colleagues, calls are again now being made to strip lawyers of their powers to police themselves.

The Scottish Sun reports:

The Big Read: Law and disorder

By RUSSELL FINDLAY Scottish Sun, 6 December 2015

CRITICS are calling for an end to the secretive “old boys’ club” which sees Scots lawyers police themselves.

It took the Law Society of Scotland four years to give police details of its probe into an alleged mortgage fraud linked to solicitor Christopher Hales and MP Michelle Thomson.

But legal experts insist this would not have happened if we had the same system of outside supervision that operates down south.

Last night a former Cabinet minister said it is “astonishing” that a trade body remains in charge of disciplining lawyers here.

Ex-Labour MP Brian Wilson said: “It’s clearly an old boys’ club and a closed shop which very much looks after its own.

“The Law Society seems to be under no obligation to report serious wrongdoing to the police until it suits them.

“It’s fundamentally wrong for lawyers to have special status. Scotland needs an independent system of regulation to protect the public.”

In July 2011 the Law Society uncovered a “potential fraud” involving 13 property deals linked to the SNP’s Ms Thomson and others.

It had an agreement at the time to share information with the then-Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.

But its “suspicious activity report” on Mr Hales was sent to the London-based Serious Organised Crime Agency, which focused on money laundering and terrorist financing.

The lawyer was suspended in September 2011 but was not struck off until May 2014.

And it took the Law Society another 14 months before it handed over its papers on the case to the Crown Office.

Police were then instructed to probe Ms Thomson — now MP for Edinburgh West.

But today we can reveal cops down south would have been alerted four years ago.

Since 2007 all lawyers in England and Wales have had to answer to the independent Solicitors Regulation Authority.

And an SRA spokesman said: “It is standard practice to disclose information to police should we uncover evidence of suspected criminality.”

Scots Labour shadow justice secretary Graeme Pearson, above right, blasted the Thomson delay, saying: “An early report of suspected criminality is easier to investigate.”

Lawyer and ex-Scotland Yard detective Rowan Bosworth- Davies added: “This should have been reported to local cops as soon as possible.”

In other cases the Law Society has unearthed evidence of suspected criminal behaviour by lawyers — but did not inform police.

So instead of facing trial, briefs had their knuckles rapped by legal colleagues.

And victims of crooked lawyers say the complaints system is stacked against them.

A Law Society of Scotland spokeswoman said: “We work alongside an independent complaints-handling body and independent discipline tribunal.

“Much evidence suggests the system of regulation in England and Wales is more complicated and expensive.

“We are legally obliged to report to the authorities where we have concerns about possible criminality, and we do.”

HITMAN LINK:

An investigator who was knifed more than ten times suspected a lawyer of ordering the hit.

Ex-Law Society boss Leslie Cumming, 71, believed an Edinburgh solicitor, who we cannot name, paid thug Robert Graham to carry out the 2006 attack in the city’s Murrayfield.

Mr Cumming, told us 19 days before he died of cancer in February: “There were two solicitors who were well connected with criminals – he was one looked at”

SNEAK BRIEF:

A SHAMED lawyer dodged being struck off despite breaking money laundering rules.

Glasgow solicitor John O’Donnell, 65, struck a secret deal with the Law Society in 2009 in which he agreed to stop working. He had been found guilty of six counts of misconduct and once “borrowed” £60,000 from an unwitting client.

But the brief used another lawyer’s name to continue duping punters.

Identity of Mr Big who paid for ‘hitman’ to slash Law Society ex Chief Accountant ‘is known to Police’ as Robert Graham gets ELEVEN years for attack

Robert Leiper Graham was sentenced to eleven years for attack on Law Society’s Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming. ROBERT GRAHAM (46), the ‘hitman’ who was convicted in mid November 2011 by a majority jury verdict after being extradited from Australia to face trial for carrying out an attack on Leslie Cumming the now retired Chief Accountant of the Law Society of Scotland,  was sentenced to ELEVEN YEARS earlier this week on Thursday at the High Court in Edinburgh for his part in what was alleged to have been an attempted murder bid rather than ‘a wounding’ (as key legal insiders suspect) to warn Mr Cumming off investigating ‘crooked lawyers’.

The mysterious attack on Leslie Cumming in 2006, was the subject of private briefings given by the Law Society’s most senior officials, seeking to blame the attack on critics of the legal profession yet only one single newspaper ran the Law Society’s claims after it had become clear the attack was most likely organised by a crooked colleague of Mr Cumming connected to or from within the legal profession itself.

Reported on BBC News and in the Daily Record newspaper, Judge John Morris QC, passing sentence in Edinburgh, told Graham: "You have been convicted by a jury of a pre-meditated and sustained murderous attack on a member of the public going about his lawful business, and you did that apparently for financial gain.” He continued : "In these circumstances I'm sure you'll appreciate a substantial custodial sentence is appropriate." Judge Morris also recommended deportation for Graham after he had served his sentence.

While Graham has never admitted who paid him to carry out the attack, it is widely accepted Police are well aware of the identity of the villain(s), reported to be connected to Scotland’s legal world. However as of yet, no steps have been taken to arrest anyone else in connection with the 2006 attack, casting doubt on the ability of Lothian & Borders Police to get the individuals behind the crime, whose identity & position some say “may be causing fear & alarm in legal circles for the opening of a larger can of worms if additional arrests are ever made.”

TRIAL OF LAW SOCIETY ACCOUNTANT’S ATTACKER :

During the trial, Graham denied attempting to murder the Law Society accountant, claiming he did not assault Mr Cumming, rather he intervened in the attack, (allegedly carried out by another party) to stop Mr Cumming getting “a bigger hiding”. Graham also told the court he was born in Ireland as Paul Francis McGhee before emigrating to New Zealand at the age of nine but in Britain he called himself Robert Graham. The court also heard from a witness that Graham had confessed to a colleague that he had "done a judge in" and was paid £10,000 by a guy in a BMW to give him "a good working over".

The witness who told the court of the alleged boast by Graham, scaffolder Nicholas Wells said he started work at Wembley Stadium in January 2006 and Graham joined a few weeks later. In a statement to police, he said: "He told me around this time he had done a judge in in Edinburgh, having jumped out some bushes at him. I can recall him telling me the guy from the BMW paid him £10,000 to do the job and told him to give the guy a good working over." Mr Wells told the court he had been approached by the police at a site he was working on in Edinburgh in 2009. Asked if he had told them the truth, Wells replied: "As I remember it at the time." He added: "I was taking a lot of drugs at the time. I was taking a lot of sleeping tablets ... it is hard to remember it all clearly now."

The court heard that during the assault, Mr Cumming grasped the balaclava worn by the attacker in an attempt to pull it off while further DNA evidence was recovered from the Barbour jacket Mr Cumming was wearing at the time of the attack. Additional DNA material was taken from Mr Cumming before doctors treated his wounds, and the DNA was linked back to Graham in tests.

