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The Legal Department of the Future February 2016 LocalGovernmentLawyer44 of more experienced practitioners. Any increase in staff is likely to be at the nonpart qualified level due to cost and a robust case management system facilitating lower-end process-driven work being dealt with at a lower qualification level one head of legal predicts. As well as the cost another reason for hiring non-qualified staff more is the difficulty that many departments currently face in recruiting more experienced lawyers especially those with in-house local government experience. As workloads have risen the survey of heads of legal shows that recruitment and retention is the third biggest challenge for departmental managers it was eighth in 2012 the last time this survey was produced and many expect the problem to become more acute. Four in five heads of legal say that they find it difficult to recruit good lawyers in the present market while 15 describe it as very difficult. When the same question was asked in 2012 66 said that recruitment was difficult 12 very difficult. The most difficult disciplines to recruit into are planning mentioned by 53 of respondents procurement 50 and property 29 while for those authorities that have responsibility for social care adult social services lawyers and child protection lawyers are also in short supply. Respondents to the management section of the survey put the reasons for this situation down to a number of factors but pay freezes and the erosion of other benefits such as the Local Government Pension Scheme have left many local authorities looking unattractive compared with a recovering private practice in many areas of the country. Heads of legal were also asked whether they expect recruitment to become easier or harder in future not one expects it to get easier while 40 think it will become harder still. Terms and conditions in local authorities stagnated during the recession and are now unappealing says one. We need to do something to change this. Those that are recruiting for shared services teams have a harder task again with 28 of respondents to the careers survey saying that they would be less likely to apply compared with just 7 who would be more likely. However departments that provide legal services to external clients are less of a turn-off for prospective recruits overall while 25 of respondents say they would be less likely to apply to such a team almost as many again 19 would be more likely to do so. The expansion of trading could also help departments constrained by council-wide cuts by deriving additional income from sources beyond the host authority. However one head of legal warns that this could also be double-edged sword from a financial point of view. I do think this business about paying rewards in the future is going to be more Terms and conditions in local authorities stagnated during the recession and are now unappealing. We need to do something to change this.