Edinburgh Sucks! | When is a barrister not a barrister

City Development

When is a barrister not a barrister - when he’s on the Waterfront

By The Basa ⋅ November 8, 2006 ⋅

Excruciating news comes in from Edinburgh Waterfront which is sure to shock Edinburghers and is likely to highlight more problems of Edinburgh’s own secret society jointly owned by the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Executive.

The company’s solicitors for 6 years, Edinburgh’s famous Shepherd & Wedderburn, have this year declined to renew their contract with Edinburgh Waterfront. This is an extremely unusual situation whereby the lawyers are turning down a major account that they have held for 6 years and must be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to them annually.

What has caused this upset we hear you ask. Well…… we are told that:

An eight page letter was sent to every director (including the Chair Councillor “Bunty Backhander” Maginnis, Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Ian Perry and of course City Baillie, Councillor Billiy Fitzpatrick), by a senior partner of Shepherd & Wedderburn setting out the reasons for this momentous and probably unique decision for a major firm of Solicitors representing a publicly owned company. The reasons for this centred on the behaviour of Waterfront’s Chief Executive. In the letter he was accused of regularly ignoring legal advice provided by Shepherd & Wedderburn.

We hear you ask….. does it get worse?

Yep, of course it does:

These actions have often resulted in large additional costs to Waterfont Edinburgh. The letter also indicated that Izatt had blatantly ignored legal advice regarding his bullying and treatment of staff resulting in claims against the Company for breaches of the Employment legislation. The letter further accused Izatt of hostility and verbal abuse towards highly trained and experienced solicitors employed by Shepherd & Wedderburn.

So, why would Izatt not take his own solicitor’s advice is the obvious next question:

Izatt claims to be a barrister

Ooooh - a highly paid lawyer himself!

Although his name is not recorded in the Bar Council of England and Wales.

Guess what - we checked and his name is not recorded.

All this leaves huge questions to be answered by all members of the Waterfront Board:

Councillor Maginnis
Councillor Perry
Councillor Fitzpatrick
Stephen Gallagher - Executive Director of Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothians
Paul Lewis - Senior Director of Competitive Place in Scottish Enterprise
Jim McFarlane - Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothians

In fact all councillors in Edinburgh must immediately be demanding answers of their executive and of the three councillors mentioned. MSPs should also be asking questions of Scottish Enterprise and of course there are quite a few ex-employees quite happy to spill the beans.

Next installment on the Waterfront will either be the Gym installment or maybe even the electronic filing system installment.