Member profile

Few will be unaware of the unprecedented financial constraints within which local authorities have come to operate in recent times. Austerity continues to be painful, and no more so than in less affluent areas such as my home town, Wolverhampton. My employer, City of Wolverhampton Council, continues to face significant budgetary challenges. Being expected to retain front-line services, such as social care and environmental health, against this backdrop is not even half of the story; the council is making significant corporate changes while also investing large sums into the regeneration of the city centre and further afield.

In support of CILEx and local government

The consequences for local authority lawyers in such circumstances are fairly obvious. The volume of instructions has risen, as have the expectations of our client oÿcers . On occasions, we may even find ourselves plugging gaps left by client teams reorganised as part of efficiency drives. As such, and contrary to some opinion, life in a public sector legal team can be quite stressful.

It was, therefore, a very pleasant aberration to be attending this year’s Lawyers in Local Government awards at the spectacular Rosewood Hotel in central London, having been shortlisted as CILEx Lawyer of the Year 2015. Naturally, and as all members will no doubt empathise, I am a staunch supporter of the CILEx route into law. But I also believe that local government can offer a wide and varied experience of law in a demanding environment, which simply cannot be attained elsewhere. Therefore, while feeling incredibly humbled to be dressed in black tie amid such grand surroundings, I was immensely proud to be attending as a finalist in the category of CILEx Lawyer of the Year.

It was particularly poignant that I was accompanied that evening by my partner, who is herself an Associate member of the Institute. As she undertakes the final academic stages of her route to becoming a CILEx lawyer while working long hours as a fee-earner , I am regularly reminded of the value and extent of members’ academic and vocational route to progression towards Fellowship.

My work-life story

My own journey into law began with various work placements within the council as part of a now defunct youth trainee scheme. Having been placed in the council’s births, deaths and marriages team, and then moving to trading standards, environmental health and latterly the licensing team, I stumbled on an internal advertisement for maternity cover as a paralegal in the council’s legal team. When initially working among lawyers, I recall a feeling of self-deprecation which began to turn towards a desire to understand a little more about what I was doing and why. Having then sat by while a colleague achieved the status of CILEx lawyer, I began to ask myself whether I had inadvertently encountered a potential career path. Thankfully, the council was supportive of my will to learn, and CILEx provided the ideal route to becoming a lawyer, a profession I would never have expected to have been a part of when leaving school. Those aspirations, albeit delayed, were finally realised when I attained Fellowship status in 2010.

Working as a local authority lawyer has provided me with some enviable experience. Originally, I was a litigator whereas I am now primarily involved in property matters. As any former litigator knows, a confrontational style is almost impossible to shake off, but while colleagues will sometimes need to dissuade me from taking a highly adversarial approach to a fairly non-contentious matter, I feel the practical experience obtained within litigation is advantageous.

The knowledge to be gained in litigious matters, such as housing, anti-social behaviour, landlord and tenant and contracts, is rarely achievable outside of local government realms. Now within the property team, by nominating me as CILEx Lawyer of the Year, my colleagues have been very kind in acknowledging some of the recent work I have undertaken in relation to the council’s policies towards charging for residential care and securing liability by placing charges over the former homes of service users. In such an emotive area of law for those concerned, and for their families, cases must be handled with sensitivity. Although the nature of such work will always raise some diÿcult moral questions, I am proud to be recuperating scarce public money which may enable other vital services to continue in my city. From a practitioner’s perspective, this work engages some interesting areas of law, such as deprivation of assets, mental capacity and property and trusts. I was thrilled that the city council’s new approach to dealing with these matters received national recognition when I was shortlisted for the CILEx Lawyer of the Year award.

The LLG awards ceremony and beyond

Hosted by TV and radio personality and former barrister Clive Anderson, the awards evening provided an insight into some terrific achievements of lawyers across local government, who are presented with similar challenges to those faced in Wolverhampton. It was a particular pleasure to meet my fellow CILEx finalist, Duncan Creevy of Enfield Borough Council. Having previously been very pleasantly surprised to be shortlisted alongside Duncan, I was extremely taken aback to be announced as the winner and delighted to be presented with the award by CILEx chief executive, Mandie Lavin.

Less than a week after the ceremony, I was pleased to be attending the University of Wolverhampton’s annual law fair on behalf of City of Wolverhampton Council. This presented a great opportunity to engage with law students on how they foresee their future careers. While many were focused on the traditional route towards qualification as a solicitor, I hope I was able to give an insight into the possibilities which exist through CILEx. Furthermore, few had considered local government as offering such an array of opportunities within the profession. If nothing else, by winning the CILEx Lawyer of Year award, I would like to think that I have played a small part in dismantling some of the myths surrounding both the extent of the work undertaken by Chartered Legal Executives and the vast and varied caseload available to lawyers working within a local government setting.