Myths can be a comfort in a hard world.

One which is believed in by some private practitioners with the faith of a four-year-old in Father Christmas is that local authority employed lawyers are second rate.

And to those faithful a piece of advice - keep the faith! Not that there is any truth in it, but with compulsory competitive tendering of local authority legal services (CCT) on the horizon, such grandeur of delusions can raise a welcome laugh amongst those who know differently.Most in-house local government lawyers joined because they valued public service before profit.

They have also taken very well to the commercial culture which has become prevalent in local authorities.

The majority of legal departments now make effective use of information technology, not only for time recording, but also for word processing, spreads heets, diaries, electronic mail, on-line services and other facilities.

Local authority lawyers can now demonstrate that even with overheads, they are very cost-effective.Many legal services units also now have practice management systems and are working to specified quality and performance targets.

They will be well placed to deal with the detailed monitoring provisions which will appear in most CCT contracts.

Such supervision will perhaps not be an everyday experience for many private law firms.

The local authority, however, through its corporate legal team, will be an intelligent, well informed and demanding client, and will expect to have detailed access to the whats, whys and wherefores of all matters handled on its behalf.

And the front-line client departments, struggling as they are to provide services against ever-diminishing budgets, are now also street-wise and case-hardened concerning professional services of all kinds.So what does the local authority in-house lawyer have, apart from the expected bread and butter skills of being a competent and effective general practitioner? Knowledge of a complex client with specialised law and procedures governing all its actions for one.

For another, detailed awareness of the law and practice surrounding the various local authority functions, eg housing, recreation and local government finance.

Also, the local authority lawyer is trained to be sensitive to the corporate dimension when advising departments, and to recognise those occasions when sectional instructions must not be taken at face value.

In addition, whilst advising positively and creatively, local government lawyers are forever aware that they are advising a public client.

Consequently they always have in mind issues of vires, propriety and reasonableness.

Also, they know all the players throughout the organisation and the form, as well as the nuances, of the officer/member decision relationships.

They are part of the wider authority team, and having solved the problem are a dynamic part of the solution.

These are clearly just a few of the many features of local authority lawyers which add real value to the client's business.Many local authorities with an in-house legal department do of course have very good relationships with private practitioners.

These firms can often provide specialist services when needed (for example, complex commercial matters such as corporate taxation) which it would not be cost effective to provide in-house.

They can also undertake court and other agency work when circumstances dictate.

Other authorities have taken the decision not to employ in-house lawyers or, if they do, to have only a small team and externalise a large part of the work.

However, this is very different from CCT, where councils will be obliged to submit a specified percentage of their work to competition whether or not they wish to do so.

Nevertheless, the Law Society, whilst holding the view that 'it is not appropriate to deprive local authorities of the right to choose their own solicitors' does acknowledge that 'the government is adamant that CCT must proceed'.When CCT does come the in-house team will go in hard, and be hard to beat.

The evaluation will naturally be conducted properly, fairly and professionally by the client team in line with detailed statutory rules and having regard to financial, technical and quality issues.

However, where there are 'beauty parades' any beauty will have to be demonstrably more than skin deep.The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 will be likely to apply to many (if not most) externally let contracts for local authority legal work.

This will mean that in such cases the successful tenderer will have to take on the relevant existing authority staff upon their current terms and conditions.

And local authorities inviting bids are entitled to require external tenderers to provide broadly comparable pension provision, or otherwise compensate the employees affected.Authorities will also expect successful tenderers, either in-house or external, to comply with the detailed specification in the contract documents.

Most of these will contain detailed quality and performance requirements, together with contractual provisions covering (amongst other things) service provision obligations; supply of management information; rights to inspect and retrieve files and papers; the control of disbursements and use of counsel, agents and sub-contractors; professional knowledge and skill requirements; conflict of interest; dispute resolution; default; and termination.

Anyone contemplating an easy killing from in-house local authority legal practices should think again.

Most local authority lawyers are well managed, skilled, knowledgeable, hard working and effective.

They will be fighting to win, and expecting to do so.