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LEGAL COUNSEL UPDATE · Report
GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING 20 JANUARY 2025
8.8 LEGAL COUNSEL UPDATE
Author Legal Counsel, Krista Fitzakerley
Governance | Office of the CEO & Mayor
Index ECM/ Subject/ 27.10 Council Meeting Reports
Attachments None
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Council appointed an in-house legal counsel in December 2023.
It was a new role for Council with defined scope that has evolved over the last 12 months.
Legal Counsel provides this report to update Council on the work undertaken, perceived benefits to
Council, identified risks and cost savings in having an internal legal service.
Key benefits and observations include:
1. By providing legal services in-house costs savings of $228,285.00 (up to and including 7
November 2024) have been realised.
2. A Digital Legal Request Form has been implemented on Noosapedia (intranet) and has been
operational since late March 2024. It has streamlined the process for Council staff to seek
internal legal advice and this has resulted in an uplift in requests.
3. The creation of a Legal Advice Database for a secure searchable database for the legal
advice obtained by Council.
4. The primary benefit across Council has been an overall reduction in risk.
RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Legal Counsel to the General Committee Meeting dated 20
January 2025 regarding an update on the new role of Legal Counsel and associated legal activities.
REPORT
The Role of In-House Legal Counsel
Legal Counsel has a defined scope that includes:
o Commercial transactions and negotiations – reviews and interpretations of agreements, MOUs,
Deeds, conditions etc.;
o Legislative interpretation and legal updates;
o Legal advice (both internal and briefing external lawyers as required) on various innovative
proposals, disputes, and general matters across Council;
o Coordination, oversight and tracking of litigation cases across Council;
o Legal risk guidance;
o Legal education, training, and awareness for staff;
o Legal review of delegations and policies.
2. Excluded Scope
The following areas are excluded from the scope of work handled by the Legal Counsel:
o Planning, Building and Plumbing - Development Assessments and Appeals
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• These areas are technical areas that require specialised legal support and are heavily
litigated to protect Noosa’s planning scheme.
• They make up the bulk of external legal spend for Council.
o Procurement-related contracts;
o Prosecutions on behalf of teams – Local Laws enforcement.
3. New Processes
o Demand for assistance from the Legal Counsel has increased steadily over the year with an
increasing awareness that it is a resource available.
o This is likely because of:
i. Legal Counsel proactively meeting with all Council Directors and departments to explain
what legal assistance is available, and to discuss any matters of concern to see if the
legal counsel may assist; and
ii. A Digital Legal Request Form has been implemented on Noosapedia (intranet) and has
been operational since late March 2024. It has streamlined the process for Council staff
to seek internal legal advice and this has resulted in an uplift in requests.
4. Cost Savings or Value Provided
o Cost savings purely on a time basis at the conservative rate of $450 per hour are as follows:
i. Since the digital request form was implemented in March 2024, until 7 November 2024
(date of Councillor Workshop), 104 legal requests had been lodged;
ii. The time-based estimate of the cost savings from providing these legal services in-house
is $228,285.00 (up to and including 7 November 2024);
iii. Legal Counsel was on extended carer’s leave for 5 weeks July/ August;
iv. Legal Counsel has handled requests from every departmental area across Council.
5. Reporting - Legal Requests by Department
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING 20 JANUARY 2025
6. Benefits to Council
A. Risk
o The primary benefit across Council has been an overall reduction in risk. This has been
demonstrated by:
i. Addressing matters early (i.e. reviewing contracts before being signed) it is decreasing the
likelihood of future claims, upskilling Council staff and improving process efficiencies and
contract management;
ii. Completing a Privacy review (Council-wide), which included an update of all Council’s online
and hard copy forms and the internal/ customer service process when personal information
is taken and/ or recorded, to ensure compliance with privacy law;
iii. Identifying gaps in knowledge or areas that require training or updating the relevant areas
(i.e. legal reforms etc);
iv. Reviewing draft correspondence by staff before it is sent out to external parties to ensure
Council is legally protected, it is accurate and professional.
