Philip McCourt

Legal Director, Bevan Brittan LLP

Philip joined Top 100 law firm Bevan Brittan in 2022 following a distinguished career in local government. He is qualified as both a solicitor and chartered secretary and began his local government career in 1988. He was first appointed as a monitoring officer, head of legal services and member of an authority’s senior management team in 2000.

He has since gone on to work for and on behalf of a number of local authorities and has additionally led on a number of projects for wider local government, such as designing the ethical governance toolkit for the Local Government Association and in leading on a number of best practice documents, including the code of corporate governance for interests in local authority companies and the model member planning member code, which was described by the UK Supreme Court in 2017 as providing sound practical advice.

Philip was president of his professional association, the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors and leading into what is now Lawyers in Local Government (LLG), in 2011-13.

His practice relates to all aspects of local authority governance, including constitutional matters, decision making, standards and ethics and the support of the monitoring officer role across all forms of councils, combined authorities and related bodies.

As well as the author of a number of texts and guides, Philip is an examiner for the Law Society’s Diploma in Local Government Law & Practice.

Contributed to

3

Employment of local authority officers

Practice notes

This Practice Note focuses on the additional employment duties that are unique to local government in relation to the appointment and dismissal of statutory officers including the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for Local Authority Chief Officers terms, green book conditions, occupation specific conditions of service and authorities’ employment procedure rules. It identifies the different rules which apply between categories of officers. It also explains the role and involvement of leaders or elected mayors and cabinet under executive arrangements and the Chief Executive.

Local Government

Key considerations in local authority decision making

Practice notes

This Practice Note sets out the foundation of good governance in a public authority by examining the fundamental public law concepts that must be taken into account by a public authority before making decisions. It covers the concepts of ultra vires, lawful delegation, ‘Wednesbury’ reasonableness, fettering of discretion and predetermination. It sets out a series of questions that should be considered before decisions are taken together with a full explanation of why this is necessary.

Local Government

What governance arrangements need to be made to allow an outside body to be authorised to carry out discrete enforcement tasks which fall under the functions of a principal authority?

Q&As

Local Government