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LocalGovernmentLawyer The Legal Department of the Future February 2016 13 In many cases the instructions from other local authorities appear to be ad hoc rather than a steady steam arising where the buying council has capacity or resilience issues sickness or holiday cover faces a conflict of interest for example in a serious case review or requires specific expertise more likely to be available from another legal department than from private practice. According to heads of legal the main perceived attraction of using another local authority is the lower cost although some suggest that it is still cheaper to use a locum lawyer. This is followed by a better understanding of the culture of local authorities more relevant experience than private practice and familiarity with working practices and procedures. What clients want But what services do local authority clients actually want to buy The areas where respondents say they would be most likely to use local authority providers are employment matters 50 litigation and enforcement 42 procurement and contracts 38 property and asset management 38 planning 27 adult social services 27 and child protection 27. This differs from the five areas where heads of legal say their departments would be most likely to use private practice in future namely regeneration and economic development 57 PFIPPP and projects 51 procurement and contracts 49 judicial review 39 employment 37 and property and asset management 37. Local authorities do as buyers have potential concerns about instructing another council legal team. Chief amongst these is the potential slow turnaround of matters due to the provider prioritising its own authoritys work 81 of heads of legal included this in their top three concerns. Other causes for worry are the potential for there to be a permanent loss of future work to a rival authority 43 a lack of experience of advising a range of authorities with different procedures and cultures 35 a lack of the necessary expertise 34 and a lack of infrastructureclient care facilities at local authority providers 33. These results should provide plenty of food thought for those legal departments seeking to increase their income generation. The comments of some heads of legal emphasise just how important it is to get it right first time. I would be reluctant to purchase again because of client care issues and the quality of advice says one while another reports that we did have a bad experience which put us off one provider and a third suggests that the quality was very poor and they would not look to repeat. By contrast another respondent says they obtained external employment advice where there was a conflict of interest and reports that it was cheaper than our service and excellent. In designing their offerings local authority legal teams will have to examine how they can deliver this kind of positive experience. On a positive note rank-and-file lawyers seem pretty open-minded about the prospect of being asked to trade legal services. Nearly two thirds of the 300 lawyers who responded to our careers survey agreed with the statement that it was an opportunity for me to acquire new experience and skills. Fewer than one in four agreed with the statement that it was a risk to the public service ethos. It is worth highlighting how a number of local authority legal departments have already enjoyed success in securing places on legal services framework agreements or winning individual contracts. Last year saw Norfolk-based shared service nplaw win a 100000 contract to advise Maldon