WINNERS

• 1st - Kirklees Council Legal Services
Susan Betteridge at Kirklees Metropolitan Council in West Yorkshire has had a busy couple of years.
She led the team that saw the council become one of the first local authorities in England and Wales to create a panel for barristers in addition to launching a leadership programme for its legal services team, spearheading the first-ever benchmarking group for city council legal departments and teaming up with four other local authorities to sell Leeds Bradford airport. The innovative Barristers’ Framework Contract has delivered cost savings of 33 per cent to clients and has since worked with three other West Yorkshire legal services to implement a Solicitors’ Framework contract which looks set to deliver similar results.
Progressive and intelligent, the team has worked hard to implement a management development programme and staff recognition scheme to maintain its stellar past 12 months into 2009.

• 2nd - Charity Commission
Following the implementation of the Charities Act in 2006, the past year saw the Charity Commission confront its most challenging phase yet. Following the rule change, the commission’s team of 19 lawyers have to provide the definition of ‘public benefit’, which involves analysing and interpreting 400 years of common law in order to draw out the general principles of public guidance. It also advised on new rules governing the Charity Tribunal and drafted new rules developing the Charitable Incorporated Organisation – a new corporate vehicle for charities.

• 3rd - London Borough of Lambeth – legal and democratic services
The summer of 2007 saw the end of a six-month overhaul of the Lambeth legal team into a modern outfit that has won admirers from inside and outside the public sector. Following knowledge gained from visits to a number of private sector firms, the team has effectively used technology to create a culture of remote working – tagged New Ways of Working (NNW) – that looks set to be rolled out across the entire borough to set the standards for entire council. Financial savings made through clever use of technology, work/life balance and collaboration from key stakeholders such as HR and IT all helped to make NNW happen.

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This award is open to all lawyers working in the public sector, from local authority to central government departments and regulators.

Judges will be looking for evidence of:

• How the team has made the legal function integral to the government department or local authority
• Breadth of work and sophistication of advice
• How the spend for the team is managed

Submissions may focus on a single transaction or regulatory issue but we welcome overviews of team activity throughout the course of the year.

Entries welcome from:
In-house teams	√
Nominations by private practice	√
Nominations by chambers / barristers	√

Previous Winners:
2007	Transport for London
2006	London Borough of Southwark Legal Services
2005	Kent County Council – Legal Services
2004	The Hutton Inquiry Team
2003	London Underground