 | Memoli: savouring perks of the job The manager adds: ‘In my experience, most in-house lawyers are happy – if not they would go back to private practice. The success of, and respect for, a particular employee or a sector probably has a strong influence on how happy an in-house lawyer is.’
The survey, commissioned by the CLO Programme – a management development scheme for general counsel and heads of legal – revealed that although the average basic salary for a general counsel is £136,820, the average for a public sector lawyer of the same level is just £70,000.
Maria Memoli , chairwoman of the Solicitors in Local Government group and solicitor to Kennet District Council, in Wiltshire, says that although local government lawyers are not the highest paid, there are other perks in terms of working conditions and job satisfaction that help make up for it.
She says: ‘Most local authorities have now introduced work-life balance policies, which can include flexible working, nursery vouchers, sabbaticals, working from home, and so on.
‘There is no doubt that local government work is interesting. Quite often legal departments will be asked to give legal advice on a number of issues which sometimes overlap with political issues. Therefore, political acumen is a good asset to have.
‘Our masters are usually the political controlling group which can make for an interesting dynamism – we have to be sensitive to the needs of our community and our political masters, and balance those needs, which can be tricky at times.’
Ms Memoli says the camaraderie, the sense of belonging, the huge expertise within the field of local government, and the manner in which those in senior positions are able to help shape policy by way of consultations with ministers, all add to the job satisfaction of public sector lawyers.
She adds that the underlying competition of private practice is absent. ‘We are one big happy family. We share best practice and many of us have become good friends with colleagues within our own local authority and with neighbouring authorities up and down the country. We have an extremely good network and support system. News travels fast – good and bad. It’s a very healthy way to work.’
One of the difficulties in her sector, she says, is that those in middle management and those below that grade ‘do not get the secretarial back-up as you would in, for example the private sector’.
Stanley Williams, now director of legal affairs and company secretary at the BSI Group, a business services provider, started his legal career as a local government lawyer. For him, joining a private practice law firm on completing his finals was not an option. ‘In the 1960s, if you joined a London firm as an articled clerk, you wouldn’t get paid. Indeed, you had to pay the firm a premium to join. I couldn’t afford that – I had to earn some money. The only way of doing that was to go into an in-house position.’
Mr Williams left the public sector for commerce and industry in the 1970s after a reorganisation in 1973 saw local authorities become a different animal. ‘Local authorities became run on party political lines. The whole scene changed. I was drawn to the concept of commerce and industry – mergers and acquisitions, and commercial law were quite attractive to me. It was quite a significant change from country planning, education and child law cases, but both are enjoyable in their way.
‘It was a big risk for me. I made the right move career-wise from a remuneration point of view but then a lot of people go into the local government sector because they feel they are providing a good service. Cash doesn’t come into it. It’s about job satisfaction.’
He says in his current role he enjoys the ‘hugely rewarding’ cut and thrust of project managing multi-million pound deals, the ‘GP’ part of the job that involves tackling a variety of problems, and the opportunity his role affords him of feeling part of the business. It is this latter aspect that he wants actively to promote when he takes over as chairman of the Commerce & Industry (C&I) Group next month.
‘I want to see more lawyers involved in the policy-making of an organisation. This can give you an enormous sense of belonging and participation. I would like to see more in-house lawyers become integral parts of the business in which they are employed rather than just pure lawyers. There are not that many managing directors and chief executives who have legal training – far more are from accountancy backgrounds – and I want this to change.’
Anthony Armitage quit his post of commercial property partner at City firm Davies Arnold Cooper in 1999 to become a director of consultancy firm FirstLAW. Since then he has advised on more than 100 legal tender exercises involving hundreds of interviews with external counsel.
For him, there is no contest between working in private practice and in-house. He says: ‘Working in-house is more satisfying, more enjoyable and more rewarding. Private practice had become too much of a sweatshop. Accountants took over billing procedures, fee-earners were becoming slaves to time-sheets, and the partnership structure was arcane. The in-house sector offered a release in all these areas and would allow me to broaden my role to more general practice.’
Mr Armitage says that in-house is better because of the varied work, shorter working hours, and the business experience it offers. He adds, however, that working as an employee in a small legal department ‘can lead to a feeling of isolation and there are usually only limited legal resources available’.
Mr Armitage, founder of the recently formed In-House Lawyers Association, a breakaway from the C&I Group, says several of his association’s members appear to be overworked and under-resourced in their companies.
‘It is probably not the sector that is the differentiating factor but more the attitude of the employer to the internal legal function. If an in-house department is seen mainly as a cost centre and therefore a place to cure problems, the working environment will be less favourable than if the department is seen more as a solution centre where issues are resolved before they become problems.’
Carol Williamson, outgoing chairwoman of the C&I Group and in-house counsel at Northern Foods, has worked in the manufacturing sector for around 15 years, having previously worked in-house in the retail sector.
‘This seemed like a good progression and was an opportunity to head up my own department. At that time, I also moved from a highly controlled business to one that had little central control – and this gave the opportunity to view both sides. This decentralised approach in the current business is challenging but at least having worked in such an environment before I know what to expect – there is good and bad in both.’
She adds: ‘I believe the vast majority of in-house lawyers work incredibly hard and that the workload is generally little different to the private practice environment – you are there to provide a service to your client. You get a lot of variety and you take the rough with the smooth.’
Lucy Trevelyan is a freelance journalist
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