Front Line, Not Back Office

Life – and particularly legal life – is so often a question of balance. Balancing priorities amidst a battery of competing demands. Conducting a proportionality balance. And (shades of ‘attempting the impossible’ in early law school) endeavouring to balance the demand/resource equation.

At school I was, in terms of political correctness, ‘equationally challenged’. That is to say my equations (chemical or otherwise) could rarely be persuaded to do the decent thing, and balance. And it seems from the survey by Local Government Lawyer and DMH Stallard, that local authority legal heads are finding themselves in very much the same position. For the figures are striking if not surprising with (as Philip Hoult’s report indicating) ‘one in five local authority legal departments . . . facing reductions of 20 – 30% in their overall group budgets at a time when demand for legal advice is growing significantly’.

But equations do of course ultimately have to balance. And legal heads are responding creatively and dynamically across the country, with a basket of initiatives, including shared services, working smarter, handing elements of tasks back to in-house clients, framework arrangements, partnerships and increasing revenue generation.

But there are limits. And the world clearly has to keep turning. So, if having exhausted all available creative solutions, there is just not the resource available to provide the legal fuel to launch a necessary project, there is only one immediate solution i.e. put the work out. And, despite any existing framework arrangements this clearly comes at a cost.

Authorities do of course need to make radical budget cuts. But it is all too easy to regard law as a commodity service – a bit like buying stationery – rather than as a key part of the authority’s operating system. So (in the absence of demand-led funding) legal services budgets need to be determined in the light of the strategic needs of the authority and their partners.

Clearly, the most cost effective way of providing core local authority services is an effective and efficient in-house team. However, even with very substantial shared service teams, it will not be cost effective to maintain every type of specialist expertise, and particularly those not required regularly.  So external legal supply will continue to play an important part in the repertoire of local authority legal support.

Local government is clearly undergoing a radical period of change that looks set to change its essential ‘laws of physics’. Legal services departments clearly must (as they are doing) react to this creatively and dynamically. But action clearly needs to be as organic as possible i.e. not imposed from above as a management solution. For what will work with one set of people may well fail with another. And if teams buy into change, make it their own and customise it to their particular requirements, success will the likely outcome On the other hand, imposed solutions create resentment which saps vital creative energy and stalls progress.

It will also be important for heads of legal to maintain attractive career paths for lawyers in local government. Whilst the legal services infrastructure will look very different as the future unfolds (with the need for new types of promotion opportunities to fit new circumstances) it is vital that bright lawyers entering the sector have reason to stay. For talented people are needed not only to provide core services but also to be their authority’s intelligent client when work is externalised.

So whilst a mixed legal services economy will remain a feature of the unfolding local government landscape, in-house teams will need to continue to demonstrate their traditional resourcefulness, resilience, energy and expertise. For far from being back office they are always at the front line in making positive things happen in their areas.

Dr. Nicholas Dobson is a Senior Consultant with Pannone LLP specialising in local and public law. He is also Communications Officer for the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors.

© Nicholas Dobson 2011