It was a privilege to attend and speak at the most recent Bar Council meeting in Bristol on Saturday 16 November, where I was able to share the changes we have been through in 2024 at the Government Legal Department (GLD), as well as thank Sam Townend KC for his strong leadership over the last year.
Speaking as Treasury Solicitor, Head of the Government Legal Profession, and an employed barrister, I also want to thank Sam for being a strong supporter of the employed Bar as well as a powerful advocate for those in self-employed practice – particularly those undertaking publicly funded work.
The word for 2024 could be ‘change’ – as civil servants we have had a ringside seat to some of the most important democratic moments and I am very proud of the way government lawyers responded to the change in government, providing expert advice to incoming ministers.
We have welcomed a new government and with that a new Attorney General. The relationship between the Treasury Solicitor and Attorney General of the day is a genuine partnership that is integral to supporting the sitting government to achieve its aims lawfully. I am pleased to say that the Attorney and I have forged a strong relationship with both of us committed to ensuring that the Government gets the highest quality legal advice. Indeed, GLD’s long standing core purpose of helping the government govern well within the rule of law fits perfectly with what many of us heard from the Attorney at the Bingham Centre Rule of Law event last month.
For those unfamiliar with GLD; a short introduction. I lead a department of over 3,000 staff, including 2,200 lawyers and 183 barristers, representing 6% of the employed Bar, making us one of the biggest employers of employed barristers in England and Wales – so we are constituents of, as well as partners with, the Bar Council. We provide the full range of legal services to most government departments. Our advisory teams support policy development and implementation, including instructing Parliamentary Counsel to draft primary legislation for introduction to Parliament. We have trade lawyers negotiating trade deals and employment lawyers supporting the many employers across government. As government is a big purchaser, we have commercial experts supporting transactions and handling disputes. Our large litigation function not only handles our high-profile judicial reviews, inquiries and high-volume immigration cases, we have plenty of private law litigation. As the biggest customer of the Supreme Court we are often working on groundbreaking cases and at the forefront of developing the law.
I want us to be more visible across the legal profession and better known in society– there’s a strong public interest in people knowing the government has a high quality legal team. In recent years, we have overcome our shyness and started to enter and win some of the most prestigious legal industry awards including the Bar Council Employed Bar Awards 2024 where GLD’s Cabinet Office Legal Advisers won Legal Team of the Year
We continue to develop our offer beyond London – our offices in Bristol, Manchester and Leeds are thriving and growing, enabling us to provide careers across the country. My vision is for each of our locations to be a microcosm of the whole – so virtually any job at any grade can be done from any of our locations without families having to be uprooted. I am thrilled that we are building strong relationships with the circuits and am grateful for the welcome we have received.
As well as tapping into talent nationwide, this is an important way in which we can reflect the society we serve. Internally I believe we are an exemplar in welcoming and supporting colleagues from all backgrounds. We are particularly strong on gender, but we have more to do on race and disability.
However, as the Bar Council and others, including ALBA, know, I am disappointed that we have not made better progress on improving our record on instructing a diverse range of counsel and ensuring that women and under-represented groups get the opportunity to do our highest quality work. So to inject more firepower into that resolve I have dedicated senior resource to establish our Counsel Diversity Project which is operated with proper governance and an action plan is being developed that sets out clear target dates to drive performance across the department. We are also looking to learn from others, including the CPS, who have done a lot of work in this area in recent years.
And finally – a shameless plug – for anyone interested in starting your career at the heart of government law then consider applying for pupillage, commencing in September 2025. Head to the Pupillage Gateway for more information.
I am very proud of the work of government lawyers and look forward to continuing to work with the Bar Council to help support the development of the legal profession.