Joined at the hip 

From the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Home Office, over 30 government departments employ lawyers. The work they do varies widely, as you can read in the feature on the GLS’s solicitors’ training contract elsewhere on this website. Our Bar-bound sources this year had been involved with benefit fraud, Sharon Shoesmith's judicial review case, the implementation of the 2010 Equality Act and the creation of the 2011 Health and Social Care Bill. The concept of public service tends to be what drives people here. “I didn’t want to work in the private sector, making money for a law firm,” one current pupil told us. “I did consider the independent Bar, but I decided the GLS was the most attractive way forward. It offers a huge variety of work, which is of national importance and influences the law of the land.”

Aspiring government barristers apply via the same process as trainee solicitors and simply tick a box on the application form to indicate their preferred direction. In 2010/11 the GLS employed 12 pupils and 11 barristers of one year's call. (The number of pupils recruited varies year on year and depends on the availability of pupil supervisors in departments.) Once lawyers are qualified the GLS tends not to distinguish between barristers and solicitors. So why does it recruit both? It’s chiefly to “offer something to both sides of the profession,” although departments do clearly value barristers’ advocacy skills.

The structure of a GLS pupillage is necessarily different to that of a training contract. Pupils are assigned to a ‘home department’, and over half are based at the Treasury Solicitor’s Department (TSol). Pupils complete either two six-month seats or three four-months seats. After their year of pupillage, barristers spend two years as ‘legal officers’ before stepping up the pay scale to become Grade 7 government lawyers. In their first year as a legal officer, barristers usually complete two six-month seats to mirror the experience of their trainee solicitor counterparts.

In TSol, dedicated supervisors monitor the work given to pupils. Elsewhere, pupils are more of an integral part of each team. The GLS “puts a lot of effort into training and training sessions,” and supervisors in all departments provide frequent feedback. “Your bread-and-butter work is your own caseload,” one source said. “They expect you to hit the ground running.” Another pupil added: “From the second day I started doing work which would go out to clients.” Within their teams, pupils are treated just like qualified junior lawyers: “I’m dealing with case management discussions over the phone, giving advice to clients and drafting witness statements. You certainly don’t spend your first two years here photocopying and sitting quietly in meetings.”

One seat is usually spent in barristers' chambers, at sets like 39 Essex Street, Blackstone Chambers or 11 KBW. “It is a really good and useful experience. I was treated the same as the set's own pupils. I worked closely with my supervisor and did lots of drafting.” The stint is there chiefly to satisfy BSB regulations, but pupils told us it “is good to see the other side of the coin” as you'll spend a lot of time instructing barristers' chambers while in the GLS.

Bish bash mish mash 

TSol provides legal representation – mostly on litigation matters – to other government departments (lawyers always refer to these departments and the policymakers they advise as 'clients'). You might find yourself working on “high-profile sex and race discrimination cases,” unfair dismissals or harassment cases for the Ministry of Defence. Alas, pupils don’t have “top-secret” security clearance, although plenty of the work is classed as confidential. “Sometimes you work on things which are in the paper weeks later, and you finally get to mention you worked on that case.” TSol sees mostly defendant work, while DWP lawyers are involved with prosecuting benefit fraudsters, and those at HMRC prosecute over tax evasion. One source explained how bringing tax prosecutions is not optional for the government: “We don’t have the power to decide we won’t pester you for that £7,000 of VAT, even if it costs £8,000 to litigate, as often much will depend on precedent.” The government doesn’t usually settle out of court, so lawyers play an important role in “facilitating the case through the litigation process… dealing with any applications along the way, taking it to a tribunal and instructing counsel.”

Besides litigation, advice on policy implementation is the second core strand of work. One pupil summed up their role in simple terms: “A government department turns a policy the electorate has voted for into something that can actually happen. When it does that, it needs lawyers to say what it can and can’t do. So, a lot of the questions you get from clients are, ‘Can I do this?’ You tell them if they can, and help them solve any problems.” For example, lawyers working on the restructuring of the NHS are “looking at every reference to a Primary Care Trust or a Strategic Health Authority in legislation to make sure that when they are abolished they will be accounted for somehow.” Across departments, lawyers advise on issues like the employment of civil servants, the release of information under the Freedom of Information Act and the impact of European legislation on government contracts. Advisory seats are varied to say the least: “One day I might be advising on space satellites, the next on the appointment of bishops by the Prime Minister."

A third type of duty is the creation of new legislation: “Sometimes you help draft statutory instruments, where you bring in a new law. You get to see your own words in the statute books!” A small strand of their overall remit, helping draft bills and statutory instruments is perhaps the most complex work pupils do and “it requires a fair amount of training.”

Advocating change 

So why choose the GLS over the glamour of swanning around the independent Bar? Our interviewees mentioned variety of work, high levels of responsibility, work/life balance, job security and flexibility as advantages. “Having job security and knowing you can take holiday when you want means a lot,” commented one pupil. There are some other important differences: government lawyers earn less than many in private practice, they remain generalists throughout their career and most importantly do far less advocacy than their peers. “Don’t apply to the GLS if in your heart of hearts what you really want to do is advocacy,” one source advised. On our website you can read more about the differences pupils saw between private practice and life in government. You’ll also find a feature detailing the intricacies of the GLS’s recruitment procedure.

The GLS’s meritocratic application process attracts highly motivated individuals. “Some people are very driven and committed to going the extra mile for the government.” TSol and other departmental legal teams are not hard-nosed places though. “I think there’s a very informal and welcoming environment,” said one pupil; “I count some people here as my good friends.” Another source commented that the independent Bar was “nowhere near as diverse as we are here.”

And finally... 

Despite the threat of government cuts, the GLS is still recruiting barristers. That is very good news as it offers an excellent pupillage.