In service

Variety, interest and workplace flexibility are seen as the ways to attract the best lawyers to government service, writes Nicole Maley

In recent years, a great deal of noise has been made about the boom in salaries for assistant solicitors and the ever-increasing levels of partners' pay in the City.But despite the US-style trend towards throwing money at the best and brightest, it is becoming ever more apparent that in the UK it is flexibility and respect for the lives of lawyers outside the office which can tip the balance in favour of some employers.While it is fair to say that some of the bigger firms are, at last, attempting to show an appreciation of 'lifestyle' issues - through incentives such as paid sabbaticals, additional maternity/paternity leave and the provision of stress-busting holistic treatments - it is clear that in many cases, when lawyers are looking for true quality of life, they are still opting out of the City.As the beneficiaries of the backlash against the private sector's long-hours culture, employers such as the Government Legal Service (GLS) are reporting a healthy level of applications from top-notch solicitors and barristers who are no doubt eager to leave the rat race behind.However, the recent National Audit Office report - 'Purchasing Professional Services' - slammed wasteful government expenditure on external legal advice, effectively demanding a 10% cut in costs (see [2001] Gazette, 26 April, 1).

So will the GLS become a City-style slogging shop in response?The government was not always so positive about its recruitment and retention record, according to the GLS head, Treasury Solicitor Juliet Wheldon, who says the service has put in more than a decade of hard work to improve its position as an employer.In the late 1980s, the leadership of the newly created GLS was added to the responsibilities of the Treasury Solicitor, the main legal adviser to the government.

The establishment of a central body - which now employs some 1,400 lawyers - was planned to give a wider identity to those providing legal advice to the multitude of UK government departments and public bodies.One of the Treasury Solicitor's priorities was to address the issues surrounding the recruitment, retention and career development of lawyers working within government, and to ensure that the GLS was well-equipped to compete for the services of the best legal advisers in the field.In the years that have followed, the GLS has implemented a variety of strategies which have gone some way towards levelling the playing field in the employment war.

The service has implemented job-share arrangements, is currently piloting a remote-access project, and also has valuable pension, health screening and holiday entitlements, on a par with those offered by other employers.But while Ms Wheldon says it is vital the GLS addresses the issue of workplace flexibility, more often than not, the deal-clincher in an employment negotiation is the enormous diversity of GLS career opportunities, and the capacity for advancement.To this end, in 1998 the GLS formed a career development sub-group, and in 2001 it appointed a new careers adviser to carry on its work.

In May of this year, a report of the first stage of a two-part quinquennial review of the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSD) highlighted the need for the 200-strong department - the largest in the GLS - to maintain its ability to attract high-quality lawyers despite the pressure on it to reduce costs (see [2001] Gazette, 17 May, 5).

As recently as this month, the 2001 GLS conference focused on the issue of career development.'We can all be a bit too transfixed by those headline salary figures, but the salary is just one part of the picture,' says Ms Wheldon.

'The sort of sacrifices people in the City firms have to make are enormous, and they put serious stress on your life.

'Certainly, the GLS is not perfect, and of course we sometimes have problems here with hours and responsibility, but at the end of the day we are seriously into the business of trying to maintain a sensible balance between home and work life.

A modern attitude to work is the real key.'She explains that those joining the GLS know they are not going to earn the sums they might in big firms, but she adds: 'One of the major benefits, and the theme that recurs most often, is that our lawyers come here for the variety and the interest of the work.

You know that if you work as a lawyer within government, you are going to get to deal with an extra, interesting, dimension of law.'At an early stage in a career within government lawyers can expect to be dealing face to face with ministers, she says, and with issues which are 'front-page news and of great public interest'.She explains: 'It is this business of getting very, very close to the work of government, and the development of policies which has an enormous lure.'Certainly, life as a GLS lawyer appeals to a wide range of people, something Ms Wheldon positively encourages.

The service recruits both solicitors and barristers, and draws its team members from across the spectrum - hiring from the private sector, the corporate world and from within local government.Legal advisers are also seconded from key law firm advisers to the various departments, a method employed by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM), which brought Simmons & Simmons partner Charles Bankes in on a 16-month secondment last year.Mr Bankes is a long-time adviser to OFGEM, and the move gave an additional legal capability to the office, while also ensuring that his firm gained an intimate knowledge and clear understanding of its client and the environment in which it operates.

Mr Bankes will return to his firm shortly, resuming his role as a partner in the Simmons & Simmons competition law team.He says: 'Through my secondment, I have had a close working relationship with one client, and therefore I have learned every twist and turn about how they work.'To some extent, the division between the legal work and management level work has been blurred, and this has meant that he has not only been advising his client, but also representing it publicly.

