A local perspective

As the government unveils a raft of legislation, in-house teams on local councils are adapting to new challenges by forming partnerships and using more external firms, says Grania Langdon-Down

Local government lawyers have an enormous agenda ahead of them as a raft of legislation affecting local authorities works its way through Parliament.

However, the sheer volume of legislation and regulations pouring out of Whitehall has given a boost to the status of in-house legal teams as councillors and other officers wrestle with the changes.

There are also new governance issues, such as having elected mayors, to deal with.

Hard-pressed lawyers discussed the challenges ahead during last month's annual conference of the Law Society's Local Government Group, which decided to change its name to Solicitors in Local Government as part of a restructuring that follows the Law Society's decision that its associated groups should have separate identities (see [2003] Gazette, 17 April, 5).

The group's new chairman, Dennis Hall, solicitor for Sedgefield Borough Council, says: 'We represent solicitors at all levels from trainees to the most senior legal officers and, with the constitutional changes introduced by the Local Government Act 2000, they face more challenges than at any time before.

'While this emphasises the importance of their role, some feel undervalued and their work unrecognised.

It often has to be done with too few resources which, when added to the pressures put on them by the pace of change, can create a very difficult environment in which to practise.'

Stephen Rickitt, the immediate past chairman of the group and principal solicitor for Northumberland County Council, agrees: 'Local government lawyers have been through a dip when accountants and others came to the fore.

But now they are on their way up as fellow officers and councillors realise it is no longer a case of presenting us with a final pitch and saying "Is this OK?".

'They have to come to us with the initial concept and say "Can you find me a way to do this?", which I find the most enjoyable part of the job.'

Nicholas Dobson, former chief solicitor at Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, is now national head of local government in the Leeds office of national firm Pinsent Curtis Biddle.

He says: 'It's always a tough call being seen to have enough clout when lawyers are going through an unfashionable period but it is vital that the lawyers are at the centre of council decisions, at the genesis of policy making, otherwise if something turns out to be unlawful, it can take years to unravel.'

The difficulty of balancing unlimited demands with finite resources has prompted some innovative partnerships among council legal departments, and also with private law firms and local chambers, to increase the range of expertise available and to ensure they are getting the best value for the councils they represent.

The 16 local authority legal departments across the east of England which last summer agreed to pool information on everything from land sales and acquisitions to child protection and adoption hearings, say the joint working agreement is proving effective and worthwhile.

Joy Postings, head of legal at Cambridgeshire County Council, says they are using e-mail links for technical and moral support, are carrying out work for each other and are looking at potential secondments.

Councils are also drawing on panels of law firms, while others have strategic partnerships with individual firms.

However, not all initiatives are running smoothly.

A proposal by a consortium of ten Greater Manchester councils and two Lancashire unitaries to reduce spending on external counsel's fees through a system of standard fees has provoked a sharp response from the Bar Council, which has condemned the move as anti-competitive (see [2003] Gazette, 17 April, 4).

Jane Thompson, head of legal at Croydon Borough Council, says that, with a small legal team of 22 people, a 'mixed economy' has to be the way forward.

'We are building on the arrangements we have with external solicitors' firms to develop good working relationships with chambers.

Local government is a very good client because we are not going to disappear without paying our bills and there is constant work, even if we cannot guarantee a particular workload.'

Mr Rickitt, who has a team of 15 to 20 lawyers, says: 'When there was the threat of compulsory competitive tendering [under the last Conservative government], private practice was seen as the enemy and kept at arm's length.

That has now changed and many, if not all, local authorities work with the private sector to provide the best service for their council.

'We have had a few large projects when we have gone to private firms and said: "Right, you are the lawyers on this one.

We want you to provide a complete legal service - the tax advice, land law advice, planning advice."'

Peter Keith-Lucas has seen the issue from both sides, first as director of legal and administrative services for the City and County of Swansea and then as a local government partner with Wragge & Co in Birmingham.

'Local authorities are best served by a combination of a strong in-house legal team, which is essential to maintain policy probity, balanced by the specialist expertise of an external law firm.

No authority, however large, can maintain all the skills and resources in-house.

'We have a partnership with Buckinghamshire County Council, which we won in a tendering exercise four years ago and which has just been extended for another two years.

It is very much about a working relationship which ensures you end up with more than the sum of the two parts.'

Mr Keith-Lucas says there is likely to be a broadening of strategic partnerships when the Local Government Bill is enacted, because local authorities will no longer be constrained in how much they can borrow by a formula dictated by central government.

John Polychronakis, vice-president of the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors (ACSeS) - which represents senior local government lawyers - is director of law and property at Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.

He says: 'We have been saying for many years that the government should introduce specific powers to extend the opportunity for local authorities to use their expertise.

At the moment, we can only provide services to a limited range of public sector organisations.

However, more and more authorities are developing strategic partnerships with companies like BT, but there are issues over whether there are the necessary vires under existing legislation to do that.

'The Local Government Bill will give us that flexibility but there is concern that the proposals are so heavily circumscribed they may not achieve the desired objective and may actually end up deterring authorities from going down that route.'

For ACSeS, another key issue is probity.

It is working closely with the Standards Board for England, which is responsible for investigating complaints against elected members for breaching the code of conduct.

Under the section 66 regulations of the Local Government Act 2000, which are due to come into force shortly, less serious complaints will be referred to local standards committees rather than being dealt with at a national level.

Mr Polychronakis says: 'Our members tend to be the monitoring officers for their authority and will be liaising with the Standards Board and advising the local committees.

We welcome the new role because issues of probity and high standards are very important for all local government lawyers.'

Mr Keith-Lucas sounds a note of warning: 'Monitoring officers will be the primary advising officers for their local standards committee and will be drawn into an area more closely personally involved with councillors.

It may put them in conflict with councillors - for instance telling a member of the planning committee they have an interest in a particular application, so they cannot participate in the decision.

Some accept this as part of their changed role but others are not so keen, preferring their old role of providing legal advice on projects and services.'

The constantly changing demands on local government lawyers highlight another area of concern - recruitment.

Mr Dobson is concerned about the reduction in the number of trainee solicitor posts.

'When budgets are under pressure, giving money to in-house lawyers is never a sexy vote.

Lawyers are not loved as a species and in-house lawyers are no exception.

What councillors often don't see is that their in-house lawyers are the oil that keeps the engine running smoothly.

Sacrificing trainee posts in budget rounds isn't good because it cuts off the potential for developing good local government lawyers for the future.'

Mirza Ahmad, the chief legal officer for Birmingham City Council and head of the largest local government in-house legal team in Europe with more than 200 staff, says: 'Local government is an excellent training ground.

We have just taken on four trainees but few authorities can take as many and some have stopped altogether.

Recruitment generally is variable, with some areas such as social services and child-care advocacy causing acute problems.'

Ms Thompson has also found recruitment variable.

'We advertised for a senior corporate lawyer but had no success in appointing anyone.

However, we have just taken on two trainees and had 230 applications.

If we want lawyers for tomorrow, then there has to be a commitment to training them.'

Mr Hall agrees: 'I feel very strongly that it is a false economy for local authorities to remove from their establishments these opportunities for talented individuals.'

The job market is likely to be shaken up over the next few years with government plans to devolve power to the regional assemblies.

Mr Ahmad says: 'This, combined with possible local authority boundary changes, will create new opportunities for some local government lawyers, while others will have fears for their jobs.'

Grania Langdon-Down is a freelance journalist