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The Legal Department of the Future February 2016 LocalGovernmentLawyer32 The survey of local authority heads of legal carried out by Local Government Lawyer has once again shown that the single biggest management challenge in the foreseeable future is cost control and dealing with budget cuts. Some 69 of respondents included it in their top three and for 47 it was the top answer. This shows a sharp increase from the 2012 survey which perhaps reflects the fact that as local government strives to reach the 40 savings required by the end of this financial year no department is immune from contributing. This is despite the fact that respondents reported increases in work with almost half expecting a significant increase of more than 10 and a further third expecting to see a rise of between 5 and 10. Work is not only increasing in volume but also in complexity. As councils look for new and innovative ways of meeting the funding gap this requires strong legal and governance advice in new and developing areas. As one respondent says We are a very forward thinking authority there is never a shortage of different schemes needing legal advice. The types of work quoted as driving the increase in legal work suggest that highly skilled and experienced lawyers are needed. Yet the reality reported is that councils are struggling to recruit good lawyers particularly in areas of growth. Planning property contracts and procurement are all reported as difficult to recruit to and almost half of respondents expect the position to become worse. In-house teams face an ongoing challenge of trying to meet demands in these areas as councils try to become more financially self-sufficient resulting in more commercial projects increased regeneration and budget strategies including sale of assets. In search of savings Like every other council service legal services have been working hard over the last few years to reduce costs through improved efficiency. Many have reached the point where it is difficult to make further savings without impacting on the ability to deliver to the standards required by clients although interestingly almost three quarters of respondents who were not actively considering a shared service stated that this was because they could meet their needs and improve efficiency within their current structures. There are also many in-house legal teams that have not made as much progress in making efficiency savings and now need to look at initiatives such as trading and shared services to take them to the next level of efficiency gains. It is also indicative of the very different circumstances facing councils and legal teams throughout the country. Delegates at the roundtable to discuss the survey results see p16 and colleagues who offered their views to Kennedy Cater reported that the pressure to make savings and consider new approaches depends on a number of factors including the financial position of the council as a whole geographic factors such as ease of access to potential customers or partners political and senior officer willingness to work in different ways and the skills mix of the legal teams. Some heads of legal had seen their proposed budget savings target reduced because politicians and senior officers did not wish to accept the potential risks of a reduced legal service others had seen their budget increased to recognise the increasing demands on the legal service yet some were still struggling with challenging budget cuts of up to 40. It was obvious from the survey and the roundtable that although best practice can be shared there is no one size fits all approach and heads of legal have to create legal services that meet the needs of their own council with whatever budget is available to do so. With the local government sector under huge pressure legal departments are being tested to the limit. Helen Edwards of Kennedy Cater analyses how they are responding. Up for the challenge