Senior council lawyers this week elect Birmingham City Council director of governance Mirza Ahmad as their association's new president during their annual conference in Leeds Local government senior lawyers meet this week for their annual conference in Leeds with a looming agenda promising a busy time for legal departments. The downturn in public finances will mean councils examining their management structures, looking to reorganise or downsize with all the employment law implications that involves. They will increasingly be drawing on private sector involvement, with more partnerships and outsourcing meaning a busy period for lawyers specialising in procurement. And districts are increasingly sharing chief executives and management teams. If the Conservatives win the general election next May they have promised to bring in a power of general competence, implying more homework for legal departments. The Assocation of Council Secretaries and Solicitors (ACSeS) meeting in Leeds this week is also electing its new president, Mirza Ahmad, director of governance at Birmingham City Council and an expert on UK local government law, especially in relation to constitutional, ethical and corporate governance, employment, human rights and information management. He has also been chairman, since 1998, of the Bar Association for local government and public services Mirza is currently leading, amongst other initiatives, Birmingham's multimillion-pound business transformation programme, Excellence in Information, to save some £100m, over 10 years from an initial invest of about £35m. Prior to his current post position with Birmingham, he was the city's chief legal officer, from July 2000, and has led – or served in – the legal departments of Bolton MBC and Ipswich BC. His career in local government started in May 1985 after being called to the Bar in 1984. The primary focus of his presidential Year will be on continuing to elevate the profile and influence of ACSeS as a major player in local governance. He starts his presidential year with the launch of a publication Firing up the Passion for Excellence; which is a compendium of 26 short articles on Total Place, leadership, effective member/officer relations, localism, corporate and ethical governance. Copies of the publication will be sent, free of charge, to all major stakeholders in local government and a second publication is scheduled for February/March 2010.
