Nature

The productivity puzzle

Derek Bedlow looks at what the results of the Legal Department of the Future survey suggest for the fate of council legal teams.

Nature

The race for talent

The recruitment market for qualified local government lawyers is the tightest that it has been for years. At a time when council legal teams are busier than ever it is putting a severe strain on legal department management.

Nature

Reasons to be cheerful

Lawyers in local government are happier than most other professionals, according to this year’s survey. Derek Bedlow looks into why they are reporting record levels of satisfaction with their work and outlines areas where working conditions can still be improved.

Nature

The best of times, the worst of times

Local government lawyers are in demand like never before, but this creates many additional pressures on legal teams. To try to find some solutions to the issues identified by the survey, Local Government Lawyer convened some of the country’s most experienced local government lawyers to a roundtable session, held at the Charles Dickens Museum in London. Derek Bedlow reports.

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Improving internal efficiency simplified

The LexisPSL Public Sector team provides five steps to improving efficiency in your legal department.

Nature

Building the case for legal evidence management in local government

Andrea Kilby, Director of UK Business Development at CaseLines, highlights how technology has the power to change the face of legal work in local government.

Nature

Changing priorities, new challenges?

Delving into this year’s survey results, Tim Morel of Kennedy Cater, identifies where inefficiencies lie in local government legal departments and suggests where legal frameworks might help.

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Co-sourcing: a new era of flexible resourcing

Bill Hull examines the opportunities for hard-pressed local government legal teams offered by co-sourcing with private practice firms.

Nature

AI: Hope or hype?

AI is predicted to bring a paradigm shift to the legal sector but what are the practical implications in the immediate future? Adam Carey looks at what legal technology can – and can’t do – in the foreseeable future.

Nature

The Golden Triangle

The removal of Monitoring Officers and heads of legal from the upper echelons of local government presents a serious problem for the future of legal departments and weakens organisational governance as a whole, argues Phillip Horsfield

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Technology, the new recruit

How might social media and big data management help solve the recruitment crisis?