Essex County Council has become the fourth local authority to gain an alternative business licence (ABS) allowing its in-house legal team, Essex Legal Services (ELS), to increase its number of clients.
ELS’s initial proposal to the council claimed the ABS licence would allow the in-house team to create a £1.8m surplus by the 2019/20 financial year. According to the council report this would be achieved through “adopting a growth strategy” in which the ABS licence was listed as a “key enabler”.
By operating as an ABS legal teams at local authorities are able to work for organisations other than public sector bodies.
The council approved the proposal and the SRA granted the ABS licence in March. ELS’s status as an ABS came into effect on 1 April.
ELS’s decision is part of a growing trend of local authority legal teams adopting an ABS structure in an attempt to increase their own income streams.
Last month Kent County Council spun off its own in-house team into a separate company in an attempt to increase its turnover. The move saw the majority of Kent Legal Services’ 125 lawyers join the new venture.
In 2014 Buckinghamshire County Council became the first local authority to gain ABS approval through the launch of Buckinghamshire Law Plus. The venture combined the council’s existing in-house team with that of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority to provide legal service to local authorities, emergency services and charities.
A week later the London boroughs of Harrow and Barnet became the second local authority to be given an ABS licence. The result saw the councils launch HB Public Law.
Bevan Brittan was involved in both of the initial public sector ABS licences. Public sector partner Iain Miller advised HB Public Law during its application while partner Peter Steel advised Buckinghamshire Law Plus.