At the conclusion of the trial, John Logue, Area Procurator Fiscal for Lothian & Borders, said: “In 2006 Robert Graham targeted and tried to kill Leslie Cumming because he was paid to do so. Today, almost six years later, he has been found guilty of this vicious and cowardly attack after being extradited from Australia.”

Mr Logue continued : “He was brought to justice by the perseverance and diligence of officers in Lothian and Borders Police who tracked him down, assisted by Interpol and authorities in New Zealand and Australia. I hope that today’s successful prosecution will secure the confidence of the Scottish public that those who try to evade justice will be pursued and brought before the courts.”

Commenting after the majority verdict convicted Robert Graham of the attack on Mr Cumming, the Solicitor General for Scotland, Lesley Thomson QC, said : "He uses the name Robert Leiper Graham in this country and Paul Francis McGhee in New Zealand. The Crown is not in a position to say he is either of these people at this stage." Ms Thomson also said when Graham left New Zealand in 1999 there was an outstanding warrant out for him and that a notice had been served on him in a move to deport him from Britain.

Leslie Cumming, former Law Society of Scotland’s Chief Accountant. At the end of the trial, Mr Cumming commented : "The police perseverance and professionalism and the Crown Office input have been vital in securing the result. It's important to me that I got that closure and I just want to thank the members of the team who were involved in this complicated case for their efforts on my behalf. The actual event was horrific and bloody and having to explain to the court in such detail as we could recall at this time was traumatic for my wife and me. I hope now the trial is complete and the result is known that this nightmare has ended for us and we can get back to normal life."

However, the multi million pound investigation carried out by Lothian & Borders Police and the subsequent conviction of Robert Graham left more questions than answers over why the attack occurred in 2006, who allegedly paid Graham to carry our the attack and why Law Society of Scotland officials and a media outlet were so keen to pin the blame for the attack on critics & campaigners in a year where the Scottish Parliament had begun a major investigation into the Law Society of Scotland and its notoriously prejudiced closed shop handling of the regulation of crooked lawyers.

Over the years, insiders have claimed the Police have a good idea of exactly who ordered the attack on Mr Cumming, some even linking up the incident to other well reported frauds in Scotland which involved millions of pounds, well known crooked solicitors and a banker. However Lothian & Borders Police have said nothing officially on any of these claims.

The answer to the attack may well lie in Leslie Cumming's role with the Law Society of Scotland, where as its Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Accountant, Mr Cumming was in charge of teams of inspectors who audit the financial accounts of law firms to ensure compliance with the Law Society’s rules (rules to keep accounts, not rules to rip off clients as much as possible and undetected). Mr Cumming was also involved in disciplinary cases, of which there are many, many resulting in no criminal convictions where, for example a solicitor might make off with half a million pounds from a deceased’s client will, and get away with it, and be allowed to carry on working.

It is also noteworthy Mr Cumming in his role as Deputy Chief Executive played number two to the also now former Chief Executive Douglas Mill, who resigned in disgrace after a scandal involving the fiddling of Master Policy insurance claims against crooked lawyers which was exposed by the now Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney during a meeting of the Justice 2 Committee later the same year Cumming was attacked. The video footage of Mr Swinney’s exposure of Douglas Mill & the Law Society’s Master Policy fraudulent insurance fiddle scheme, can be viewed online HERE.

The conviction of Graham for the assault on Mr Cumming also closes the book on the Law Society’s attempt to fit-up critics & campaigners for the 2006 incident, where it was reported, senior Law Society officials had even provided statements to Police urging them to ‘collar’ persons the Law Society ‘did not get along with’.

Law Society of Scotland officials used Police, newspapers in attempt to link their critics to attack on Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming The Law Society of Scotland has of course, declined to explain why its senior officials gave private briefings to newspaper journalists just after the attack on Mr Cumming in late January of 2006, urging the publication of stories which were intended to pin the blame for the assault on Mr Cumming on critics & law reform campaigners who were seeking an end to self regulation of the legal profession (Cash laundering link to law chief stabbing, 29 January 2006, Scotland on Sunday). However, journalists at the time identified those at the Law Society who were involved in the private briefings & telephone calls to newspapers. Strangely, not one Law Society official was identified in the Scotland on Sunday story despite the highly charged accusations levelled against critics & law reform campaigners published in the paper.

A spokesperson for the Law Society of Scotland said of Mr Cumming at the end of the trial : "He was a dedicated and popular member of staff and the attack was a great shock to his former colleagues. Leslie was determined not to let the attack stop him from living life to the full and he has done that in so many ways."

Like his former Boss, Douglas Mill who has a consultancy business, Leslie Cumming now runs his own consultancy business, Leslie Cumming Consultancy Services.

The trial of Robert Graham at the High Court in Edinburgh commenced on 7 November 2011 and last for 9 days. It was prosecuted by the Solicitor General for Scotland, Lesley Thomson QC, who was the Procurator Fiscal in the abandoned Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of a young girl who was massively overdosed with radiation, the Crown Office made the usual claims “lessons will be learned”.

Mr Logue’s claims that those who try to evade justice will be pursued & brought before the courts apparently do not apply to lawyers who swindle millions of pounds from the legal aid budget each year in multiple frauds, as revealed by Diary of Injustice in an earlier report here : FOURTEEN lawyers accused of multi-million pound legal aid fraud escape justice as Scotland’s Crown Office fail to prosecute all cases in 5 years

In a double slap to Mr Logue’s contentions of what happens to those who evade justice, one of the FOURTEEN alleged legal aid fraudster lawyers who escaped prosecution by the Crown Office, was/is married to one of Mr Logue’s own Procurator Fiscal colleagues, reported here : Admissible Evidence ? Crown Office Prosecutor married to lawyer accused of legal aid fraud, both still working, Legal Aid Board ‘convinced of guilt’

Diary of Injustice previous coverage of the attack on Leslie Cumming and the saga of the trial of Mr Graham can be read here : The blame game & who paid for attack on Law Society Chief accountant Leslie Cumming

Conviction of ‘Paid Hitman’ over Leslie Cumming ‘murder bid’ leaves more questions than answers in Law Society’s organised fit-up of critics scandal

Robert Graham was convicted of the attack on former Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming of the Law Society of Scotland. ROBERT GRAHAM (aged 46), an alleged ‘paid hitman’ who stood accused of an attempted ‘murder hit’ which took place in January 2006 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh against Leslie Cumming, the now former Chief Accountant of the Law Society of Scotland, was convicted today at the High Court in Edinburgh after a trial lasting nine days. Mr Graham was found guilty by a majority jury verdict and was remanded in custody to appear for sentencing on 15 December. Mr Graham was extradited back to Scotland from Australia last year to be charged with repeatedly striking Mr Cumming on the head and body with a knife or similar instrument to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life in the attack which took place six years ago.

