NORTH Yorkshire County Council is hoping to generate more income to protect frontline services with the creation of a new commercial legal company.

The newly formed company, First North Law, is designed to offer a wide range of specialist legal services to other public sector bodies, as well as the private sector. The council is believed to be the first local authority in the north to trade its legal services.

The move has recently been given the green light by the Solicitors Regulation Authority after First North Law was required to create an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) to set up the commercial venture.

The local authority says the company supports the council’s “commercial growth” as it already offers private services to external markets including initiatives in education, waste disposal, broadband, information governance and auditing and in property.

The council says the commercial ventures should help the council protect frontline services.

North Yorkshire’s trading arm The Brierley Group already generates sales of around £95m, contributes £2.2m towards the costs of the council and adds £3.6m profit on top.

First Law North will be headed by Barry Khan, who is the council’s assistant chief executive for Legal and Democratic Services and managing director of the company and Hilary Irving, head of Legal (People Services) for the council and director of the company.

“We are the first authority in the North to trade in legal services” said Barry Khan.

“Our team is a highly professional body and as we work for a local authority with an outstanding record in areas like children’s services, and in transforming services and organisational delivery, people can be confident that we work to the highest standards and with great integrity.

“We believe other private and public bodies, including the voluntary sector, will benefit from having a trusted and extremely competitively-priced law firm at their disposal.

“As well as holding the Lexcel accreditation for almost two decades, our legal team has an enviable background and reputation and we pride ourselves in achieving excellent customer satisfaction.

“The creation of this company will allow us to provide our expertise to schools across the UK at a very competitive price. We have a long history of working with schools and a significant reputation in the education sector in North Yorkshire; we have dedicated resources targeting the needs of schools and provide a range of flexible packages designed to meet our customers’ requirements.”

“Our launch of First Law North will only serve to increase our competitive edge” said County Councillor David Chance, North Yorkshire’s executive member for Legal Services.

“We intend to use the wide-ranging knowledge and expertise built up over many years by our legal team to offer an excellent commercial service for the benefit of both our customers and taxpayers.

“Our development as an ambitious and commercial council that can generate its own income means we can continue to protect the frontline, deliver top quality services into the next decade and make a difference to people’s lives.”