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The Legal Department of the Future February 2016 LocalGovernmentLawyer36 These have been tough times for local government employees and while in-house lawyers have overall not been affected by job cuts to the extent of other staff they have not been spared the effects of austerity on their working lives. As the accompanying survey of legal department management has shown the demands on local authority legal departments are growing fast and keeping the best lawyers on board and motivated is essential to meet the growth in legal work. However the results of this survey and the comparison with its last iteration in 2013 show that there are some serious concerns for legal department management if they are to retain recruit and maximise the potential of their lawyers. Firstly lawyers were asked to rate on a scale of one-to-10 their general levels of satisfaction with a number of key aspects of their working lives see fig 1 below. What the results show is that while generally speaking happiness with working life has npt changed significantly in the past two years there are clear areas of concern for the future. The good what do local government lawyers like about their jobs As the responses to the satisfaction question show two aspects of life in local authority legal departments stand out for most lawyers quality of work and despite some comments about increasing workloads work-life balance. Quality of work attracted an average score of 7.1 out of 10 and work-life balance 6.7 although happiness with both has fallen since this survey was last conducted in 2013 when these two categories scored 7.4 and 7.0 respectively. Despite the pay freeze since 2010 satisfaction with pay and pension has remained steady since 2013 at 6.3 out of 10 it was 6.2 in 2013 while lawyers view of the culture and collegiality of their teams has improved slightly over the past two years to score 6.2 from 6.0. To add some context to the statistics participants were also asked open-ended questions about the best and worst aspects of working as lawyers in local government. The statistical results of the satisfaction question were borne out by the open-ended comments received. The weight of comments cite the main advantages of a local government career being work-life balance and annual leave entitlement although some questioned whether this would continue to be the case pension the quality and variety of the work the collegiality of their teams and wider councils and the opportunity to work for the benefit of the community. Some of the comments included The work is always challenging as we often have to interpret and navigate central government initiatives before central government have even thought about how initiatives work in practice. The pay is pretty good and the conditions not too bad although they have suffered some hits in recent years. Now things are recovering. The ability to learn about areas of law first hand which are not available in private practice. Good working team quality work which can significantly benefit the city and region altruistic rather than profit orientated ethos. Working for a local authority does still carry with it a feeling that you are doing something for the community. I really appreciate flexi time and the ability to buy back leave. Working for an organisation providing you with a much better understanding of the pressure and desires of the client which provides an ability to respond faster more comprehensively and in a more rounded manner to client needs. What effect have the cuts had on local government lawyers ambitions and morale Derek Bedlow looks at the results of our exclusive survey of more than 300 local government lawyers and assesses the implications for local authority legal teams. Cant get no satisfaction Fig 1