The High Court heard earlier this week from Graham who denied attempting to murder the Law Society accountant, claiming he did not assault Mr Cumming, rather he intervened in the attack, (allegedly carried out by another party), to stop Mr Cumming getting “a bigger hiding”. During the accused’s testimony, Graham told the court he was born in Ireland as Paul Francis McGhee before emigrating to New Zealand at the age of nine but in Britain he called himself Robert Graham. The court also heard from a witness that Graham had confessed to a colleague that he had "done a judge in" and was paid £10,000 by a guy in a BMW to give him "a good working over".

The witness who told the court of the alleged boast by Graham, scaffolder Nicholas Wells said he started work at Wembley Stadium in January 2006 and Graham joined a few weeks later. In a statement to police, he said: "He told me around this time he had done a judge in in Edinburgh, having jumped out some bushes at him. I can recall him telling me the guy from the BMW paid him £10,000 to do the job and told him to give the guy a good working over." Mr Wells told the court he had been approached by the police at a site he was working on in Edinburgh in 2009. Asked if he had told them the truth, Wells replied: "As I remember it at the time." He added: "I was taking a lot of drugs at the time. I was taking a lot of sleeping tablets ... it is hard to remember it all clearly now."

The court heard that during the assault, Mr Cumming grasped the balaclava worn by the attacker in an attempt to pull it off while further DNA evidence was recovered from the Barbour jacket Mr Cumming was wearing at the time of the attack. Additional DNA material was taken from Mr Cumming before doctors treated his wounds, and the DNA was linked back to Graham in tests.

Forensic scientist Amanda Pirie, 39, told the High Court last Friday it had been a "full" match which was "as good as it gets" and left a one in a billion chance that it belonged to someone else. She added that another match had been made with DNA found on the jacket Mr Cumming was wearing when he was attacked. She said: "In our opinion the scientific findings from examination of the jacket and the left hand swabs are consistent with Robert Graham having assaulted Leslie Cumming as alleged."

At the conclusion of the trial today, John Logue, Area Procurator Fiscal for Lothian & Borders, said: “In 2006 Robert Graham targeted and tried to kill Leslie Cumming because he was paid to do so. Today, almost six years later, he has been found guilty of this vicious and cowardly attack after being extradited from Australia.”

Mr Logue continued : “He was brought to justice by the perseverance and diligence of officers in Lothian and Borders Police who tracked him down, assisted by Interpol and authorities in New Zealand and Australia. I hope that today’s successful prosecution will secure the confidence of the Scottish public that those who try to evade justice will be pursued and brought before the courts.”

Leslie Cumming, former Law Society of Scotland’s Chief Accountant. At the end of the trial, Mr Cumming commented : "The police perseverance and professionalism and the Crown Office input have been vital in securing the result. It's important to me that I got that closure and I just want to thank the members of the team who were involved in this complicated case for their efforts on my behalf. The actual event was horrific and bloody and having to explain to the court in such detail as we could recall at this time was traumatic for my wife and me. I hope now the trial is complete and the result is known that this nightmare has ended for us and we can get back to normal life."

Commenting after the majority verdict convicted Robert Graham of the attack on Mr Cumming, the Solicitor General for Scotland, Lesley Thomson QC, said : "He uses the name Robert Leiper Graham in this country and Paul Francis McGhee in New Zealand. The Crown is not in a position to say he is either of these people at this stage." Ms Thomson also said when Graham left New Zealand in 1999 there was an outstanding warrant out for him and that a notice had been served on him in a move to deport him from Britain.

Detective Chief Inspector Keith Hardie, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: "We welcome today's verdict which sends out a clear message that Lothian and Borders will quite literally pursue people to the other side of the world to bring them to court. He is a devious character, who has lived a lie for most of his adult life, and there were major concerns he would do his best to continue to evade justice."

However, the multi million pound investigation carried out by Lothian & Borders Police and the subsequent conviction of Robert Graham this week leaves more questions than answers over why the attack occurred in 2006, who allegedly paid Graham to carry our the attack and why Law Society of Scotland officials and a media outlet were so keen to pin the blame for the attack on critics & campaigners in a year where the Scottish Parliament had begun a major investigation into the Law Society of Scotland and its notoriously prejudiced closed shop handling of the regulation of crooked lawyers.

Over the years, insiders have claimed the Police have a good idea of exactly who ordered the attack on Mr Cumming, some even linking up the incident to other well reported frauds in Scotland which involved millions of pounds, well known crooked solicitors and a banker. However Lothian & Borders Police have said nothing officially on any of these claims.

The answer to the attack may well lie in Leslie Cumming's role with the Law Society of Scotland, where as its Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Accountant, Mr Cumming was in charge of teams of inspectors who audit the financial accounts of law firms to ensure compliance with the Law Society’s rules (rules to keep accounts, not rules to rip off clients as much as possible and undetected). Mr Cumming was also involved in disciplinary cases, of which there are many, many resulting in no criminal convictions where, for example a solicitor might make off with half a million pounds from a deceased’s client will, and get away with it, and be allowed to carry on working.

It is also noteworthy Mr Cumming in his role as Deputy Chief Executive played number two to the also now former Chief Executive Douglas Mill, who resigned in disgrace after a scandal involving the fiddling of Master Policy insurance claims against crooked lawyers which was exposed by the now Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney during a meeting of the Justice 2 Committee later the same year Cumming was attacked. The video footage of Mr Swinney’s exposure of Douglas Mill & the Law Society’s Master Policy fraudulent insurance fiddle scheme, can be viewed online HERE.

The conviction of Graham for the assault on Mr Cumming also closes the book on the Law Society’s attempt to fit-up critics & campaigners for the 2006 incident, where it was reported, senior Law Society officials had even provided statements to Police urging them to ‘collar’ persons the Law Society ‘did not get along with’.

Law Society of Scotland officials used Police, newspapers in attempt to link their critics to attack on Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming The Law Society of Scotland has of course, declined to explain why its senior officials gave private briefings to newspaper journalists just after the attack on Mr Cumming in late January of 2006, urging the publication of stories which were intended to pin the blame for the assault on Mr Cumming on critics & law reform campaigners who were seeking an end to self regulation of the legal profession (Cash laundering link to law chief stabbing, 29 January 2006, Scotland on Sunday). However, journalists at the time identified those at the Law Society who were involved in the private briefings & telephone calls to newspapers. Strangely, not one Law Society official was identified in the Scotland on Sunday story despite the highly charged accusations levelled against critics & law reform campaigners published in the paper.

A spokesperson for the Law Society of Scotland said of Mr Cumming : "He was a dedicated and popular member of staff and the attack was a great shock to his former colleagues. Leslie was determined not to let the attack stop him from living life to the full and he has done that in so many ways."

Like his former Boss, Douglas Mill who has a consultancy business, Leslie Cumming now runs his own consultancy business, Leslie Cumming Consultancy Services.

