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Richard Heaton

An enthusiasm for public policy and broader justice issues drew Richard Heaton, now Legal Adviser at the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), to the GLS from the self-employed Bar.

“There wasn’t really much competition,” he says. “I found life at the very junior end of the Bar to be heavily fact-based and repetitive, and I was still fired up by the legal issues I’d learned about at university, such as criminal law and penal policy.”

That was in 1991, when Richard saw an advert in the Times for a criminal justice job at the Home Office. “At that time the Criminal Justice Bill was going through Parliament, turning received ideas about sentencing on their head, so it was an interesting time to move into that world,” he says.

Richard spent five years at the Home Office before taking up a succession of legal posts across Government – a career path favoured by many GLS lawyers. He moved to what was then the Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD), and is now the DCA, in November 2001; and became the Legal Adviser in April 2004.

“I head six teams with a total of around 50 lawyers,” he says. “It’s extremely rewarding to manage talented and committed people. The team have come into the Government Legal Service through many different routes, and from a variety of backgrounds. Some, like me, have developed their careers by moving around Government, while others have tended to specialise. And some of my colleagues have joined the DCA with lots of valuable experience of private practice behind them."

“It’s a challenging time to be here. DCA are responsible for much of the UK’s constitutional settlement – the first time this has come under the remit of one Government Department. We retain many of the functions we had when we were LCD, such as running the courts, and being responsible for legal aid and civil law reform. But the DCA has also taken on areas once covered by other Government Departments, such as data protection, human rights, and the electoral system."

“So between us, we cover a wide range of Government legal work, from turning policy into Parliamentary Bills, to writing the rules that make courts and tribunals deliver justice effectively. We do a lot of problem-solving, which might be about employment, or legal aid, or the regulation of the legal profession, or family law. We also take the lead within Government on a number of big subjects that are important for all Departments – information law, devolution and human rights."

“The DCA offers what I hope is a friendly place to work, a sensible and flexible attitude towards working patterns, and a good level of IT support.”

Richard is an enthusiast for the GLS, which he sees as a very special community of lawyers. “The GLS gives us a forum in which to discuss issues collectively, as well as the ability to draw upon a huge pool of expertise and experience,” he says.

“Some of that expertise is captured on LION (Legal Information Online Network), a dedicated intranet available to every GLS lawyer. Through LION, we have access to each other’s knowledge and ideas, as well as a vast range of information relating to legal developments. It’s one of the best examples of joined-up Government."

“We’re at the cutting edge of practice in public law and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”