The merger of Solicitors in Local Government and the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors is long overdue and enables local government’s top legal talent to come together in one organisation and speak with one voice. This is a positive development many years in the making and bodes well for the future.

Less positive is the Law Society’s attitude to the Recognised Groups Agreement and establishment of the in-house division. The Society has never had the capability to properly support local government lawyers itself but funded and worked in partnership with SLG to do this. This was a relationship to which SLG was firmly committed and valued. That the Society has chosen to abandon this in favour of a different approach is a matter of great regret. I wish them well with the new division.

I hope the Society has the foresight to forge a positive working relationship with the new merged organisation. The door, I am sure, will certainly be left open on our side.

Guy Goodman, chair, Solicitors in Local Government, Leicester