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Dear former employee
Thank you for your kind positive comments and your negative observations, which are appreciated and reflective of your obvious 'hate' and unfairness.
We will take this opportunity that you have kindly provided us to address only a few issues for the benefit of the readers:
Teacher-student relationship
Indeed this is correct. You mentioned yourself that this is a "great place for a first paralegal job". We are very proud to teach our new Paralegals for the ruthless and zealous life of a Criminal Lawyer, responsible for the liberty and freedom of an accused person, relying on the tenacity of the Lawyer to secure his rights and fight his corner.
Our training usually starts with: "This is not a joke. You are playing with people's lives and families and their freedom and basic human rights".
To this end, we spend £000,000s every year teaching new members of staff to be fantastic and unforgiving Lawyers. Countless former employees trained at this firm are now heading CPS divisions and leading very significant teams in corporate Law firms.
Training
We are probably the only criminal law firm in the UK which provides a huge amount of online training courses online, before the job commences. We then provide 2-3 weeks of full-time class-room training with a Director. This is supported by weekly videos added to the online platforms from senior Lawyers like Colin Beaumont. We also have access to 1000s of videos from legal experts on the MBL Seminars platform, accessible from anywhere.
Our training programme has trained and qualified hundreds of Criminal Lawyers and is one of, if not the best, in the country.
Your lack of skill and ability to comprehend the challenges facing Lawyers everyday was the main reason you struggled to embrace this role and responsibility.
Corporate Environment
We are a High-Street Law Firm, not an Amazon corporate office . The atmosphere in a corporate office and a high street legal aid firm cannot be expected to be the same. We have an incredibly professional and well structured office but we certainly cannot compete with corporate law firms.
Management
This firm was established in 1984 and has been led by the current management team since 2005. From a ranking of -1,500 We are now one of the largest criminal law firms in the UK and in the top 10.
We suggest that management of this firm are experienced and skilled in handling the affairs of this developing and growing successful law firm.
CCTV
Indeed, as we work with those accused of very serious criminal offences, our risk analysis led us to install CCTV cameras. Our office is navigated with a corridor and stair cases over 3 floors. Our staff are spread between 10 different rooms, all isolated with doors off the main corridor. We have had past instances where burglaries have happened during the day and laptops with confidential data have been taken. We have PANIC alarms for staff safety. We are constantly monitoring CCTV cameras for our vulnerable staff sitting alone in meeting rooms with potential murderers and rapists and sexual offenders with mental health issues.
IT WOULD BE LUDICROUS & RECKLESS FOR US NOT TO MONITOR EVERYTHING ON CCTV CAMERAS ! In addition, in rare circumstances, if we are investigating our employees for any reason (such as watching TV Programmes whilst sitting on their desks or downloading confidential data on external USBs which is not allowed) then maybe CCTV is employed to gather evidence ! After all, one of the purposes of CCTV is to gather evidence and in all walks of life, we are monitored and regulated and our performance is observed with CCTV since everything is moving towards efficiency and remote working. We stand proudly by our policies and all new recruits sign a contract which expressly notifies them of our policies from the outset.
We do not monitor performance using CCTV as our computer system tells us exactly what every employee is doing, every minute of the day. It is more efficient to use this platform, which we use actively.
Lacking a layer of Management
This is also correct. Our office manager position has been unfilled for some time due to the lack of need during Covid and now, due to our efforts to identify the right person with the best skills for this very important role.
Nevertheless, we will employ a practice manager who will continue to manage the office in critical way, looking always for perfection across all sectors and able to handle the nature of Lawyers, who aren't the easiest employees to deal with due to their very nature of being able to create arguments and dissect every aspect of policy and regulation with their own vision.
Thank you for this opportunity to provide a response.
We wish you all the best and hope you learned with us and find more suitable employment and this time, we pray that you are successful in achieving your goals.
Best wishes
Stuart Miller Solicitors