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If you sign up as a trainee then you're bound to the same ethical and moral code as a solicitor.

If someone instructs you to do something that goes contrary to your duties to the court and the client and the regulations then you say "no". You document your decision and if you see that it is done (whatever it is) then you report it.

If there is then a witch hunt and you are forced out you have some measure of contractual protection as a trainee and that might help you into another trainee position. It isn't perfect but this is the life we chose with all of the good and bad things that go with it.

It is the same in any walk of life. I fully accept that it is incredibly tough to say "no" in the face of coercion and job threats, but it is what it is.

I feel very sorry for the trainee in question but in this job you've got to stick up for yourself because nobody else will unless you are extremely lucky to have a supervisor who gives a damn.

I'd string up the partners/directors though, without a thought.