The trial of Robert Graham at the High Court in Edinburgh commenced on 7 November 2011 and last for 9 days. It was prosecuted by the Solicitor General for Scotland, Lesley Thomson QC, who was the Procurator Fiscal in the abandoned Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of a young girl who was massively overdosed with radiation, the Crown Office made the usual claims “lessons will be learned”.

Mr Logue’s claims that those who try to evade justice will be pursued & brought before the courts apparently do not apply to lawyers who swindle millions of pounds from the legal aid budget each year in multiple frauds, as revealed by Diary of Injustice in an earlier report here : FOURTEEN lawyers accused of multi-million pound legal aid fraud escape justice as Scotland’s Crown Office fail to prosecute all cases in 5 years

In a double slap to Mr Logue’s contentions of what happens to those who evade justice, one of the FOURTEEN alleged legal aid fraudster lawyers who escaped prosecution by the Crown Office, was/is married to one of Mr Logue’s own Procurator Fiscal colleagues, reported here : Admissible Evidence ? Crown Office Prosecutor married to lawyer accused of legal aid fraud, both still working, Legal Aid Board ‘convinced of guilt’

Another of the fraudsters, who defrauded the Scottish Legal Aid Board of TWO MILLION POUNDS & committed suicide before being charged, was married to a Police Officer in training at Tulliallan Police College, who was, according to Scottish Government sources, due to pass out the same day her husband jumped in front of a train, reported here : Justice Secretary’s discredited defence for Crown Office in 14 legal aid fraud scandals as links between accused lawyers & Scots crime agencies emerge

Leslie Cumming ‘hit’ trial : Accused pleads not guilty to attack used by Law Society Chiefs in media effort to silence critics of crooked lawyers

Leslie Cumming, former Law Society Chief Accountant was attacked in January 2006, Law Society blamed critics, others blamed corrupt lawyers who feared investigation. NEARLY SIX YEARS after a ‘murder hit’ was carried out on Leslie Cumming, the now retired Chief Accountant of the Law Society of Scotland, the trial of the man charged over the attack, Robert Graham (46) who was arrested in Australia late last year and extradited back to Scotland earlier in 2011, began yesterday at the High Court in Edinburgh, with the accused pleading not guilty to the ‘frenzied attack’ on Mr Cumming, lodging a special defence claiming the offence was not committed by him but by a third party, whose name he did not know.

The attack in late January 2006, saw Mr Cumming suffer multiple stab wounds during an attack near his home in Murrayfield, Edinburgh. However, just a few hours after the attack, Mr Cumming’s colleagues at the Law Society of Scotland rushed to contact journalists at certain newspapers, to organise an effort to blame the ‘murder hit’ on critics of the legal profession & campaign groups who called for reform of regulation of lawyers in Scotland. According to one newspaper journalist who covered the story at the time, private off-the-record briefings were given by senior Law Society officials to selected journalists where it was made plain that critics of the Law Society “deserved to be blamed for the attack”.

Law Society of Scotland officials used Police, newspapers in attempt to link their critics to attack on Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming. As it became clear the Law Society was not to have its way in media attempts to finger its key critics for a part in the attack on Mr Cumming, information discussed among journalists in the few days after the incident revealed that senior officials of the Law Society had provided claims & statements to Lothian & Borders Police alleging critics, campaigners and even some ruined clients who had complained to the Law Society were behind what was described as a ‘murder hit’ on Mr Cumming.

A journalist had also reported from Police sources that “Law Society officials were putting pressure on the Police to interrogate & charge certain people over the incident”, (the same certain people the Law Society wanted to discredit before a Justice Committee investigation into regulation got off the ground later that year) although none of the individuals whose names were allegedly handed over to Lothian & Borders Police by the Law Society reported being contacted by the Police at any time during the investigation.

Yesterday during the first day of the trial of Robert Graham at the High Court in Edinburgh, who is being prosecuted by the current Solicitor General, Lesley Thomson, (who may be better known to some as the Procurator Fiscal in the abandoned Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of a patient who was massively overdosed with radiation at the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow ), the court heard from Dr Rachel Miller, the forensic medical examiner who examined Mr Cumming in hospital three days after the attack occurred. Dr Millar told the court : “The pattern and type of injuries were consistent with a sustained, frenzied, vicious attack with a sharp, pointed weapon such as a knife which could have had a serrated edge”.

Dr Miller said she was informed that Mr Cumming fell onto his knees pulling the attacker towards him. The attacker had then walked away. She said Mr Cumming had sustained more than 40 injuries, although some were due to medical treatment and others had been picked up while gardening.

Dr Miller continued, telling the court Mr Cumming had injuries to the face, chest, back, arms and legs and that sutures & staples had been used to close some wounds and a chest drain had been put in. Dr Miller said the pattern and type of injuries sustained by Mr Cumming were "consistent with sustained, frenzied, vicious attack" with a sharp pointed weapon which could have had a serrated edge. At the initial hearing yesterday, the jury were also shown photographs of Mr Cumming's injuries.

Today the High Court heard from Mr Cumming himself, who told the jury he saw a "circle of pale face coming out of the darkness" as he emerged from his car in Ormidale Terrace, a lane behind his home in Murrayfield. Mr Cumming went onto describe the attack, telling jurors he realised a blade or knife was involved. He remembered being struck on the side of his face and then shortly afterwards realising he had blood running down the side of his neck. Further details on today’s hearing before judge John Morris QC is reported in the Daily Record newspaper HERE.

Followers of the story so far on the attack on Leslie Cumming will now be familiar with a report which appeared in the newspaper Scotland on Sunday on 29 January 2006,a report which appeared in the newspaper Scotland on Sunday (Cash laundering link to law chief stabbing, 29 January 2006)) a few days after the incident occurred, where senior Law Society figures attempted to pin the blame for the attack on this blog, critics of the Law Society’s poor regulation of crooked lawyers and campaign groups.

Without naming the Law Society officials who said it, Scotland on Sunday reported in the article : Senior figures in the Law Society have made it known they feel some of the websites criticising lawyers are tantamount to incitement to violence” while sources close to the Police confirmed separately to this reporter the highest officials at the Law Society were urging the Police and even the Scottish Executive of the time to stamp out online criticism of lawyers.

At the time of the incident, Diary of Injustice had existed for around three weeks after its creation in the first few days of 2006 to support the passage of the Legal Profession & Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill through the Scottish Parliament in what was to become a very bitter, at times venomous fight between the vested interests of lawyers and consumer groups campaigning for independent regulation of corrupt Scottish lawyers. Needless to say as the evidence now shows, the vested interests won and what became the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission was compromised by the Law Society before it began its official duties in October 2008.

Turning back to the attack on Mr Cumming, as the years dragged on without a result on the case, and after several appeals by Lothian & Borders Police to catch the attacker, along with a report on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme, a development eventually led to the arrest of Robert Graham in Australia in early November of last year, reported by Diary of Injustice here : Australian Police arrest suspect in connection with 2006 murder bid on Law Society of Scotland Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming.

