27th October 2025
Across England, many district and unitary councils have moved away from running separate in-house legal departments. Instead, they pool staff and expertise through “shared-service” partnerships.
Under this model, solicitors employed by one council can provide advice or representation to several partner authorities. It allows councils to reduce duplication, share specialist lawyers, and maintain consistent legal standards across planning, housing, and governance functions.
In Somerset, for example, the SHAPE Legal Partnership—involving councils such as Mendip, Sedgemoor and Taunton Deane—was one of the early collaborations of this kind. When Somerset’s new unitary council was created in 2023, many of these shared teams were absorbed into the single authority’s structure.
Solicitors working within shared services remain regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and appear in the Law Society’s Solicitors Register like any other practising lawyer. The difference lies only in their employer and client structure: rather than serving one council exclusively, they provide professional support across several linked authorities.
Residents with questions about legal-service arrangements or about who advises their local council can usually find relevant information in committee reports or annual governance statements published on council democracy portals.
