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The Legal Department of the Future February 2016 LocalGovernmentLawyer12 At the heart of the issue is whether client public bodies of local government legal departments should be considered members of the public or a section of the public for the purposes of section 154 of the Legal Services Act 2007. Although this issue is ultimately one for the courts to determine the SRA takes the view that such bodies could be considered in this way. In response Geoff Wild Director of Governance and Law at Kent County Council has highlighted an opinion to the contrary obtained from leading local government law QC James Goudie of 11KBW in 2013. In January The Lawyers in Local Government Group also sought legal advice on the validity of the SRAs view. See the Management section of Local Government Lawyer for the full background Trading up Putting the resolution of this regulatory issue to one side legal services are undoubtedly seen as one of the prime opportunities for local authorities looking to generate additional income streams. In the Legal Department of the Future survey some 60 of heads of legal say their teams either sell or have definite plans to sell services to other organisations while 23 say it is presently under consideration. Fewer than one in five councils 17 rule it out one respondent reports a lack of capacity due to a downsized department and another says it is difficult to justify when we can struggle to meet internal demand with a limited legal resource. There is clear recognition amongst heads of legal however that selling legal services to other public bodies is not without its difficulties. The top five challenges are perceived to be Insufficient resources to take on the additional work 75 of heads of legal consider this is a key challenge Prioritisation issues and conflicts of interest within their own authority 48 A lack of sales and marketing experience 43 The cost of regulation and indemnity insurance 38 and A lack of internal infrastructure 32. Interestingly the challenge of there being a lack of demand is only in sixth position suggesting fairly widespread confidence that there is a market out there. But as one respondent notes If everyone is trying to set up sell services who is going to buy Hitting the target So who are these potential clients Well those currently selling legal services are principally selling to maintained schools 78 academies and free schools 71 and other local authorities 67. These were followed by charities and not-for- profit organisations 35 housing associations and ALMOs 33 parish and town councils 31 police and crime commissioners 18 and blue light services 18. Recently-established organisations such as combined authorities are also a source of work for some teams 14. Many legal departments would very much like to cast the net more widely however. Some 43 of respondents intend to sell legal services to universities but only 2 currently do so. Similarly 51 plan to sell to clinical commissioning groups 46 to health trusts and 39 to other NHS bodies but again very few currently do so. Other target clients include housing associations 63 of trading local authorities intend to sell to them but only 33 do so now and staff- owned public sector spinouts 40 intend to sell to these bodies following the client but just 8 currently do so. It would be nave though to ignore the challenges in securing new clients and then keeping hold of them. Arguably the easiest sell is to other local authorities and in this regard the survey provides some good news. Two in five local authorities 41 have bought legal services from another authority a further 36 have not but would seriously consider doing so. The attraction says one respondent is to keep public money in the public sector.