Town halls used to be cosy places where local authority civil servants performed their duties in almost complete obscurity and with a comforting constant routine.With the ribbons being cut on a dozen new unitary authorities in England this week, and the first tranche of contracts won under the compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) process just coming into effect, those sedate days are clearly over.No local authority group appreciates this sea change more than lawyers.

As the new chairman of the Local Government Lawyers Group (LGL), Peter Urwin, points out, CCT hit authorities like a blast of cold air, blowing away several decades worth of cobwebs.

'Twenty-five years ago, the atmosphere in local government was one of no change,' says Mr Urwin, who spoke to the Gazette at his group's annual conference in Swansea last week.

'Now there seems to be constant change.

It has come to the point where it is difficult to know what to expect next.'Legal services in the London boroughs and metropolitan districts were included in the first round of CCT, with the remaining local authorities scheduled to go through the process next year.

One of the main concerns of the LGL is that the government might move the goal posts slightly by producing a further definition of anti-competitive practices.

'People in the course of preparation are looking for clarity.'However, so far, the CCT process has both benefited and vindicated local government legal departments, maintains Mr Urwin.

The group has not heard of an in-house team which has bid for a contract and lost.

'I would like to think that the trend will continue,' says Mr Urwin.

'It proves that local government legal departments provide a cost effective and efficient service.'Mr Urwin is restrained on the broader subject of the CCT philosophy.

'It was a central government decision and, as always, local authorities have done their best to comply with that.

Local legal departments always thought they were doing a good job and I think CCT has proved that they were doing a good job.'There have been benefits in practical terms.

Mr Urwin points out that CCT has forced legal departments to examine their internal practices.

'We have had to look at our range of expertise,' he says.

Now that local lawyers have seen they can triumph over private practice competition, their confidence and motivation has increased.Competitive tendering and reorganisation are not the only issues focusing the attention of local government lawyers.

Also at the forefront of their minds is the ever-increasing use by their constituents of judicial review challenges.A delegate at last week's conference suggested that defending judicial reviews was costing local authorities in the region of £100 million annually.

The lawyer went on to maintain that behind the rising use of judicial review was a feeling of frustration amongst residents that there was no other way of challenging local authority decisions.

One group member suggested the administration of some housing departments was so poor and inept that tenants saw judicial review as the only way available to get repairs made to council property.

And there was also the perception that some private practice law firms aggressively canvassed for business on housing estates.Mr Urwin acknowledges that judicial reviews 'are not cheap proceedings' and that 'people are increasingly using the method to challenge local government decisions'.

But he is much more reluctant to blame local authority administration.

'Some areas of the law are difficult to operate in and local government is about having to make difficult political choices and the balancing of limited resources with which to make those choices.'The new chairman -- who is currently director of administration and county solicitor at Northumberland County Council -- is also reluctant to support suggestions that a inquisitorial and investigative style of settling disputes between local authorities and their citizens would be more efficient than traditional litigation.'We are already subject to quite a lot of scrutiny,' he says.

'Our members are democratically elected, there is an ombudsman, the majority of authorities have well laid out complaints processes and appeals panels and we are looked over by district auditors.'Despite the general sense of upheaval at town halls, Mr Urwin is adamant that local government still offers an exciting and intellectually challenging career for lawyers.

In fact, Mr Urwin -- who started his career at Durham County Council in 1971 -- has never been tempted by private practice.

'I enjoy being a manager as well as being a lawyer,' he explains.As an example of local government challenges, he points to his own employer.

Until recently, Northumberland was the smallest mainland council.

Nonetheless, it still covered a population of some 310,000 and had an annual budget of nearly £3 million.As Mr Urwin says: 'That's an attractive picture for a nyone to operate in.'