Police hunt for clues on the attempted murder of Law Society Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming in January 2006 (click image or HERE to view video)

The trial at the High Court in Edinburgh is expected to last all week. Mr Cumming retired from the Law Society of Scotland after the attack and now runs his own consultancy business, Leslie Cumming Consultancy Services.

Naming crooks is criminal ? Law Society of England & Wales Chief Des Hudson to face legal action from Solicitors From Hell owner over "criminal" jibe

Law Society of England & Wales Chief Des Hudson is accused of branding owner of critical website “a criminal” for naming crooked lawyers. THE LIMITS of what the UK’s ‘control freak’ legal profession will stand or even allow in terms of public criticism have taken a new twist after information emerged on a Law Professor’s blog detailing a conversation in which Des Hudson the £400K-A-YEAR Chief Executive of the Law Society of England & Wales is alleged to have branded Mr Rick Kordowski “A CRIMINAL” for his SOLICITORS FROM HELL website’s consumer reviews of poor solicitors & criticisms of solicitors. In response, Mr Korwowski, the owner of the increasingly well known UK based website which names & shames crooked lawyers from all across the UK, has announced he is to sue Des Hudson for defamation, seeking “substantial damages”.

The incident came to light after the Law Society Chief Executive took part in a joint interview with well known Law Professor John Flood of the University of Westminster on BBC Radio FOUR’s consumer programme “You and Yours” which discussed the Solicitors From Hell website and its policy of naming & shaming lawyers who fail their clients by allowing consumers to write their own reviews of how they were treated by their solicitors. The interview with Des Hudson & John Flood can be heard in full HERE.

After the interview had taken place, Professor Flood wrote on his web blog in an article dated 22 July 2011 : “As I came out of the BBC yesterday with Des Hudson, the chief executive of the Law Society, he said Rick Kordowski was a criminal. I reminded Des that the police didn't think so. He wasn't happy.”

The battle by Mr Kordowski to keep the Solicitors From Hell website inline in the face of a coordinated campaign by the legal profession in England & Wales who appear to be out to personally ruin him for his website’s publication of criticisms the legal profession and allowing consumers to write their own views of their poor experiences in the legal world, can be read in more detail on the Solicitors From Hell website HERE and in yesterday’s Independent on Sunday newspaper HERE

Rick Kordowski, writing on his website revealed the Law Society have also demanded he surrender the domain name “Solicitors From Hell”. He wrote : “During negotiations, I offered to re-engineer my website to The Law Society’s specifications and parameters at my expense. The Law Society rejected this offer and further added: "A pre-requisite will be that the site in its current form – with all its content/postings – is taken down forthwith. You will also need to surrender the domain name [......] If not then there is no point pursuing discussions further and the matter is best left for the High Court. And then sent me a letter of claim insisting that I shut down this site and promise not to do it again. "

Mr Kordowski added : “Tyranny at work, springs to mind! Why should The Law Society stifle public criticism of allegedly shoddy lawyers? Are the public too stupid even to have the right to criticise, as The Law Society seem to be suggesting?”

Professor John Flood, Professor of Law an Sociology at the University of Westminster. Speaking to Diary of Injustice today, Professor Flood commented on the Law Society of England & Wales battle against Solicitors From Hell. He said : “What I can say is that the Law Society should be thinking about the clients who feel so aggrieved that they are compelled to write to SfH. That to pursue Rick Kordowski is to shoot the messenger rather than deal with the substantive issues in the complaints.”

He continued : “Lawyers must realise there is a new culture present, one that is less adversarial, one that is focussed on resolution, as the Legal Ombudsman is trying to show. I'm not sure the Law Society has fully grasped this.”

Last week, I reported the legal profession’s battle against Rick Kordowski & Solicitors From Hell, here : English, Scots Law Societies ‘team up’ in legal moves against “Solicitors from Hell” in bid to stop Legal Ombudsman ‘Naming & Shaming’ crooked lawyers after an investigation in Scotland turned up discussions at the Law Society of Scotland who were keen to support moves to kill off Solicitors From Hell in a joint attempt with the Law Society of England & Wales to ‘scare off’ the Legal Ombudsman’s intentions to identify poorly performing solicitors & law firms in published complaints decisions & investigations.

Crucially, consumer group Which? & the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) both said the court action against Solicitors From Hell would probably not be going ahead if the Legal Ombudsman had already begun naming & shaming law firms who fail their clients. The Legal Ombudsman has held a consultation on naming & shaming solicitors & law firms but has yet to make a decision on going ahead with the policy, which is supported by consumer groups, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) & the UK Government which I reported on in an earlier, article, HERE.

Consumer group Which? gave their comments on the LeO’s plans to identify crooked lawyers in England & Wales. A spokesperson for Which? said : “Which? strongly supports the principle of the LeO publishing complaints data under a strict and published policy , including in some circumstances the name of the law firm concerned. We set out our position in our response to the LeO consultation (page 51: opening up regulatory data)) pointing out that it is the expectation of Government that complaints handling bodies are as transparent as possible.”

Asked for their comment on allegations the legal action against Solicitors from Hell was part of a plan by the Law Society of England & Wales to prevent the Legal Ombudsman from naming & shaming ‘crooked lawyers’, the Which? spokesperson said : “The action being taken against Solicitors from Hell by the Law Society is partly due, in our view, to the fact that LeO does not yet publish complaints data. We consider it far more sensible that complaints data is published under a clear policy framework by an ombudsman scheme. Given this, we would find it regretful if any legal action were to be brought against the LeO by the legal profession in England & Wales if "naming & shaming" is to be adopted by the LeO as a future policy.”

Speaking on the LeO’s plans to publish complaints data & the identities of law firms who perform poorly for clients, Elisabeth Davies, Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP), said : “Research shows that UK consumers are now leaving well over 100 million comments online every year about their experience with businesses across the economy. Lawyers cannot escape this welcome emergence of consumer power, but instead should seek and then use such feedback to improve the service they offer.

She continued : “The courts will decide the fate of the Solicitors From Hell website. However, such websites fill a vacuum that exists because official complaints data about lawyers is not publically available to help consumers identify good quality lawyers. The Panel will continue to push the Legal Ombudsman to name those law firms who regularly provide poor service.”

CRIMINALISING CRITICS : Law Society of Scotland official told journalist : “Anyone who criticises the legal profession must be a criminal and should be treated like a criminal”.

The sentiments apparently expressed by Mr Hudson who attempts to criminalise Mr Kordowski and critics of the legal profession are startlingly similar to opinions expressed in Scotland by the most senior officials at the Law Society of Scotland, individual solicitors, law firms and the Legal Defence Union, who have all attempted to close down critical websites naming & shaming crooked lawyers who are still working and whose clients are unaware of their poor records as solicitors.

