At times, trying to cope with large projects and daily instructions from various departments can be a difficult task, and recruiting extra staff is not always possible.
Following an assessment of performance by the Government's independent watchdog in April 2004, Shrewsbury and Atcham BC was classed as an ‘excellent' council by the Audit Commission. In December 2005, it achieved Investors in People status.
Since April 2006, the council has been encouraging all sections to generate external income and to make savings. 
Further to this initiative, the legal team launched a major marketing campaign to offer its services to other local authorities and public bodies, and to date, four councils have taken advantage of this service which included the secondment of the team's senior solicitor. 
Its mission is ‘to achieve council objectives through excellent legal service' and in pursuance of this goal, it was awarded the Law Society's Lexcel Practice Management Standard in August 2006. Client satisfaction – monitored via annual surveys – is at an all-time-high.
The team was placed third in the Lawyer Awards 2006 among significantly-larger firms. It was praised for being wholly in-house, cost-effective, and handling a good spread of work.
It competes for tenders wherever possible, and recently successfully bid to assist with land transactions for the local college.
All legal matters for Shrewsbury and Atcham BC and other authorities are dealt with by the in-house legal team, thus effecting a huge saving to the council taxpayer. An experienced and efficient team of lawyers is on hand and its members are fully conversant with the requirements of local government practices in the following areas: