Council legal teams create own practice
A group of local authority legal teams are set to split from their authorities in a radical bid to create the UK’s first standalone public sector legal practice.
A group of local authority legal teams are set to split from their authorities in a radical bid to create the UK’s first standalone public sector legal practice.
Lincolnshire ;County Council, Boston Borough Council and the district councils of East Lindsey, North Kesteven, South Holland and West Lindsey are pooling resources to create an 80-lawyer team with the working title of Lincolnshire Shared Legal Service.
Sarah McCombie, interim project director, said: “We’ll compete against public sector legal teams and private practice firms. Where the public sector is using private firms we’ll seek to take that work too.”
The service aims to create income for the councils, tackle recruitment problems and offer superior career prospects for lawyers.
The service will be set up over three years. Stage one sees the authorities pool their legal budgets. The councils had spent around £1.5m on external legal services and hope to reduce that to £350,000 this year.
In stage two, starting in April 2009, members will contribute identical sums despite a rise in lawyer salaries and other costs, which will be self-funded.
Stage three will see upfront funding withdrawn, at which point the service will fund itself. Members are debating whether to make it a limited-liability partnership at that point.
Readers' comments (6)
Vocal Authority | 28-May-2008 9:59 am
Not before time
Councils are being pushed to team up on service delivery under Gershon, but council leaders are on the whole scared of actually allowing innovation.
Lincolnshire's initiative is a fantastic idea, but even in promoting it they have had to play it down its significance to avoid scaring local politicians. Let's hope local government lawyers can read between the lines.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anon | 28-May-2008 10:04 am
Promotion
I agree with the last poster. Even though this is an initiative that needs attention from potential clients for it to pay off, 'Lincolnshire Shared Legal Service' is about the dullest and most unmarketable name they could possibly have come up with for it. Doubtless they've saddled themselves with it to avoid seeming 'flashy'..
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 28-May-2008 10:08 am
Job
Does anyone know how much they're paying for the service management vacancy? I heard it's much more than band rate - can anyone confirm?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 28-May-2008 11:56 am
Practice Director Salary
The Practice Director salary is c. £100k and the post is currently being advertised in the jobs section - closing date 2nd June.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
esolicitor | 28-May-2008 8:14 pm
Council teams
Congratulations on this initiative. Hopefully this will develop into the preferred choice as well as offering lawyers an alternative career path, and more importantly, the profits will be diverted from fat cat partners at some of the firms tendering for this type of work.
Best of Luck
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 6-May-2009 11:08 pm
Interested to know how the jobs are made competitive for lawyers in this authority and others which are now hoping to run on this model. Are these council lawyers exempt from single status job evaluation - which would hold down pay in a way not seen in the private sector?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment