Matthew Smith KC

Commercial chancery litigation, including company and insolvency questions, contractual and trust-related disputes. Particular interest in charity law. Matthew acted for the Independent Schools Council in their successful judicial review of the Commission’s public benefit guidance; he appeared in the poverty trusts references brought by the Attorney General; he acted for the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church in their appeal against the Commission’s refusal to register. Other notable cases have included acting for the Catholic adoption agencies in their appeals concerning the scope of the charitable exemption in the Equality Act 2010 and appearing for the Attorney-General in the litigation over the assets of the Wedgwood Museum. He has advised and acted for and against the Commission on a number of other matters. He has appeared in the Tribunal and in Court for charities, the Commission and the Attorney. He is a regular speaker at the Charity Law Association.

MA (Cantab) First Class, LLM (rules concerning charities and politics; the relationship in charity law between purposes and activities and the comparative state of the law in England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada).