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judicial, magisterial or tribunal experience who are looking for
part-time appointments and the possibility of short trips abroad at
intervals is likely to attract rather than repel most of them.
3. If the above assumptions are correct, no special measures will need to be taken about recruitment for judicial appointments. With regard to legal appointments, however, the position is likely to be very different. From Annex B you will see that the number of senior legal advisers' appointments which might require expatriates in the 1980's may be as high as 9. Some of these appointments are at present filled from local sources, and I think one can expect that to continue. However, I think we must reckon on a possible requirement for five or six expatriate senior legal advisers at any one time. The supply of those with relevant overseas experience is now almost wholly dried up. ODM recruiting experience shows that nowadays only a few lawyers who have such experience (usually obtained in a "new" Commonwealth country and in a junior capacity) apply for appointments in dependent territories. Recruiting direct from the Bar or from practising solicitors for appointments such as Attorney General is not satisfactory. There are no career prospects to offer, and it is largely guess work how someone will adapt to local conditions or to such a job. It is most desirable that the appointees should have had some previous experience in government service.
4. All this leads to the conclusion that, in the same way as Mr Stewart's paper looks for the future source of supply for appointments in the higher administrative grades from the Diplomatic Service, similarly the best solution for the higher legal appointments would be from the ranks of the FCO legal advisers. The right time for a posting in a dependent territory would seem to me to be after some experience as an assistant legal adviser, roughly at the same time or possibly a little earlier than when assistant legal advisers are at present appointed to Bonn or Berlin. I would assume that one tour of two to three years in a dependent territory would be about right. Such a period should not interfere with a legal adviser's career I personally think it would do them good.
5.
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If you agree that a solution on these lines should be envisaged, it seems clear that an increase in the staff of FCO legal advisers would be needed. Moreover, as many appointments would need continuous filling and the supply of new FCO legal advisers would probably not keep up with the needs, it appears that the co-operation of another government department in a joint scheme with the FCO for secondments to dependent territories would be necessary. The Treasury Solicitors Department, in particular the advisory branch, seems the most obvious source.
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