The lawyer who sent a series of tweets gloating at a tribunal victory over parents who were trying to get specialist support for an autistic child has been given an official rebuke by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority.
Mark Small, the director of Baker Small Legal Services, caused outrage in June when he celebrated on Twitter “a great win” over a family seeking educational needs [SEN] support for their child. As well as being formally rebuked by the authority, he was ordered to pay £600 costs.
In the ruling, the SRA noted: “Members of the public regarded the tweets as unprofessional and offensive. The publication of the tweets received extensive coverage in the media and generated a number of complaints to the firm and the SRA … Mr Small admits that the content of the tweets was unprofessional and offensive and as such he failed to behave in a way that maintains the trust the public places in him and in the provision of legal services.”
One of the tweets said: “Crikey, had a great ‘win’ last week which sent some parents into a storm!” Another message celebrated a tribunal victory over an attempt by parents to get funding for Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), a widely respected intervention that can help autistic children to learn. He said: “Great ABA Trib win this week … interesting to see how parents continue to persist with it. Funny thing is parents think they won ;)”.
Responding to online outrage at the tone of his posts, Small later posted a photograph of a kitten laughing, with the message: “Some great tweets received today from people who just see a one-sided argument … just shared them with my cat …” The firm later deleted the posts and Small said he had made a donation to charity.
However within days he had lost contracts with at least eight local authorities worth an estimated total of more than £1m.
Following the formal rebuke, Small has agreed not to act in any way that is inconsistent with the agreement.
The extreme anger at the messages, which were sent from the firm’s official Twitter account, stemmed in part from negative experiences dozens of families had had at the hands of Baker Small when trying to get local authority funding for SEN support for their children.
Baker Small was the most prominent law firm in this niche area, and its success rested largely on its ability to help local authorities cut the costs of SEN provision. Small was known among parents as “the Terminator” because of his reputation for aggressively fighting to deny or end funding.
In a now-deleted page on the firm’s website, Small advertised his skills at helping councils cut costs, stating that he had “experience of advising local authority SEN departments on a range of matters including managing and terminating ABA programmes [and] parental complaints”.
As well as being contracted to fight cases at tribunal, the firm was also paid to provide training courses for council officials, offering strategies on managing and ending specialist provision for children with disabilities.
However since the scandal, the firm has attempted to rebrand itself, and is now trying to offer services to parents who want to fight councils to secure the educational support they feel is right for their children, rather than focusing on procuring work from local authorities.