A YOUNG solicitor yesterday admitted stealing cash from her employer.

Zosia Fraser, 29, was considered a promising lawyer with excellent prospects until her dishonesty came to light.

She was subsequently sacked from her position with a Scottish law firm amid claims she was caught charging clients upfront cash payments that she then pocketed for herself.

Fraser, who has large debts from her time as a student and has had her wages frozen by Dundee City Council pursuing unpaid council tax, yesterday pleaded guilty to an embezzlement charge.

Although she did not appear in person at Dundee Sheriff Court, her solicitor, George Donnelly, tended a plea of guilty on her behalf to an amended charge of embezzling 1,315 from Dundee-based law firm Muir, Myles, Laverty.

The initial charge was that Fraser stole 2,040.50, but yesterday the Crown accepted the new sum and Fraser was ordered to appear for sentence next month.

Fraser, a domestic law specialist who is originally from Inverness, graduated from Dundee University with a diploma in legal practice in 1999.

After graduating, she was employed by Dundee-based law firm RSB Macdonald as a trainee.

However, she was later sacked for gross misconduct after forging a doctor’s letter that stated she had suffered a miscarriage and was forced to take time off work.

She was reported to the Law Society of Scotland, and it was decided to extend her training contract from one year to two.

Fraser now faces an uncertain future in the profession.

One Dundee solicitor, who did not wish to be named, said: “Zosia is a bright girl but has been a disaster from the beginning. I can’t see how she can continue to practise as a solicitor.”

After she was sacked from Muir, Myles, Laverty for stealing money from clients, she joined another Dundee firm, Joe Myles & Co.

And Fraser was still also regularly appearing for clients at Dundee Sheriff Court until she was suspended by the Law Society.

When the charges came to light, Joe Myles said at the time: “Zosia voluntarily gave up her position with my firm. Anything she has been questioned about relates to things that happened before she joined with us.

“I think things have come to a head now and she has resigned.”

In 2004, another promising Dundee-based solicitor was convicted and fined after admitting a 5,187 child care tax fraud.

Louise Hay pretended to be a single parent and received the Working Family Tax Credit by signing Inland Revenue forms with the name Hazel Mears. She was fined 750 at Dundee Sheriff Court.

Hay was fired by Edinburgh-based law firm Simpson & Marwick and later lost her unfair dismissal case.

However, the Scottish Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that Hay, from Broughty Ferry, could remain a lawyer because there is little chance of her re-offending.

And last month, a solicitor who was jailed for 32 months for smuggling drugs into a prison was freed after serving just a year.

Former defence lawyer Angela Baillie, 33 - nicknamed Ally McDeal by the tabloids - was jailed after pleading guilty to handing a cigarette packet containing heroin and diazepam worth 1,600 to a man awaiting trial in Barlinnie prison.

LONDON: Of all the tut-tutting over the tempest in the “Celebrity Big Brother” teapot, perhaps the most damning verdict came from Max Clifford, a London publicist who has rehabilitated the reputations of philandering footballers and turned wayward women into tabloid stars. Even O.J. Simpson has been a client.

But Clifford said he had no desire to represent Jade Goody, the onetime dental nurse at the center of the “Big Brother” storm, following accusations that she racially bullied another contestant on the show, the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty.

“I’ve represented a few controversial people in my time,” Clifford said. “If I believe them, or I think I can make something happen, then it’s worth my time. But in this case, it would be the very person you’re trying to help, hurting herself.”

Goody had parlayed an appearance on a previous edition of “Big Brother” into lucrative endorsement deals. But after her outbursts against Shetty, a Bollywood actress, her sponsorship career appeared to be dissolving, with retailers pulling her perfume brand, the ironically named Shh, from their shelves. Meanwhile, Bennetts, a motorcycle insurer, said it was canceling an agreement with Danielle Lloyd, another contestant accused of attacking Shetty. Lloyd, a model who appeared as one of “Bennett’s Babes” on a promotional calendar, was stripped of that role, the company said, because it is “strongly opposed to any form of racism.”

Accusations of racism denied by agents for the “Big Brother” participants could be more damaging, from a sponsorship perspective, than other celebrity misbehavior, marketing experts say. The career of the model Kate Moss, for example, has rebounded after several brands dropped her following unproven tabloid allegations of cocaine use.

The “Big Brother” contretemps has also taken a toll on broader commercial relationships. Carphone Warehouse, a cellphone retailer and broadband service provider, suspended its long-running sponsorship of the show, which appears on Channel 4, a government-owned, advertiser-funded broadcaster.

“We are totally against all forms of racism and bullying and indeed this behavior is entirely at odds with the brand values of The Carphone Warehouse,” said Charles Dunstone, chief executive of the company.

Though a survey by YouGov, a polling organization, showed that few consumers saw Carphone Warehouse in a negative light because of the sponsorship, the move to drop it was prudent, said Bruce Haines, chief executive of the London office of the ad agency Leo Burnett.