B. Staff Training
o Legal Counsel has conducted or facilitated the following training sessions for Council staff in
areas where knowledge gaps had been identified:
i. Privacy Law and recent reforms – received several privacy-related requests following the
presentation;
ii. Commercial Contracts training day – the session was instigated after identifying a gap in
knowledge in this area following several requests for advice from various departments. The
feedback on the relevance and utility of the session has been very positive;
iii. AS4000 Construction Contracts – basics (for civil infrastructure, civil operations and
maintenance, Workplace Health & Safety and People & Culture) and more advanced
knowledge for Project Managers (to be scheduled early 2025);
iv. Disseminating legal updates and advice to the relevant teams.
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING 20 JANUARY 2025
C. Optimising Resource Efficiencies
o Better allocation of resources – reduced load on Governance Team who had been fielding any
legal requests but not able to provide legal advice. These are now allocated to Legal Counsel so
Governance can focus on AACs, compliance, investigations etc.;
o Developing Precedent documents and Templates;
o Building a network by making connections with other legal counsel at various councils to assist
with general practice queries and approaches that apply to Council.
D. Legal Advice Database
o Identified risk that legal advice was being lost, duplicated, or applied inconsistently across
Council.
o The legal advice received is a knowledge resource for Council. For this reason, the Legal
Counsel has launched the ‘LAD’, a centralised legal advice database with appropriate security
access allocation to maintain privilege in the advice.
o All legal advice for Council will be stored on the database, using designated naming conventions.
The database may then be searched for research topics or to address particular matters.
o It should also prevent duplication in advice received, thus reducing legal spend, and provide a
knowledge database where advice under certain topics/ areas is easily located.
E. Increased Utility in External Legal Advice
o Where the technicality, complexity, level of risk or value of a matter requires external legal advice,
Legal Counsel has added value by synthesising the brief to the external lawyers (so council
receives the correct advice), then assisting the operational teams with interpreting, and
implementing the advice to improve processes and procedures.
o There have also been significant cost savings in having the Legal Counsel initially draft the
material, and the external legal adviser simply review the draft.
7. Summary
o Ultimately the major benefit to Council from the implementation of the Legal Counsel role has
been risk reduction.
i. Upskilling staff;
ii. Better contract Terms and Conditions and contract management;
iii. Increasing knowledge, awareness, and legal resources;
iv. Improving quality and utility of external legal advice requested and received.
Link to Corporate Plan
Theme No. 5 - Excellence
This theme focuses on customer experience, financial sustainability, innovation and technology,
levels of service, governance, our employees and volunteers, funding streams and asset
management practices.
Previous Council Consideration
Nil.
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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING 20 JANUARY 2025
Finance
Cost savings are addressed in item 4 of the report.
Risk & Opportunities
This Report addresses the risks and opportunities throughout its content.
Human Rights
Human Rights Compatibility Statement
In developing this Report, the subject matter has been considered in accordance with the
requirements of the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019. It is considered that the subject matter
does not conflict with any human rights and supports a human rights approach to decision making
by Council. Council representatives will endeavour to act and make decisions under this report in a
manner that is compatible with human rights. This report should be read in conjunction with
Council’s Human Rights Policy.
Consultation
External Consultation - Community & Stakeholder
Nil.
Internal Consultation
Departments informed of this matter by way of an internal workshop:
Office of the CEO, Mayor & Community Services Corporate Services
Councillors
x Mayor & Councillors Director Director
x Chief Executive Officer Community Development Financial Services
Executive Officers Sport & Active Lifestyles Fleet
Community Engagement Arts & Culture Revenue Services
People & Culture Community Connection ICT
x Governance Customer Experience Procurement
Commercial Property
Strategy & Environment Development & Regulation Infrastructure Services
Director Director Director
Strategy & Sustainability Development Assessment Infrastructure Planning, Design
and Delivery
Economic Development & Local Laws Civil and Asset operations
Destination Management
Environmental Services Environmental Health Waste
Innovation & Digital Hub Building & Plumbing Building & Facilities
Property / Permits Disaster Management