Quentin Baker resigns from council-owned social enterprise firm LGSS Law

Quentin Baker, the executive director of the council-owned social enterprise law firm LGSS Law, has resigned.

Baker has also stood down from his roles as Director of Law & Governance at Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire County Councils and as Assistant Director Legal Services (Monitoring Officer) at Central Bedfordshire Council.

He told Local Government Lawyer: “From my perspective I am really proud of what we have all achieved. It is a good time now for me to take on the next challenge, whatever that may be.”

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: “After nine years with Cambridgeshire County Council and then LGSS Group and LGSS Law, including three as Executive Director of LGSS Law during which the firm was established and set on firm footings for the future, Quentin Baker has decided that the time is right for him to take on a new challenge.

"We would like to thank Quentin for his commitment and contribution across all his roles, which have been valued by his clients, and wish him all the best in his next endeavour.”

Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire County Councils set up LGSS, of which LGSS Law was a part, as a shared service in October 2010.

In April 2015 LGSS Law became an alternative business structure after it secured a licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

In January 2016 Central Bedfordshire selected the firm as its preferred bidder for a shared legal service. Together with Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, it owns LGSS Law.

The practice now comprises 150 FTEs and enjoys an annual turnover of £8.5m providing services to a range of public and not-for-profit organisations.

LGSS Law had been due to merge with the legal teams of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster City Council in December last year but these plans were subsequently put on hold.

Baker’s resignation comes after the departure of Geoff Wild as chief executive of Invicta Law, the Kent County Council-owned alternative business structure.

Invicta Law was launched in June 2017, with the vast majority of Kent Legal Services’ 150 staff transferring to new offices in Maidstone. Wild was the Director of Governance & Law at the county council.