Sutherland entered the civil service after leaving university and was appointed to the Board of Trade. This was where he first attracted Lloyd George's attention when he was President of the Board of Trade. Sutherland helped Lloyd George prepare and develop some of his legislation. He made a particular study of the Land question and between 1909 and 1913 he wrote tracts or books entitled The Call of the Land, The Land Question and Rural Regeneration. He was also involved in the preparation of the legislation on Old Age Pensions and National Insurance and assisted in the implementation of these measures.John Grigg, Lloyd George: From Peace to War, 1912–1916; Penguin Books, 2002 edition, p262-263 In 1907 he wrote Old Age Pensions, in Theory and Practice, with Some Foreign Examples (published by Methuen). He followed Lloyd George to the Ministry of Munitions, the War Office and, eventually to Number 10 Downing Street. He also wrote a one shilling pamphlet in 1920 about the work of Coalition government of David Lloyd George,1916–1920: The Lloyd George Coalition in War and Peace; L J Gooding, 1920. However the work was dismissed by The Times as "no more than a child’s guide for Coalition candidates and other apologists of the government".The Times, 11 September 1920, p8
