Good news: the Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided to make the in-house conference it hosted earlier this year an annual event. Bad news: local government lawyers may struggle to attend the next one.

The SRA’s director of regulatory policy, Chris Handford, and policy manager Natalie Darby told the Lawyers in Local Government governance conference that 14 March is provisionally in the diary. Turns out that’s not a good time for council lawyers, who had just finished pressing the regulator on whether forthcoming guidance to support the in-house sector will reflect differences between local government and other groups of in-house lawyers.

‘The conference is positive but March is a difficult time for at least some local authority lawyers to attend given it’s the financial year-end. Any chance the timing could be reviewed?’ one attendee asked.

The SRA should also avoid May. ‘May is a difficult time because of local elections,’ LLG chief executive Deborah Evans pointed out. And let’s not forget the general election...

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