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The Legal Department of the Future February 2016 LocalGovernmentLawyer34 approach that local authority in-house lawyers currently enjoy with each other and find beneficial. Many are keen that the public sector spirit and ethos of local authority legal services should not be lost others think that this is to some extent inevitable if councils are essentially bidding for the same work. Only time will tell what the practical effect of increased trading and general commercialisation of local authorities might be. Licensed to trade Interestingly from the careers survey also carried out by Local Government Lawyer it seems that working for a council that trades services with other organisations is a more attractive option than working for a shared service. A shared service is an attractive option in terms of quality and variety of work training and career development opportunities but perceived disadvantages were location more distant relationship with the home authority pay and the manageability of workload. One in four local government lawyers 28 say they are less likely to apply for a role in a shared service compared with only 7 who are more likely to. This is compared to 64 who regard the growth of traded services as an opportunity to acquire new experience and skills. So how should in-house legal departments face the challenge of becoming The Legal Department of the Future The budget pressures will not lessen the Local Government Associations Future Funding Outlook is predicting a funding gap of 9.5bn by 2020 if things do not change. The LGA has offered a number of proposals to central government in its paper A shared commitment Local Government and the Spending Review published June 2015. Some of the proposals are radical and any that are implemented will have a significant effect for local authorities and their in-house legal departments in terms of the capacity and skills needed. As one delegate at the round table said how can we know what the Legal Department of the Future should look like when we dont even know what the Local Government of the Future might be In the meantime in-house departments should continue to maximise efficiencies increase skills and build resilience and constantly scan the horizon and reinvent themselves as necessary to meet the future whatever it might look like. Helen Edwards is Head of the Public Sector Team at Kennedy Cater www.kennedycater.com the legal broker and cost consultant. Kennedy Cater works with a wide range of public sector and private clients managing an aggregate annual external legal spend in excess of 20m. How can we know what the Legal Department of the Future should look like if we dont know what the Local Government of the Future might be