b'Local Government Lawyer 27roles. As one head of legal told the survey:a shared service were positive about thecouncil employees.Senior Solicitors will leave as wages dontexperience, developments in this respectThe primary advantage of spinning off increase and there are limited opportunitiesseem to have stalled. Few new sharedfrom the local authority is freedom from for promotion, thus we suffer from a loss ofarrangements have been created recentlycouncil-imposed pay scales and some of the knowledge and experience. and a number have parted ways. Politics isinternal politics (big and small p) that beset It was suggested that offering roles on aone factor, as is the feeling that one partysome shared service operations.career-graded basiswhereby lawyers canis getting the better end of the deal (whichHowever, according to the survey, move up within their pay bands based ongiven the complexity of local governmentvery few look set to join them, primarily performancecould be one way of partiallyfinance is difficult to disprove). because most departments do not have addressing this issue, as could marketConcerns were also expressed at thethe capacity to take on much additional supplements or other additional financialroundtable that they risk amplifying theexternal work. Whilst the provision of inducements to recognise those disciplinesdistance between local government lawyerslegal services between authoritiesand where technical skills are scarce. But theand their clients. My team has workedbetween authorities and other bodies such problem is a structural one with localreally hard to be part of the council ratheras schoolscontinues on an ad hoc basis, pay grades that does not look likely to bethan being legal in its ivory tower and Ithe predicted boom in the inter-authority resolved any time soon. would worry that you lose some of that,trading of legal services has failed to arrive. If you want a good, experiencedsaid one head of legal.Like shared services, the principle is a good contracts or planning lawyerexactly theThere was also a feeling amongst someone, but getting it going at a time when type that are just getting taken straight intothat the high water mark for shared servicesmany legal departments are struggling to the private sector at the moment, Quentinhas been reached as the bottom of the cutskeep up with their own work has proved Baker told delegates. They will offer a dealto local government funding is (for now atinsurmountable.thats better in terms of finances but moreleast) in sight and that as lawyers becomeIt did feel as if it was going to be a big importantly, we found, is that they dontmore confident about their positions withinthing for us a few years ago but the reality have to manage anyone in order to paytheir councils, in-house is the best place tois were probably doing about the same them more. In order to get paid more in abe. amount of intra-authority training as we local authority context, you have to manageI think the arguments for them arealways have done, said one delegate. We people and a lot of good lawyers dont wantentirely correct and logical and I couldntare still, by and large, doing most of our to do that. They want to spend time beingdisagree with it, Staffordshires Johnwork for the authority and I think perhaps good lawyers because thats what they haveTradewell said. But looking at the resultscoming to the recognition thats where our trained for and thats what they enjoy. [of the survey], you sense that lawyers inbread is buttered and we need to make local government are getting confident againsure we satisfy the authority rather than Sharing the load about their position in their authorities.worrying about others.Baker, one of whose past roles was asI think they can probably see the futureThe recent focus for many local head of LGSS Law, the shared servicewhere they dont necessarily need to andauthorities instead has been how to best and ABS involving Northamptonshire,maybe its about focusing on those thingscope with growing volumes of work from Cambridgeshire and Central Bedfordshirethat were best at doing as in-house teamstheir own councils and in this respect, both councils, also pointed out that, by virtue of such as childcare work, commercial orthe survey respondents and the roundtable their size, shared services were often betterpropertyand then maybe using otherdelegates have detected a change in placed to provide the career paths thatpartners to do the kind of work on top ofattitude towardsand approach frommany lawyers want. that. But it doesnt feel as if shared servicesprivate practice. Whereas in past versions The critical mass of a legal teamnow are the answer to any of my particularof the survey, many heads of legal were is fundamental, he said. They canproblems. determined to use private practice as little provide resilience, specialism and careeras possible, this year law firms have been opportunities. Having worked in smallerEnd of the road for ABSs? identified as the single biggest way that local legal teams and a very big legal team andOf the legal departments that have achievedauthorities could cope with their overloads managed them, its just one of the biggestABS status in the past few years, only twoand the rhetoric in the survey comments factors you can improve. Because what we LGSS Law and Invicta Lawhave goneabout not wasting public money on external are trying to provide is a really broad rangethe whole hog and set themselves up aslawyers seems to have ebbed away.of services and its very, very difficult to do itseparate entities to their host authorities.It feels less competitive now for some well with 15 people. Others, such as HB Public Law and ELS (thereason, said one roundtable delegate. It Yet while, as the survey shows (see Thein house service of Essex County Council),feels as if we both have kind of come to Productivity Puzzle, p4), most of those headsonly utilise their ABSs when required to forterms with what our roles are in supporting of legal that had experience of working inregulatory reasons and their staff remainlocal authorities with their legal work. Were'