I am an Assistant Solicitor at Leeds City Council, specialising in procurement and commercial contracts. As part of my role, I am responsible for the provision of legal advice and the delivery of legal services in relation to complex public sector procurement schemes and projects. I draft and negotiate on a variety of commercial contracts required for a range of goods, works and services across the Council and provide legal advice and support to decision makers in the event of a contract dispute or claim. I also ensure compliance with and contribute to the updating of the Council's Contract Procedure Rules and suite of contract and procurement documentation. Additionally, I draft and negotiate on the NEC and JCT suite of contracts in relation to non-contentious construction projects.

I particularly enjoy the wide variety that my role provides. As a procurement and contracts lawyer, you are required to work with every department and directorate within the Authority, as they all need contracts putting in places for the various goods, works and services they are required to provide. It also means I get to work with a diverse range of client officers across the Council. No one day ever seems the same, procurement queries and contract disputes seem to differ all the time, so it’s never boring!

I am most proud of working on a Parent Company Guarantee (PCG) in relation to a works contract for the re-building of a bridge which collapsed during a particularly bad period of flooding and was a very important route into and out of the town. The contractor (who is known for being particularly litigious) was only prepared to give a PCG which would expire a year after completion of the building works. I pushed back on this, insisting that any PCG should run for same limitation period as the works contracts (12 years from completion as the contract was executed as deed). There was much back-and-forth between the Authority and the Contractor over this particular point. Eventually, after having a discussion with the Council’s Director and explaining the potential repercussions of not agreeing the 12-year duration of the PCG, he spoke with the Contractor’s equivalent director. On the day the bridge re-opened, it was finally agreed that Contractor would provide the same duration period for the PCG as the works contract. Knowing how controversial this particular contractor is regarding their contracts, I was very pleased that the Council’s position was ultimately protected.

I think one of main differences is the fact that you are given a lot of responsibility quite early on in your legal career. You often get involved with a project right at the start and can often see it right the way through to completion, as opposed to private practice where you only get involved in a particular legal aspect and have no involvement in any helping set and advise on any pre-project discussions or post completion matters. You often get to see the fruits of your labour.

I would strongly advise any law students to give serious consideration to a legal career in local government. As a student, I was never told about the option of working in-house or working in the public sector. I fell into local government quite by accident. For those like myself who don’t think private practice is for them, local government provides an excellent opportunity to develop a varied and fulfilling career by helping to promote a strong public service ethos to protect the public purse. To any new lawyers starting in local government, I would advise that you get to know your authority, what type of authority it is, how is it governed, how does it operate within its constitutional and legal framework. Also, take up any opportunity to work with members and senior officers – it helps to get your name out there and can provide a good grounding if you wish to aspire to work your way up in local government to more senior management roles, such as head of legal or monitoring officer.

Covid-19 has affected the team mainly in terms of logistics. We are no longer in the office 5 days a week and I highly doubt we will ever likely return to that way of working. We have adopted a hybrid model, whereby we currently have a full team office day once a week. If staff want to come into the office more than that, they can book a hot desk and come in. This has proved that we are not necessarily required to be in the office in order to do our job. I think such remote working patterns have an impact on the more junior lawyers in the team and particularly trainee solicitors who I believe learn a lot through being around more experienced lawyers and acquiring soft skills from client meetings, telephone conversations and team discussions and having that safety net of being able to turn round to their training principal or supervision to ask a question they may feel put off asking via a Teams call.