In one of several examples of over-the-top attacks on critics of the legal profession, notes taken by a journalist working for a Scottish newspaper revealed a senior Law Society of Scotland figure made a variety of bitter, hate-fuelled remarks against critics, in one, expressing : “Anyone who criticises the legal profession must be a criminal and should be treated like a criminal”.

Leslie Cumming, former Law Society Chief Accountant – His assault was used by Law Society of Scotland officials in attempts to censor, imprison critics of legal profession in Scotland. In another example, involving the attack on former Law Society Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming, senior Law Society figures including Douglas Mill blamed websites including “Diary of Injustice” (which was only two weeks old at the time) for the attack on Mr Cumming, with Scotland on Sunday reporting in an article dated 29 January 2006 : “Senior figures in the Law Society have made it known they feel some of the websites criticising lawyers are tantamount to incitement to violence.”

An insider who had knowledge of the Scotland on Sunday story and how it was developing confessed the direct comments from Law Society officials “were too strong to put into the final version which appeared in the newspaper”. A journalist who was privately briefed by senior Law Society officials including former Chief Executive Douglas Mill who was forced to resign after a well known episode at the Scottish Parliament, described some comments from Law Society officials which are confirmed in notes, as “highly defamatory”. He went onto say “I felt I was being set up to write a piece implicating critics of lawyers in the attack.”

Further reports in the media linked the attack on Leslie Cumming to crooked lawyers within the Law Society itself who feared Mr Cumming’s department ‘were onto them’, however the hunt for the attacker was scaled down after several years had passed without an arrest.

Later, journalists working on the case discovered spurious statements were provided to Lothian & Borders Police by Law Society officials who were eager to blame outspoken critics of the legal profession in Scotland. The rumour was the Law Society of Scotland wanted the Police to silence those who exposed ‘crooked lawyers’. Evidence of these comments & statements have recently been provided to those who were targeted by the Law Society in this way, and journalists looking further into the case have reported a relative of Mr Cumming was a serving officer in Lothian & Borders Police.

Several Scottish newspapers reported earlier this year an individual has since been arrested for the attack on Mr Cumming however no further reporting on the case can be made at this time due to contempt of court laws. The accused is due to face a trial in October 2011.

Given I know what kind of pressure, tricks, threats, and indeed connections the legal profession will be using against “Solicitors From Hell”, may I extend my best wishes and support to Rick Kordowski for his exemplary effort in bringing the issue & discussion of criticism of the legal profession into the mainstream media and for the continued existence of “Solicitors From Hell” and the consumers right to exactly document for themselves their experiences, whether good or bad, at the hands of the legal profession throughout the entire UK.

At least in England & Wales, the debate is live, while here in Scotland, there are no moves to name & shame crooked lawyers where all discussion of it appears to be censored by the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

Australian Police arrest suspect in connection with 2006 murder bid on Law Society of Scotland Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming

Law Society Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming (now retired) was attacked in January 2006. AUSTRALIAN POLICE have arrested a 45 year old man on an international arrest warrant in connection with an attempt on the life of the now retired Chief Accountant of the Law Society of Scotland, Leslie Cumming, which took place at Mr Cumming’s home in Edinburgh in late January 2006. The 45 year old man now under arrest in Australia cannot be named for legal reasons, as the Crown Office have launched proceedings to extradite him back to Scotland to face charges.

According to newspaper reports at the time, Mr Cumming was attacked outside his home by a man wearing a balaclava, receiving serious injuries to his face. Mr Cumming subsequently retired from his role at the Law Society of Scotland and set up his own consultancy business, Leslie Cumming Consultancy Services

Douglas Mill claimed Law Society critics were responsible for ‘murder hit’, while Mr Cumming felt it was crooked lawyers. While some senior figures at the Law Society of Scotland publicly blamed critics of the Law Society itself for the attack, rumours at the time and several press reports on the case since 2006, including interviews with Mr Cumming himself appeared to point the finger of suspicion to rogue elements within the legal profession, or crooked lawyers, as Mr Cumming’s role as Chief Accountant gave him responsibility for detecting & rooting out the enormous swathe of money-laundering and corruption endemic in Scotland’s legal profession. Mr Cumming was in charge of auditing law firms accounts and investigating complaints concerning investment business carried out by law firms.

Law Society maintained they do such a fine job, there are no crooked lawyers – Police report revealed otherwise. Most of the Law Society of Scotland’s top brass maintain they do such an excellent job of protecting the public from crooked lawyers, there are very few, or even none in existence. However, a Scottish Crime & Drug Enforcement Agency mapping project of 2009 led by Gordon Meldrum, the director-general of the SCDEA reported hundreds of crooked lawyers & accountants assisting organised crime gangs, claiming almost 250 crooked lawyers, accountants and other "specialists" give criminals professional help – something which certainly pours cold water on the Law Society’s claims to be an effective policeman of the Scottish legal profession. Subsequently, claims were made to law journalists that several of Scotland's ‘leading law firms & solicitors’ were involved in financial dealings in such fine, reputable tax havens countries such as Jersey, Guernsey, the Cayman Islands, Monaco & Lichtenstein.

The 2008-2009 SCDEA Annual Report (pdf) stated : “Organised criminals are highly sophisticated when it comes to hiding the profits of their criminal behaviour and they change their methods constantly in response to preventative methods put in place by the authorities. They will enlist the services of ‘specialists’ - accountants, lawyers and financial advisers—to help them legitimise their ill-gotten cash” … leading to questions over the Law Society of Scotland’s public attitude of ‘This couldn’t possibly happen in Scotland as the Scottish legal profession is respected the world over’.

It was reported in the media later in 2006, Police believed a hitman was hired to carry out the attack on Mr Cumming,, and investigated a list of aggrieved clients and rogue lawyers who may have ordered the stabbing, which ended up as one of Lothian & Borders Police most high profile unsolved cases, and went onto feature on BBC Television’s Crimewatch programme.

News report on the attempted murder of Law Society Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming in January 2006 (click image below to view video)

I have previously reported on matters connected with the case, here : Leslie Cumming attack - The story so far

You can read more in the Scottish newspapers about the arrest in Australia, HERE and HERE.

Readers may wish to note as this is a criminal case, any comments should be kept to details already reported in the media.

Ex-Law Society Chief who led campaign against complaints reforms, resigned over anti client memos, now supports independent regulation of lawyers

Former Law Society Chief Executive Douglas Mill, eventually brought down by his own memos. DOUGLAS MILL, former Chief Executive of the Law Society of Scotland who once threatened a legal challenge against the Parliament over regulation reforms, whose secret memos revealed he masterminded a policy of defeating claims & complaints made against ‘crooked lawyers’, and who famously attempted to frame critics of the legal profession for a spectacular mafia style murder attempt on his own colleague, Law Society Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming, (which later turned out to have been staged by rogue lawyers in fear of being investigated for criminal activity), has written to the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee admitting that independent regulation of an expanded legal services market is needed in Scotland, after concerted campaigns by consumer groups & law reformers to open up Scotland’s closed shop legal services market saw the introduction of the Legal Services Bill, currently being considered by MSPs.

