b'Local Government Lawyer 13Future survey in 2015, the majority ofReview cut local authority funding in 2010. respondents predicted that the number ofAccording to the Law Societys Annual principal and senior level solicitors wouldStatistics Report 2018, published in August, fall, while the proportion of less experiencedthe number of solicitors in local government and, particularly, paralegals would expand.was 4409 compared with 4631 in 2010, a In this years survey, heads of legal forecastfall of 4.7%. In the same period, the number that they will need more (FIG 3) seniorof employees in local government (including lawyers as well as more junior ones. Newpolice and education) as a whole fell by work is tending to be complex, requiring27%, according to the Office for National senior practitioners, said one respondent. Statistics.Recruitment problems apply to mostThe reasons for the spike in demand practice areas but are especially acute infor local government lawyers are well the fields of child protection, adult socialdocumented (see The Productivity Puzzle, p4), but the reasons for the lack of supply Figure 3: Of your lawyers at the following career levels, which do you expect to increase ormore numerous.decrease in numbers in the foreseeable future? Pay is perhaps the most obvious problem for local authorities when it comes to 3% attracting and keeping lawyers. Since the Team managers/principal5% 13% 73% CSR in 2010, local authority staff have solicitors/barristers 0% had an effective pay freeze which has left 0% 5% average local authority lawyers pay well 0% behind their peers in private practice and 28% 55% other parts of the public sector. Lawyers Senior solicitors/barristers 0% 10% in areas such as procurement or planning 0% 7% can earn 80-100K in a commercial law 0% 31% 54% What do local authority lawyers look for Part-qualied Legal Execuves 2%0% in an employer?8%6% Increase signicantly2% Increase moderately The careers survey asked 420 practising Other qualied solicitors/barristers/ 42% 49% Stay more or less the same local authority lawyers what they looked 2% Decrease moderatelyfully qualied legal execuves 2% for in a potential employer and by some 0% Decrease signicantly3% distance, work-life balance and flexibility Hard to tell0% Not applicable are the biggest factors in lawyers choice of 23%21%Locum solicitors/barristers 25% employer than either pay or quality of work.9%5% This represents a marked change from 18% the last time this survey was taken in 2015 0% 14% when pay/pension was the biggest single Locum legal Ocers/Paralegals/ 16% 32% factor, a recognition of the lack of control 11% that many local authorities have to raise Legal Assistants 7%20% pay and the lack of significant differential 3% 41% between the pay and pension packages Legal Ocers/Paralegals/ 5% 41% offered by different local authorities.Legal Assistants 0%2% Fortunately, two of the three most 8% important categorieswork-life balance and quality of workare those that local care, procurement, planning, regenerationauthorities score quite highly on when and property as well as litigation andit comes to employee satisfaction levels governance, according to survey(see Reasons to be Cheerful, p18). But, as participants. Lawyers are one of the fewwith pay, the question for recruiting local occupational groups in local government toauthorities is how to demonstrate they can have survived with their numbers relativelydeliver on these factors better than their intact since the Comprehensive Spendingrivals (FIG 4).'