Solicitors - moving from private practice to public sector?

[Eileen101]

I'm currently 5 years PQE in private practice, but have become increasingly interested in moving to local authority work. I've seen two vacancies which interest me and I'm seriously thinking of going for them.
The obvious draw back of public sector is lower pay than private practice, but my firm is one of the lower paying ones in its sector anyway.
Taking money out of the equation, are there any red flags about moving to local authority work? Have you done it? Did you regret it? Was it the right decision for you?

What is it that interests you about local authority work? Are you able to say what area of law? I’ve made the leap and it can be incredibly frustrating due to high levels of turnover of staff, struggling to get instructions from officers etc but it really depends on the type of council and it’s location too.

The plus sides are it is definitely more flexible, the work-life balance and the pension (if you commit to it long term) can make up for the drop in salary. I’ve also found that you get exposure to more variety of work than you would for the equivalent level of experience in PP, no partners hogging the high profile stuff etc.

You must be aware of the reputation that local authority lawyers have?

I'd think long and hard before doing this and then I'd choose something else. Why not other in house roles?

I’m not a lawyer but work in a local authority in another profession and regularly work with solicitors from different councils. The departments are all understaffed and having difficulty recruiting. Often seem a bit overworked. But on the positive side there can be exposure to a really wide range of different and usually interesting work across different policy areas.

I have worked in both local authority and commercial organisations as a solicitor and much prefer commercial in-house work. What is your specialism? There are loads of in-house counsel roles advertised at the moment.

Why specifically local authority? Why not in house generally? I worked 10 years ish private practice, then 10 years large international in house, and I've just moved to a different in house role.

Love in house; but quality of work, salary etc is unlikely to be that great in a local authority role.