“Most brands go into these things looking for fame, not notoriety,” he said. “When fame tips over into notoriety, it’s usually time to let go.”

Reality shows like “Big Brother” are particularly tricky for advertisers or sponsors, because they have little idea of what will happen.

In the United States, Procter & Gamble suspended advertising during the CBS TV reality series “Survivor” last year after allegations of racism. The show pitted “tribes” of contestants, organized by race, against each other on desert islands and other places. Procter returned only after the racial composition of the teams was shuffled.

Notoriety may turn off advertisers, but it can attract viewers. “Celebrity Big Brother” was watched by more than 7 million people on Friday night, up from 3.5 million on Jan. 15 and huge for Channel 4. “Controversy is the lifeblood of this program,” Clifford said. “They are getting worldwide publicity they only could have dreamed of.”

One odd coincidence of the “Big Brother” melee is that it developed during a week in which the British government was reining in the ambitions of Channel 4’s bigger rival, the BBC. The BBC got less funding than it had sought, prompting it to warn of cuts in program creation.

The BBC has been one of the country’s most popular exports, projecting an image, however clichйd, of British politeness, tolerance and restraint. “Celebrity Big Brother” shows another face of Britain, one where stiff upper lips come from a punch in the mouth.

Does this mean the biggest damage of the “Big Brother” brouhaha could be to Brand Britain? “I don’t think it harms it in the long run because most countries have their own versions of ‘Big Brother,’ generally staffed by pretty difficult people,” Haines said.

Working Wounded Blog: How Am I Doing? We All Need Feedback From Our Colleagues, Employees and Bosses, but Are You a Feedback Junkie? By BOB ROSNER

March 8, 2007 - When Ed Koch was mayor of New York, he was famous for asking, “How am I doing?”

He’d ask CEOs, bus drivers and everyone in between. When it came to feedback, he was almost indiscriminate in terms of whom he’d ask.

Which leads me to this week’s confession. I’m Bob Rosner, and I’m a feedback junkie. Like Mayor Koch, I love to hear how I’m doing. And not just the good stuff either, because if I’m screwing up, and I screw up a lot, I’d rather hear about it sooner than later.

But when I think of feedback, I don’t only think of Mayor Koch, I also think of Melissa. She was a top executive of a publishing company in Seattle. I served as her coach for the better part of a year. After a series of conversations, I felt that Melissa had no idea of her strengths. So I encouraged her to ask for feedback from people she trusted: former coworkers, friends and family. To make the process totally safe for her, she alone would pick the people to ask for feedback.

Melissa resisted making the feedback calls for months. Something always came up that prevented her from doing it. Finally she got the courage to contact a former co-worker. She said that the co-worker gushed about how Melissa was always there for her. Melissa was so moved that she started to cry. Then Melissa called her brother who surprised her by saying that she was his hero. He recounted a series of stories describing how much she had helped him through the years, most of which she had forgotten. Melissa said that her only regret was that she waited so long to ask people to take a Melissa moment.

I’m sure that at least a few of you who are reading this are in the Melissa-before-she-made-her-request-for-feedback camp. Feedback conjured up a picture of castor oil, something that was good for you but that undoubtedly would trigger your gag response or the gag response of those closest to you.

That’s why I decided to conduct an experiment to see whether I could encourage you to join the Feedback Junkies Club.

I’m going to ask everyone who reads this column to e-mail me your feedback about this column, past blogs or Working Wounded (bob@workingwounded.com). I’m also going to write to a group of people whom I’ve worked with or known through the years and ask them to answer a few simple questions:

1. What do you like best about me?

2. If you had a magic wand, what would you like to change?

3. Do you have a favorite story that sums up the essence of who I am?

4. Anything else?

I’ll be back next time with the good, the bad and the ugly from the responses. But hopefully this won’t just be about me and will encourage you to ask similar questions to the people who matter in your life.

Quote of the Week

“Trust everyone, but cut the cards.” Finley Peter Dunne

Book Excerpt of the Week

“360 Degree Feedback” by Lepsinger and Lucia (Pfieffer, 1997)

“We have seen for ourselves just how effective multi source feedback can be. Our work with a diverse group of companies has convinced us that organizations’ and individuals’ real strength lies in their capacity to bring about changes that maximize their potential. Our belief in the capacity for change has been continually reinforced by the transformations we have witnessed.”

Blog Ballot Results

Here are the results from a recent Working Wounded Blog/ABCNEWS.com online ballot:

How in touch are you?

Stuck in the ’80s, 1.8 percent
Embarrassed to say how stuck I am, 15 percent
Stuck in the ’90s, 15.9 percent
I’m up to date, 67.2 percent

Bob Rosner is a best-selling author, an internationally syndicated columnist, popular speaker, and a recent addition to the community of bloggers. He welcomes your comments at bob@workingwounded.com.

This work is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News.