Douglas Mill attacks Law Society for change of views & Parliament for lack of research. Mr Mill, who begins his letter expressing surprise at the volt-face in Law Society of Scotland policy in relation to Alternative Business Structures, going onto criticise and even the lack of a research base on the issues contained in the Legal Services Bill said : “I was privileged to serve on the Scottish Executive’s Research Working Group on the legal services market in Scotland which reported in 2006. One of the issues examined was restrictions on business structures and the conclusion reached by the Committee was The issue of Alternative Business Structures appeared to be likely to stay on the agenda and policy development work would be required to establish the extent to which they suited Scottish circumstances and how they might be best regulated if they were to become a reality in Scotland. To the best of my knowledge no subsequent research or policy development took place. Particularly when this Report identified not just one market for legal services in Scotland but a number of segmented geographical and practice area markets, it is at best very surprising for a Parliament committee to introducing evidence-based legislation to be proceeding without the underpinning research which such a profound piece of legislative change demands.”

Douglas Mill then went onto attack the philosophies contained in the Legal Services Bill as being conceived in the late 90s and early 2000s, when law firms were rolling in profits & giving senior partners huge bonuses. Mr Mill told the Justice Committee that such proposals now ”surely require examination in the current economic climate”.

On the subject of ‘independence of the Scottish Legal Profession, Mr Mill who as we all know is not shy in stating his views, comparing some of the proposals contained in the Legal Services Bill as something akin to forcing a ‘Banana Republic’ legal profession on Scotland (but we already have that, don’t we ?)

Mr Mill stated in his letter to the Justice Committee, again critical of their motives over the Legal Services Bill : “Independence of Scots Law and the Scottish Legal Profession -The Bill strikes directly at the heart of these and it is worrying to hear in some quarters that saying so is in some way “scare-mongering”. The potential for direct Governmental control of the legal profession contained in for instance section 35 could reduce Scotland to the type of legal profession seldom seen outside South America and Equatorial Africa. Whilst there are significant pressures towards the assimilation of Scottish and English law it surely ill-becomes a Scottish Parliament to facilitate that.”

Douglas Mill’s view of regulatory difficulties, mostly caused by himself and the Law Society. On the subject of regulation, it is hardly surprising Douglas MIll vents his frustrations at the regulatory aspects of the alternative business proposals contained in the bill. Mr Mill commented : “Regulatory Difficulties – I agree with the issues mentioned by Professor Alan Paterson from Strathclyde University in his Written Submission. I would say however that in my experience of being effectively the regulator of the legal profession in Scotland for approximately 12 years, my views are stronger based on significant direct experience. These difficulties take a number of forms:- (a) Regulation of solicitors at the moment is a relatively straightforward matter as the ultimate penalty is striking a solicitor off the Roll of Solicitors and denying him/her their livelihood. No such significant penalty will apply to non-lawyer proprietors.”

Mr Mill continues in his submission to state the Law Society of Scotland cannot regulate ‘conventional solicitor firms’ and Alternative Business Structures, calling the situation a “profound conflict and an impossibility for the Law Society of Scotland.”

Sadly Mr Mill ignores the fact that most of the Law Society’s regulatory difficulties grew out of his 12 years of being the Law Society of Scotland’s Chief Executive, and continues in a ramble on regulation which ends with an attack on the Law Society itself, who, in Mr Mill’s own words ‘appear’ to have “accepted section 92 of the Bill which simply allows Scottish Ministers to control the representative body is, in the view of many, the final nail in its coffin as a representative body.”

In a strong statement to the Justice Committee on the issue of money laundering laws, Mr Mill goes onto accuse the Legal Services Bill of facilitating ownership of legal firms and their use as money laundering portals, although it seems several Edinburgh law firms have helped clients with dodgy secret foreign bank accounts in countries outside the tax jurisdiction of the UK authorities, leaving Mr Mill’s praise of the Law Society & profession in this regard, rather hollow.

Douglas Mill’s 12 years as THE regulator of Scottish lawyers led him to attempt to frame critics for a murder attempt on colleague Leslie Cumming, over reputed money laundering investigations. Mr Mill on the subject of money laundering said : “Whilst money laundering obligations sat uncomfortably on solicitors’ duties of confidentiality when they were introduced, they are now accepted as entirely necessary. Indeed the Law Society of Scotland and the legal profession in Scotland are to be congratulated for their excellent record in this area. The Bill quite simply facilitates ownership of legal firms and their use as money laundering portals. As Professor Paterson says, “Ensuring that the fitness for involvement test is effective to exclude criminal elements from investing in or taking control of law firms is a significant issue.” Significant and impossible to ensure. I have spoken to solicitors in Glasgow involved in criminal law who are very well aware of the potential danger of control by criminal elements.”

Mill continued to condemn the bill’s proposals, saying : ““The money laundering rule of law and mortgage fraud implications are such that with the greatest conceivable respect the mechanisms in the Act are frankly risible.

Douglas Mill might worry about lawyers & criminals coming together, but as I reported earlier, its already happening, on a huge scale : Scotland's Got Crooked : Police investigation reveals hundreds of crooked lawyers & accountants assisting organised crime gangs

Mill also went onto claim it was inappropriate that lawyers be asked to put their own money into a ‘Guarantee Fund” which would also cover non-lawyers, putting forward the idea that a separate Guarantee Fund should be created by the Scottish Government for the non-lawyer entrants into the Alternative Business Structures legal services market.

Mill said : “Again Professor Paterson is correct in identifying that for the protection of the public, the Guarantee Fund presently operated by the Law Society of Scotland is essential. It is entirely inappropriate for traditional solicitors to be asked to be joint and severally liable for the financial actings of non-lawyer proprietors. The alternative is the funding of a separate Guarantee Fund for Alternative Business Structures. This is an area where the Government has to be careful or the disaster of the Scottish Executry Services Board will be repeated.”

It should be noted that despite Mr Mill’s claims of public protection via the Law Society’s current “Guarantee Fund” arrangements, the Law Society version is itself, mired in scandal and woefully short of funds, which you can read more about here : 'Ground-breaking' investigation into Law Society's Master Policy insurance reveals realities of corrupt claims process against crooked lawyers and here : Advisory : Clients must protect their money from unsafe legal firms as Law Society's Guarantee Fund fails

In a final swipe at the Scottish Government’s proposals, Douglas Mill attacks the regulatory architecture of the Legal Services Bill, even going so far as to propose an equivalent of the English Legal Services Board, to be independent of the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Government – interesting turn around from Mr Mill .. who I’m sure wants to head up any such organisation, much to the detriment of consumers, and Scots everywhere.