'That kind of experience is invaluable,' he adds.It seems that the recurrent theme at the GLS is one of opportunity, and official statistics back this up.

A recent gender and ethnicity report published by the GLS shows that the number of women working within the service has grown steadily over the past ten years - no doubt the result of, in part, the focus on career development issues.At the close of 2000, the GLS ranks included a 50/50 gender split, with 28% of Senior Civil Service (SCS) posts, and 24% of the most senior of the SCS roles, being held by women.

Ms Wheldon says progress continues to be monitored, as the GLS aims to meet Cabinet Office gender targets, which suggest that women should make up 35% of SCS-level posts by 2005.These statistics are reflected in figures for the racial diversity of the GLS - with 8.6% of government lawyers regarding themselves as belonging to an ethnic minority group, a figure which has grown by almost 1% from a year before.

This is higher than their representation in the solicitors' profession and the same as on the barristers' side.Furthermore, the GLS has appointed ethnic minority candidates to 5.6% of SCS posts, and 4.8% of senior SCS roles.

These figures exceed Cabinet Office expectations (a target of 3.2% ethnic minority representation at SCS level by 2005 has been set).It appears that the GLS's flexible approach to working, and the opportunities it provides for career development and advancement, make working in government a popular option for those who are perhaps disillusioned with private sector life.With more than 30 departments and public bodies falling under the auspices of the GLS, lawyers can find themselves handling human rights issues in one post, and fraud matters in the next.

The opportunity to specialise is there for the taking, but unlike private practice, it is not expected that GLS lawyers focus on one area of practice throughout their career.David Hogg, solicitor and legal adviser to the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), is an example of this.

He began his career with a provincial law firm, before moving to the TSD in 1978.

Three-and-a-half years ago he moved to the DETR, where he now heads a 90-strong team of lawyers, focusing on everything from aviation to housing law.With the exception of the TSD, which is by far the largest of the government legal units, the team of advisers serving the DETR is one of the biggest in the GLS.Recent matters with which the department has been involved includes the London Underground's public/private partner ship, climate change discussions in The Hague, and the Alconbury planning case - one of the most prominent cases brought under the Human Rights Act (see [2001] Gazette, 17 May, 4).'My ex-colleagues in private practice sometimes describe themselves as being "bored", and they say that is because of the repetitive nature of their work,' says Mr Hogg.

'Here, in the DETR for example, we are frequently working on matters which are in the public eye and on subjects which are absolutely at the frontier.'He says that, however much it may sound as if he is reading from a recruitment brochure, 'the DETR deals with issues which aim to improve the quality of people's lives - through better transport, better housing, a better environment, safer surroundings, prudent use of natural resources and thriving and prosperous regions.'At least one, or all, of those matters is bound to be of interest to individual lawyers, he suggests.The quinquennial review - which now moves on to looking at how the agency's performance can be enhanced and improved - found that the TSD has done a high-quality job cheaply, but now may be more fully stretched than is sensible or desirable.

The pressure to reduce costs, the report said, had shifted the TSD's focus away from 'maintaining or enhancing the quality or speed of service'.A major focus of the report was on the constraints the TSD is under which prevent it from being more commercial - even though it is bearing 'real risk'.

Clifford Chance partner George Staple QC, who chairs the steering committee overseeing the review, has indicated that some of these fetters are likely to be removed.But while that report highlighted the potential for the TSD to compete with private practice for additional public sector work, more immediate scrutiny has been placed on government lawyers' management of relationships with external legal advisers.The National Audit Office's report claims that a 10% saving can be made on the government's 600 million annual spend on services such as management consultancy, financial, human resources and legal advice.

With 11% (67 million) being spent on legal services each year, Ms Wheldon confirms she is already in discussions with Peter Gershon, the head of the Office of Government Commerce, about the matter.So far, the GLS has not prepared its response to the report, but Ms Wheldon is upbeat about the issues raised by the office, and confident that improvements can be made.Many of the NAO's suggested methods of gaining value for money services have been in place for some time - such as fee-capping, competitive tendering and knowledge-sharing among departments - but Ms Wheldon says further savings can be made.'I very much share the objective that the GLS should obtain its professional services in as efficient a way as possible,' she says.

'The report has only just been released, and it is very early days, so at the moment I would hesitate to put a figure on how much costs can be reduced, but I am sure that we can procure services more efficiently.'Ms Wheldon must hope there is no clash between a healthy, ethical working environment - attracting disenchanted City lawyers - on the one hand, and profitability and efficiency on the other.Nicole Maley is a freelance journalist

The real deal-clincher in the hunt for staff is the enormous diversity of GLS career opportunities

GLS lawyers can find themselves handling human rights issues in one post, and fraud matters in the next.

The chanceto specialise is there for the taking