News flash: We have been successfully re-appointed to OGCbuying.solutions Catalist Service to the leading commercial legal services panel.
We have been advising local government for 20 years and so we understand your priorities, constraints and challenges. We understand the importance of service delivery and improving the accessibility of services. We have acted for many local authorities in relation to the vital services of local government including education, social services, housing, and planning.
We respect how local government works. We understand your governance arrangements and your procedures for decision taking. We understand the principles of transparency and scrutiny, accountability and audit which apply to everything which local government does.
We have learnt over the years how to support our clients and legal colleagues in local government with transparent reporting and with audit trail. We also understand the separation of your regulatory and service delivery functions. For instance separation of planning and land-owning.
We know well the limitations on your resources - you are expected to deliver more for less through procurement and competition.
Above all we are committed to your ethos of public service.
Working in partnership with local government legal departments
We have working relationships with Local Government lawyers built over many years on mutual respect as professional colleagues. We are committed to:- collaboration;
- reporting within a quality assured framework; and
- respecting the relationship with the instructing officer.
From projects to call down contracts we are flexible and respond as needed working in different ways according to the requirements of our local authority clients.
Local Government Training Partnership
The Local Government Training Partnership was established 10 years ago in the South West. We have been the administrators of the LGTP, providing a range of seminars with quality speakers on the legal issues most relevant to local government lawyers. With 40 member authorities within the Partnership stretching as far as Cornwall; South Wales in the West, the South Midlands and the South Coast, the Partnership offers tremendous value as a networking opportunity for authorities to share knowledge and information.
Click the LGTP logo above to access full details of our Programme for 2006/07.
Panel memberships
We are members of major public sector panels:- The Treasury Solicitors' former commercial panel now part of L-Cat;
- Office of Government Commerce - Catalist L-CAT panels; and
- the Oxfordshire Authorities call down panel.
We were also appointed by the Standards Board for England to undertake overflow work and to investigate and provide reports for the Ethical Standards Officer.
Our expertise in public law and our commitment to maintaining and developing our public/administrative law expertise is demonstrated by the range of our public sector clients which includes or has included the National Care Standards Commission (now the CSCI), National Assembly for Wales, Defence Estates, Countryside Agency; Highways Agency, Department for Transport, National Probation Directorate, VOSA, ODPM, in addition and above all, of course, to numerous local authorities.
