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The Legal Department of the Future February 2016 LocalGovernmentLawyer4 What are the main challenges facing local government legal departments What strategies are heads of legal and their senior management teams employing in response Are departments being scaled back left as they are or even expanded What scope is there for further growth in the number of shared services And is the sale of legal services to other public bodies central to teams securing their long-term prosperity The Legal Department of the Future survey of 100 heads of legal sought to find answers to these and other important questions. As in the previous four editions of our research we asked respondents to identify their top three management challenges from a list of 14 criteria. You might be forgiven for expecting there to be little change from the 2012 survey after all the financial environment faced by councils has remained bleak and it is true that cost controlbudgetary issues are still considered the single biggest management challenge included by 69 of heads of legal in their top three. However after that it is all change. Constitutional and corporate governance issues were in second place in the last survey but have now fallen away. Heads of legal instead point to a lack of experience and resource in client departments as their second most significant challenge included by 36 of heads of legal in their top three. What this can mean in practice is that less experienced officers seek reassurance more frequently from the legal team before taking decisions adding to the departments workload. Or they fail to obtain legal input in situations when they should do leading to wrong decisions being taken and greater legal risk for the local authority. The third most significant challenge the difficulties in recruiting and retaining lawyers has also shot up the list included by 32 of heads of legal in their top three. This reflects the fact that three years ago the private sector was just coming out of the other side of the recession now it is buoyant particularly when it comes to recruiting in-demand areas of property planning and regeneration. For a discussion of careers issues including how local authority legal teams can compete in this environment see pages 36-45 and also the summary of Heads of legal point to a lack of experience and resource in client departments as their biggest challenge after budgetary issues. Less experienced officers seek reassurance more frequently from the legal team before taking decisions adding to the departments workload. Bridging the gap The Legal Department of the Future survey reveals that local government legal teams are employing a range of strategies as they face up to a challenging combination of increased workloads and severe pressure on resources. Philip Hoult reports.