Ex Law Society Chief finally admits independent regulation is a must if the legal services market is to be opened up in Scotland. Mr Mill said : “A Regulatory Architecture - I have to say in passing that the financial memorandum is totally and utterly unrealistic. For Alternative Business Structures to work in Scotland on a regulatory basis there requires to be a strong body independent of both the Law Society of Scotland and the Government and it has to be funded properly. In other words, there would require to be a Scottish equivalent of the Legal Services Board down South with all the costs that would imply. One alternative is however for the English Legal Services Board to have jurisdiction over ABSs with “outlets” in Scotland although this may correctly be seen as politically inappropriate.”

Douglas Mill’s letter to the Justice Committee on the Legal Services Bill can be downloaded in pdf format HERE

Douglas Mill does make some good points, particularly of course on independent regulation of the legal services market – including of course, independent regulation of solicitors. However, if we are to see it, people such as Mr Mill, despite his self proclaimed 12 year experience as THE regulator of solicitors in Scotland, must be kept well away from any ‘independent’ body to ensure the public get the protection they have as yet, never had against ‘crooked lawyers’ and others working in the legal services sector in Scotland.

Mill’s confrontation with John Swinney effectively ended his run as the Law Society’s Chief Executive. For those not in tune with the recent past, Douglas Mill will be best remembered for spectacularly resigning in January 2007 a few weeks after video coverage was published of his terse confrontation with the now Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney over Mill’s own memos against clients of ‘crooked’ law firms, which the Herald newspaper reported the previous year had demonstrated a resolve to defeat client’s damages claims against Scottish solicitors & law firms and the infamous “Master Policy” Professional negligence insurance scheme run by crooked insurers Marsh UK & the Law Society itself.

You can read more about Douglas Mill’s resignation over the memo-gate affair, here : Breaking News : Law Society Chief Executive Douglas Mill who lied to Parliament, pursued 'personal vendetta' against critics - to resign and some previous reports on Douglas Mill, HERE

Scotland's Got Crooked : Police investigation reveals hundreds of crooked lawyers & accountants assisting organised crime gangs

Hundreds of Law Society of Scotland ‘crooked lawyers’ are helping crime gangs. A survey reported today in the Scotsman newspaper reveals what many inside & outside the legal profession already know - that organised crime gangs in Scotland are assisted by hundreds of crooked lawyers, crooked accountants and other "specialists" who help criminals evade justice.

Scottish lawyers & accountants self-regulate, allowing criminality to flourish in their professions. While the self regulating bodies of lawyers & accountants in Scotland - the Law Society of Scotland & the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland profess to maintain their 'respective' professions in order, in reality hundreds of solicitors & accountants and their firms are in the pay of criminal gangs, with some of those concerned masquerading as small legal or accountancy firms, taking on innocent local clients & businesses to cover the profits generated from some of their less respectable associations.

Law Society chief Leslie Cumming suffered mafia style hit from his own crooked lawyer colleagues. While members of the public who trust their legal affairs to solicitors & legal firms who have an undisclosed darker side of clientele, even the Law Society of Scotland itself was hit in a mafia style assault in early 2006, when the solicitor's regulatory body's Chief Accountant, Leslie Cumming was attacked in a 'hit' arranged from within Scotland's crooked legal establishment over what some claim were investigations which involved big legal names,

Law Society Chief Exec Douglas Mill tried to pin blame on campaigners in newspaper reports on Cumming attack but real culprits were crooked lawyers. To-date, the assault on Mr Cumming, apparently arranged by colleagues from within the legal profession itself, remains unresolved, with Lothian & Borders Police still looking for clues. However, several legal insiders say the investigation into the attack on Cumming “was heavily compromised” after the then Law Society of Scotland's Chief Executive Douglas Mill viciously tried to implicate campaigners & law reformers in the mafia style hit on Mr Cumming, to deflect attention away from critical legislative reforms which were due later in 2006 and which ultimately led to Mill's subsequent downfall and resignation from the Law Society after a serious parliamentary confrontation with Cabinet Secretary for Business, John Swinney.

Lothian & Borders Police still looking for crooked lawyers who arranged attack on Law Society Chief :

With an ever growing criminal element within Scotland’s legal profession, we are of course, back to the problem of 'self regulation' where, specifically on the matter of 'crooked lawyers', the Law Society of Scotland has failed to maintain standards within Scotland's legal profession, and all the while has operated a closed shop, highly corrupt system of self regulation where the criminal element of Scotland's 10,000 solicitors can basically get away with criminality, as long as they pay their subscription fees to the Law Society, which help the Society continue to maintain its power of self regulation over the profession.

Scottish Legal Complaints Commission is as protective of crooked lawyers as the Law Society of Scotland. The £650 a year to the Law Society of Scotland in annual subscriptions, and the £400 complaints levy to the SLCC which solicitors willingly pay, keeps self regulation of the legal profession going, which allows solicitors to assist the likes of criminal gangs, or fleece clients at will, mostly without fear of a criminal prosecution because the Law Society, and as we see now, the new ‘independent’ Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, are both so incompetent or closed minded at investigating corruption within the legal profession that the evidence which the Police & Crown Office would have to rely on to prosecute solicitors for stealing from their clients is more often than not, covered up by the solicitors regulators.

£650 a year to fund Law Society ‘ in-house complaints system’ guarantees lawyers will face no charges over widespread criminality in handling client affairs or law breaking. Its as simple as that - pay £650 a year in subscription fees, and a crooked lawyer can go do what they please, overcharge, embezzle, steal, bend the law, bribe, act as drug dealers, threaten clients, blackmail, anything, and not get sent to jail, unless of course, whatever they are doing and whoever they are representing becomes just too public and attracts too much media attention.

It may well be the case you are unknowingly entrusting your life savings, last will & testament, or funds for a house purchase or sale to a solicitor who is little more than a convicted criminal, and you will never know it unless the law is changed, and there is considerable resistance from the legal profession in Scotland to changing the law to disclose the criminal records of solicitors, although in England & Wales, you do stand a greater chance of finding out, as I reported earlier, here : Criminal records of lawyers : Scots public kept in dark over convictions while England & Wales get ‘right to know’

Sadly the Scots legal profession, as crooked as it is, has far too many key supporters & defenders in high places, as Scotland’s own Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill himself demonstrated in outrageous comments during a Scottish Parliament debate, even claiming the SNP controlled minority Scottish Government owed the legal profession a mysterious ‘great debt’ :

Would Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill be so quick to defend the criminal element of Scotland’s legal profession ?

This is the reality of self regulation, nothing more than a cover for criminality, and with business & profits on the slide in Scotland's legal & accounting professions, expect to see a lot more crooked lawyers, accountants and other so-called 'professionals' out there who might also just be your solicitor or accountant too.

Those who defend self regulation are, these days, in the wake of the Westminster expenses scandals, generally viewed as defending unacceptable, often morally wrong conduct, cronyism & criminality, and in my view, have no place in public life.

The Scotsman reports :

The gangster map: 3,000 hardcore criminals and their crooked lawyers