The Fair Work Ombudsman has gained approval to use in-house lawyers to conduct all its civil penalty litigations.

The Federal Government has granted the national employment regulator a 12-month exemption from the Legal Services Directions 2005.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland first approved the use of in-house lawyers in 2008 for court matters involving employee underpayments.

The approval has now been broadened to allow the Fair Work Ombudsman's legal team to run all its cases.

In addition, in-house lawyers will also be able to conduct enforcement proceedings to recover outstanding Court penalties.

Since it was established on 1 July, 2009, the Fair Work Ombudsman has put 106 matters into court and obtained civil penalties totalling more than $4.2m.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has a team of 37 lawyers headed by its Sydney-based Chief Counsel, Janine Webster.

Webster said the Fair Work Ombudsman has so far filed 49 matters using in-house lawyers, 23 of which have been finalised and were successful.

She does not intend to use her in-house lawyers for every matter, but says it is important for the Agency to have the flexibility to do so where appropriate.

"There will always be a need for external firms to conduct some of our work where it is outside our expertise or existing resources don't permit the proper conduct of a matter," Webster said.

"However, in a specialised environment such as our own, that should be the exception rather than the rule - and when we do, we will expect value for money."