Herbert Smith trainee sacked for reading confidential emails
03 July 2009
Herbert Smith has fired a trainee for reading confidential emails filed by her supervising partner. As she hadn't yet completed her training contract she will not qualify as a solicitor unless she can find another firm to take her on.

It seems that the trainee discovered several emails filed by her partner which referred to the NQ solicitors who would be retained at the firm. Apparently the partner had failed to follow instructions and file them in a secure folder.

Rather unwisely, the trainee decided that she couldn't possibly keep the news to herself and passed details on to the qualifying trainees, weeks before the official announcement, becoming known as a reliable source of gossip in the process. When rumours got back to HR an investigation was launched and the source of the leak was discovered - and then dismissed.

Herbert Smith trainees find another way to learn who's being kept on

An email was subsequently circulated to the firm's fee earners reminding them of the need to file confidential documents securely.

A spokesman for the firm said "unfortunately the trainee in question managed to access some confidential internal correspondence relating to trainee performance that had been filed in partners' personal folders but without the usual privacy settings. All staff are being reminded how to protect documents appropriately on our systems. We do not expect members of staff to be reading documents that are clearly private and confidential. We take issues of confidentiality extremely seriously and so took appropriate action."