Kent ‘in-house private practice’ smashes £1m

Kent County Council's 'in-house private practice' legal team, KCC Legal, accounted for more than £1m of external income in 2007-08, the highest figure it has ever recorded.

KCC Legal was launched in 1998 to offer legal services to other clients in addition to Kent County Council in order to generate income for the county.

The £1,086,200 figure represents a 24 per cent increase on last year's record £877,245, and eclipses the KCC budget target set for 2007-08 of £913,500 by more than 19 per cent.

Kent director of Law & Governance Geoff Wild said: "This represents a huge year of growth where the marketing of Kent Legal Services has been particularly strong.

“The success of the unit has attracted considerable plaudits from both the public and private sectors and this is a real tribute to the professionalism of the staff working within KCC, who have shown that not only are they committed to high standards of public service but have a strong entrepreneurial spirit as well."

The 2007-8 results reflect a steady growth in external revenue since 2005-06 of nearly 75 per cent, from £621,512 to over £1m.

KCC Legal has 140 clients from across the public sector, and has increased the work undertaken for external clients from less than 2 per cent in 1997-98 to more than 25 per cent now.

See our article from the issue, 19 May