Charities and not-for-profit

Julian has specialised, for over 30 years: in Social Enterprise; Charity; Responsible Business; Public Service Reform and Innovation; Co-operatives and Stakeholder Participation; blending business and public benefit legal disciplines. He has been especially involved in the development and maturing of Social Enterprise, Social Finance, Social Value, and Social Impact Investment and Measurement and their application to Public Policy. He promotes public value, purpose and partnership in Public Procurement and Public Sector Contracts and State Aid and Public Sector Grants, championing the Innovation Partnership. He promotes a distinctive approach to contracts as practical working agreements (as noted in the 2020 Kruger Report to Government on Civil Society). He works particularly in relation to: Community Transport; Education (particularly Further Education); Health and Social Care; Rehabilitation and Justice; Renewable Energy; and Employment and Youth Services  

Deputy managing partner and joint head of charity and social enterprise team, specialising in charity law and acting for a wide range of charities and other not-for-profit organisations; main areas of work are constitutional and governance, collaborative working and mergers, Charity Commission and investigations and inquiries, social finance, commercial ventures, fundraising, internal disputes.

Partner

Sam is the Head of the Schools Group. He advises charities and other not-for-profit institutions on all aspects of UK charity law and related tax law. He also advises philanthropists on structures for giving and the establishment of charities, and overseas organisations on their engagement with the British and European charitable sectors. Sam represents the firm on the Charity Tax Group and the Charities' Property Association, and is a member of the Charity Law Association.

For more than 25 years, Rosamund has utilised the law to create, merge or restructure charities and not-for-profits, set up efficient funding arrangements and work alongside as well as challenge the decisions of regulators. As well as advising on long-term and technical charity law issues, she also advises charities in the eye of the storm, helping them to navigate through a regulatory, governance and media maze. Rosamund has a track record in defending the rights of charities and campaign bodies. She also advises political bodies and campaigners on non-party campaigning electoral law and is the co-founder of the Electoral Law Forum. Rosamund is a trusted advisor to the Chief Executives, Chairs, and Boards of charities.  She works across many sectors, including children and young people, international development, education, the arts, faith, animal welfare and health. Rosamund’s clients include start-ups, household name charities, international foundations, membership bodies, royal charter bodies and corporate foundations.

Alison is a partner in the charities team. She has over 25 years of experience in advising charities and other non-profit bodies, and those who contract with or donate to them. Her clients include an eclectic mix of service providers, grant-makers, educational bodies, aid agencies and research institutes, as well as individual and corporate philanthropists. She advises on all aspects of charities’ activities but specialises in strategic and governance advice. She is particularly well known for her expertise on medical charities (especially those linked with the National Health Service), educational charities, charities associated with government and international charity issues. Alison is well used to negotiating for clients with the Charity Commission and other regulators. She is the past Chairman of the Charity Law Association and the current Chair of Governors at a leading school.

Ann Phillips is a former Chairman of Stone King, and now works in the Charity & Social Enterprise Team as a Consultant. Her work encompasses all varieties of charity and social enterprise structures, advice on constitutional and governance issues, mergers and restructuring, trading and commercial relationships, dealings with the Charity Commission and other regulators and international operation and arrangements. She also has considerable experience of military charities, as well as heritage and fine arts organisations and endowed charities of all kinds, many of long establishment, including Royal Charter charities.

Head of the firm's charities & philanthropy practice.  Particular areas of expertise are: regulatory investigations; safeguarding; cross-border collaborations, structuring and fundraising; charity governance and mergers; Royal Charter work; and advice to educational and healthcare charities.  Chris also advises on the structuring of complex charitable groups (both domestic and international) arrangements and the ownership by charities of underlying business and social enterprises. Chris has a strong reputation for advising corporate and private donors on their philanthropy strategies and the structuring of family foundations. He regularly addresses conferences on charity law topics, is a member of the executive board of the Charity Law Association and authored the ICSA Charity Trustee's Guide. Clients include Macmillan Cancer Support, Arts Council, College of Optometrists, Cancer Research UK, NSPCC; Girls’ Day School Trust; British Red Cross Society; and the Tate.

Specialist in advising UK and international charities, and arts and media organisations, not-for-profits and social enterprises including their establishment, regulation (including regulatory investigations), campaigning, governance, mergers and incorporations, fundraising and financing and commercial agreements.  Current and past advice work includes advice RSPCA on governance and reorganisation of 160 branches,  several major UK clients on their funding agreements with public authorities and corporate partners,  statutory inquiries by the Charity Commission,   charity mergers including two residential care charities forming a single significant entity its space, establishing the Elders Foundation as a UK charity and advising on its international structure and key strategic and legal issues. UK external counsel to several of the largest US not for profit organisations. Additional areas of expertise include data protection and information law, intellectual property and IT – advising clients on rebranding, licensing and assigning copyright and trade mark rights (including a recent rebrand of major international aid and development charity and advising leading national disability charity on dispute over ownership of its database).

