Shoosmiths lawyer deemed offensive
Shoosmiths head of social housing Andy Ballard has fallen foul of the ‘strict code of political correctness’ after he said he wanted to recruit younger Guardian readers to his team.
Andy Ballard
In an interview with The Lawyer last week (19 October) about the launch of two new social housing teams in Milton Keynes and The Solent, he joked: ”Anyone who’s under 50 and reads The Guardian gets brought on.”
However, not everyone appreciated Ballard’s irreverent style, with The Lawyer subsequently receiving an anonymous phone call from a reader claiming to be from a housing association that instructed Shoosmiths.
The caller said that “board members took issue with regard to age discrimination”, adding that the comments were “flippant and stereotyping of the social housing sector”.
He went on to liken the comments to those made by businessman Gerald Ratner, who was considered to have made a faux pas after describing the jewellery he sold as “crap” in the early 1990s.
Since joining Shoosmiths from Cobbetts in March last year Ballard and his team have added 20 per cent to the Birmingham office’s bottom line. He has acted on six Welsh joint stock transfers and for most of the Midlands’ registered social landlords. It is on the back of that success that the two new teams are to be launched.
Ballard was unavailable for further comment.
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Readers' comments (35)
Anonymous | 28-Oct-2009 8:30 am
How ridiculous. As Bruce Forsyth recently said in connection with the Strictly Come Dancing row - doesn't anyone have a sense of humour anymore!
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Anonymous | 28-Oct-2009 10:00 am
"unlawful and disrespectful"? it's further evidence of the empty rhetoric that is the shoosmiths PR machine, which says one thing but which does not reflect reality.Presumably he was just toeing the firm web line of "creative thinking and the right answers at the right time. Old fashioned manners" good old Andy "telling it straight and absolutely no stuffiness". Welcome to Shoosmiths... redundancies, .....pay cuts ....... and day cuts..... and questionable leadership.....
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Anonymous | 28-Oct-2009 3:11 pm
I doubt very much if the person claiming to be a client of his was indeed a client. More likely a jealous competitor...
Funny how people on this site are chosing to ignore the supportive article written by the Editor about political correctness gone bonkers. In my view she is spot on.
I am an IHL for a ftse 250 plc and would welcome working with lawyers who don't take life too seriously. I read some of the comments posted on here and feel sad that I have fellow professionals who are so uptight that they find a harmless quip to be disrespectful or rude. PETTY PETTY PETTY
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Anonymous | 28-Oct-2009 4:45 pm
As a 60 year old lawyer, I say three cheers for Mr Ballard and to hell with political correctness. Anyone with even a miniscule sense of humour should be able to recognise a bit of harmless banter
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Peregrine Mason | 29-Oct-2009 0:44 am
Oh, for goodness' sake. Watching what is happening in the UK from afar, makes me feel glad to be, well, afar. All this fuss and bother over a bit of humour. So you are over 50? So what? Live with it. We all discriminate to some extent (won't date fat girls/short guys/vegetarians/non-vegetarians/tooyoung/too old/bald/Daily Mail readers) but that's life. Some discrimination is illegal. Some don't like the discrimination laws but they obey them. Given the choice between an 30 y-old and a 51 y-old applicant, with all things other being equal, who wouldn't, if they could, go for the younger model? All this guy did was speak his mind. Something in this oh-so-politically-correct country we are afraid to do. In case we upset the Grauniad..........
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Anonymous | 29-Oct-2009 10:10 am
I've read these comeents with interest and then read the last one and wondered whether our foreign based friend Mr Mason (boo foreigners...), knows that age discrimination is as illegal as race discrimination. As an employment lawyer i deal with discrimination issues every day and i agree that despite the good intentions of anti discrimination law, there are some circumstances where the law proves to be an ass.
However, we have the law we are given and the fact that a senior lawyer at an apparently highly competent law firm would make such a comment which appears to show his ignorance of the law is in my view more worrying than the fact it was banter. Would he ever have said, "we'll have anyone who isn't black?" "we won't have women" - no he wouldn't because he and Shoosmiths PR department will be up to date with anti discrimination law from the 1970s.
I think banter is great, i love banter, just ask my disabled, lesbian of a wife's mother. But it's about showing knowledge, degnity ans professional standards on occasions and not sticking ones foot in ones mouth when Shoosmiths are quickly getting a reputation for doing so.
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D Roberts | 29-Oct-2009 5:36 pm
As someone who did a vac scheme in Andy Ballard's department when he was at Cobbetts, he was amusing, helpful and fun to work with in a department that deals with difficult work on a tight budget. The (fortunately few) occasions I have had to deal with in-house legal teams at social housing providers have not inspired me at all...
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Anonymous | 29-Oct-2009 9:27 pm
Given that he looks like he is close to 60, one would have thought that he would be sympathetic towards people his age!
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Philip Smith | 30-Oct-2009 2:30 pm
The discriminative comment made by Andy Ballard is a sign of poor judgement.
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Anonymous | 30-Oct-2009 2:41 pm
As someone who works at the same firm as Andy, I can say that there is not much sympathy for him at the office.
Andy was at the helm of the social housing team, when almost half of the Cobbetts crew that came with him to us (Shoosmiths) were got rid off under cover of darkness, including a Partner and Associate. He lost alot of support due to his lack loyalty to his colleagues.
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