Key Points
-
Solicitors WW&J McClure went bust in 2021 with around 20,000 Trusts on its books - Thousands of clients believe they were mis-sold legal products intended to make inheritance easier
- A former employee says there wasn’t the right training in place
- Families face paying thousands of pounds in legal fees to resolve the issue
- The firm’s former managing director denies any wrongdoing
A former consultant who worked for scandal-hit solicitors WW&J McClure has spoken publicly for the first time and has described the firm’s culture and training.
The consultant, whose identity STV News has protected because he still works in the industry, claims that he was not given any training about assessing the mental capacity of clients, and that he was shut down when he pushed back on sales techniques he was uncomfortable with.
“We weren’t fully trained in how to appraise somebody’s capacity,” he told STV News.
“You have to have capacity to do Power of Attorney and a will.
“God knows how many clients frustrated, in tears – I’ve seen it, and worry as to what’s going to happen.”
The former employee goes on to claim that McClure representatives went “out to B&Q, garden centres and shopping centres” to promote the trusts to prospective clients, adding: “You might [usually] see double glazing or bathroom people or kitchen people doing that – but not solicitors.”
For the last six months, STV News has heard from dozens of former clients of the firm struggling to extricate themselves from a Family Protection Trust they feel was mis-sold.
What is a Family Protection Trust?
- With a Trust, you have a greater say over who gets what, and a key selling point for McClure was that you could theoretically protect your house from being sold to pay for care home fees.
- The Trust, which behaves a bit like a company, is managed by trustees during your life and after you die – crucially it’s those trustees who have control.
- The Family Protection Trust was managed by Greenock-based WW & J McClure, a firm that specialised in selling the product. It was dealing with 400 new clients a month to set up the Family Protection Trust at its peak.
- A key selling point for McClure was that if you put your house in the Trust, it would protect it from the local authority should you go into care.
McClure’s former director denies the allegations and insists all consultants were properly trained on capacity, at initial training and ongoing through their employment.
McClure’s business model relied heavily on meeting people face to face, sometimes in their downtown Glasgow office, but around a third were in people’s homes.
The firm said when the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, the restrictions had a severe impact on its ability to operate, and it went bust the following year.
Search for answers
Police Scotland dropped an investigation into McClure – which campaigners accused of mis-selling and fraud – in September last year.
In the absence of any formal investigation into McClure’s conduct, individuals who feel trapped in Family Trusts are searching for answers.
Some of them have contacted the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission with several former clients awarded compensation. In a 2024/25 budget report, the SLCC highlighted the need for more money to deal with the volume of cases relating to McClure.
STV News can reveal that a complaint of professional misconduct was upheld against Andrew Robertson, the former director of McClure, by the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) in August 2024.
The complaint related to an invalid Power of Attorney which was ultimately validated. It found he failed to act in the client’s best interests while he was at the helm of the law firm.
A second partner at McClure was also censured by the SDDT in 2017, relating to issues around a Will.
‘Victims of their own success’
Legal expert Alan Eccles said the problem lies with the sheer number of clients for whom McClure set up Trusts.
He has worked on resolving more than a hundred cases involving McClure clients.
“The volume of clients that McClure had coming in the door was a big, big issue here, which meant it really became unmanageable,” he told STV News.
“The idea that McClure had about people considering using Trusts is a very fair one, and in some cases, in a number of cases, would be the right answer, but the execution of that work, and then maintaining it and managing over time was the problem with the volumes that were coming in, which were unmanageable.
“They, in some ways, could have been the victims of their own success,” he told STV News.
Thousands join campaign groups
STV NewsAnnette Riding helps run a Facebook group called Victims of McClures Solicitors that has more than 3,000 members.
“It had taken me eighteen months and £3,000 before someone would take on my mum and dad’s Family Protection Trust,” she said, recalling her own experience with the failed law firm.
“We get between 20 and 30 people joining the Facebook group a week. Some are in their 70s and 80s and they don’t know what to do.
“We’ve got a team helping write guides to assist people – we’ve got members from all over the world who say they have been impacted – family representatives join from Malta, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and America looking for help,” Annette told STV News.
Michael Pilbeam, who runs the Victims of McClure’s Gateway 2 Justices Campaign Group, is lobbying MSPs and MPs to take up the issue.
“There are people who are trying to look after parents who are now in care homes, who are becoming incapacitated through age and are having to deal with this as well,” he said.
“There are people that have said to me that they feel violated by what they’ve had to deal with.
“And on top of that, you’ve got the trustees who having taken the money in the first place and earned a good living out of it, are now trying to charge clients for giving up the trusteeships.”
Scrutiny in England and Wales
In January, English legal authorities criticised the Scottish law firm that took over McClure for taking too long to contact clients about the cases it inherited.
Both the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Legal Ombudsman, which oversee lawyers in England and Wales, have looked into Glasgow firm Jones Whyte after mounting pressure from frustrated former clients.
“We are concerned that it is taking too long to deal with all of the issues arising from McClure and that too many former clients are experiencing stress and frustration arising from delay and uncertainty,” the SRA said in January.
Nearly four years after the company went into administration, some clients are only recently being informed of the firm’s demise.
Melanie Czyz, 66, bought the Trust on the advice of a will writer she met at an estate planning seminar arranged at her work in 2011.
It wasn’t until August last year that Jones Whyte wrote to Melanie, a nurse in Birmingham, to say that McClure had gone into administration and her Trust needed an urgent review.
“I was in complete disbelief that it took them so long,” she told STV News.
“The letter said that you need to ring us to sort it out. Their main message was you have to do something – we have your papers in our vault and that will be £420.
“It was an absolute shock – I was horrified. The thing that really worried me was that Jones Whyte told me it was going to cost a huge amount of money.”
A spokesperson for the Law Society of Scotland told STV News: “We have the greatest of sympathy for those who have been adversely affected by the collapse of McClure Solicitors and will continue to provide information on how people can seek redress.
“Scottish legislation defines our role, which is to investigate complaints against individual solicitors around their conduct. Service complaints are investigated directly by the SLCC, while conduct investigations are carried out by our professional conduct team.
“We take every appropriate measure to meet our regulatory obligations, which includes investigating conduct complaints we receive as per the statutory process.”
In a response to STV News, Jones Whyte said: “Jones Whyte have been constructively engaged with the SRA both pre and post the McClure administration at various intervals.
“We are working closely with them on agreed timescales to support previous clients of McClure, but disagree that we have taken too long with the issues that arose due to the McClure collapse.
“The situation is more complex than it would appear at first glance as a result of difficult circumstances following the McClure administration and a changing regulatory environment.
“We are happy to speak to anyone affected, including any clients who opt to access their file (which we will provide at no cost) and instruct a solicitor of their choosing elsewhere.”
Andrew Robertson, formerly managing director of WW&J McClure denies the allegations against the firm.
He maintains all consultants were properly trained on capacity, at initial training and through their time with the firm. He insisted that if a client did not have capacity, instructions were not taken.
“We dispute that clients were misled to pay for a Trust,” he said.
“It was our responsibility to advise clients, but it was left to them to decide whether or not they wished to have a Trust.
“From 2019, each meeting with one of our consultants was recorded with the client’s consent so that management could monitor that no undue pressure was being brought to bear.
“No one is more disappointed that McClure became unsustainable due to Covid restrictions than me.”
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
