'Local government lawyers are under pressure,' says Local Government Group chairman David Carter.

'They are required to be financially successful, but they also have public responsibilities.'Local authorities are very heavily regulated now and this does not sit easily with the fact that they are simultaneously being encouraged to be enabling authorities.

There are all sorts of questions about the powers of a local authority which are quite intense at the moment.'The challenges are many, he explains.

'There is a feeling among direct service organisations that the rules are not designed to favour them.

It is a very uncertain climate to work in because they will have to bid for their jobs every few years.

We know we have got to put as much money as we can into front line services like schools and housing, and so all support services, including legal, have got to be as efficient and as effective as possible.'Mr Carter was elected chairman of the Local Government Group in March.

He has worked as a local government lawyer for 18 years in Shropshire and Warwickshire.

Now, as county secretary for Warwickshire, his responsibilities include committee services, central personnel functions and corporate support.

He would like some day to become a chief executive.Warwickshire County Council is not directly affected by local government reorganisation but Mr Carter says the winds of change are sweeping across the country, with the councils that escape restructuring pressing ahead with compulsory competitive tendering (CCT).Mr Carter says local government lawyers often feel powerless before decisions from central government.

'I was part of a group invited to comment to the Department of the Environment on proposals for implementing CCT.

Most of the suggestions we made were not taken on board but overridden by other policy objectives.

Local government would have preferred to see a less prescriptive framework.'Mr Carter plans to make the LGG a firm support base for local government lawyers in the changing times.

'As chairman I want to make sure the executive is not there just for its own sake,' he said.

'We need to speak for our lawyers during the changes and make representations on their behalf to the Law Society and the government.

We also provide a forum for them to get together, exchange views and network.'However, Mr Carter is confident that lawyers' jobs are not under threat because of reorganisation and CCT.

'The move to different forms of management means that legal services are likely to be organised in different ways but there will still be lots of legal work for lawyers to do,' he says.

'Whilst the changes are unsettling for lawyers there will still be the same amount of legal work.

The more senior lawyers' jobs may be advertised, but most junior lawyers should simply transfer to successor authorities.'Lawyers will be more concerned with other peoples' jobs, says Mr Carter.

In the months ahead they will be handling all the asset issues, employment issues and constitutional issues which go hand in hand with winding down one organisation and starting up a new one.'Lawyers have to be up to date with the legislation and make sure that when functions transfer out of an authority or into an authority TUPE rules are observed,' he says.

'I have had a lot to do with CCT generally and we always make it clear to contractors when we think TUPE applies.

Now the position is much clearer than it has been.

For two years it was all a matter of argument.

But the last time that I looked at TUPE there was still uncertainty as to what the rules would be for people transferring to a unitary authority.'I think that the government ought to do what has been done for previous reorganisations and set down some general rules which protect the position of staff.

So far they have not done that and my understanding is that they will not attempt it.'All sorts of people will have all sorts of different interpretations of TUPE and it's up to local government lawyers to try to come up with something sensible which drives a course through the middle.'As an employee of a council which is not reorganising, Mr Carter and his team have plunged straight into the nitty gritty of preparing for CCT.

'There haven't yet been that many councils which have opened their legal services to competition or externalised them, but one's impression is that the experience has been variable,' he says.'There were already a lot of changes going on before CCT became a priority due to the pressures within councils to introduce high costing, quality standards and service levels.

We won't know what the results of CCT are for another nine months.

I would expect that all other things being equal most local authority legal services would continue to be provided in-house.'We shall be wanting to encourage in-house services to be as effective and as competitive as possible.

They have got to have effective time-costing, quality standards and practice management standards.

They have also got to be alert to the changes which take place if you are delivering to a specification rather than as part of an organisation.'The Department of the Environment has said local authorities should not build up in-house departments because the tender might be won by a private firm when the contract expires.

Mr Carter dismisses this.'I am not sure what evidence the Department of the Environment can produce for that.

The majority of legal work does not have to be exposed to CCT, 55% of it can stay in-house without any form of competition though councils get credits for work they voluntarily put to the private sector.'The legal services work, which tends to be put out, is that which can be specified, managed and monitored effectively in a contract, like standard conveyancing and litigation.

Work which is generally kept in house relates to setting up the new authorities.'In their review of local authority legal departments the Audit Commission said that for most authorities at most times an integrated in-house service was the best solution.

I have not seen any objective study which challenges that, and so I think that there will be very, very few councils which consider not having legal departments.'Mr Carter insists that he would 'still' encourage a young law graduate to seek a career in local government.

'We should continue to build on our strengths, which are knowing our customers, being accessible to them and traditionally being cost effective.

Whatever the changes are there will still be lots of work to do, and lots of opportunities for us.'