James is a consultant in the charity and social business team. He works with a wide variety of charities, not for profits, local authorities and government departments. He focuses on governance and structure issues including reviews of governance, company, group and collaborative structures, Royal Charters, International Federations and other bodies. He has done substantial amounts of work for membership organisations which face particular challenges. Much of his work is involved with mergers including assisting clients find appropriate merger partners and negotiating the merger or collaborative working. Increasingly he has supported clients facing issues with regulators and in particular the Charity Commission. He advises on strategies to manage a range of risk, solvency and growth issues.

Julian has specialised in advising charities since 1994, and acts for a wide range of foundations and functional charities, including organisations established by statute or by Royal charter. He has particular expertise in the areas of governance, tax, investment, re-organisation and merger. He co-authored "The Charities Act 2006, a Practical Guide" and contributes to the  current edition of Tudor on "Charities”. Julian is the current Chair of the Charity law Association, and lectures on charity law at the Cass Business School. He is also a trustee of six charities.

Andrew is a partner in the charity and social business team advising charities, social enterprises, trade associations and other membership and not-for-profit organisations on a wide range of charity and company law issues and commercial matters. He helps guide charity boards through challenging situations and renewal. He provides advice on constitutional governance matters, commercial contracts, restructuring, mergers and incorporations, funding issues, joint ventures and collaborative working arrangements.

Partner

Partner. Advises on establishing new charities and social enterprises, and assists charities with mergers, reorganisations and constitutional reviews. Regularly advises on governance, grant-making, fundraising, equality and discrimination issues, corporate philanthropy and regulatory action by the Charity Commission, with a particular interest in advising faith-based charities and international non-profit organisations. Recent work includes advising on two mergers each involving two charities in the health and medical research sector; advising CAFOD the official international development agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales on its incorporation; advising the McCall MacBain Foundation, a grant-making organisation, on a £75m donation to the Rhodes Trust; advising on the registration of the Marriage Foundation as a charity and the conversion of StreetBank CIC to a charity (both of which had previously were initially refused charitable status); and acting as specialist advisor to the pre-legislative scrutiny committee (a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament) on what became the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016.

Jennifer advises on a range of private wealth matters, including taxation, trusts, estate planning, Wills and disclosure and transparency regimes (such as CRS). She has a mixture of domestic and international clients, often with complex personal and business interests across multiple jurisdictions. Jennifer has a keen interest in charities and philanthropy, which is a key part of her practice. She spent six months as an in-house legal adviser to a large, well-known children’s charity. Since then she has helped guide donors and trustees through a broad spectrum of matters, from establishing charities to reporting serious incidents, charity mergers, grant agreements, independence and governance issues, trustee disqualification proceedings and investment duties.   Due to her background at Linklaters, Jennifer also has significant and unique experience in both the use of trusts and the participation of trustees in commercial transactions covering (but not limited to) securitisations, escrows and trustee purchases. Jennifer has acted for individuals, professional trustees, companies, financial institutions and a number of different types of charity from trusts to royal charter companies. She has been recognised by eprivateclient as one of their Top 35 under 35 on several occasions and, in 2019, was named as  a “Rising Star” in the charity field by Legal 500. The 2020 Legal 500 guide lists her as a key lawyer in the areas of personal tax, trusts and probate, and charities and not-for-profit.   She regularly contributes articles on taxation, charity and philanthropy to academic publications.

Ceris is a partner and head of the Charity and Philanthropy practice and head of the Immigration practice. Ceris' areas of expertise include tax, estate planning, family governance, charity law and philanthropy and immigration. She advises UK and non-UK domiciled and resident individuals, families, estates and trustees on UK and international tax and succession issues, establishing UK and offshore trusts, family limited partnerships and other cross border asset-holding structures.Ceris also has a wealth of experience advising on immigration, philanthropy and art and heritage property matters. Her wide-ranging experience means that, for clients, she is eminently qualified to take on the role of their trusted adviser.Ceris is well known for advising both grant-making and operational charities on matters of charity law and tax with a particular emphasis recently on governance and risk issues. She has twice won the "Trusted Advisor of the Year" award at the STEP Private Client Awards, a coveted accolade which is based on votes of STEP members. She appears on the 2019 Private Client Global Elite, which is the list of the world's elite lawyers advising UHNW.Ceris is named as a Leading Individual in the Legal 500 Directory and is ranked in Band 1 in the Chambers HNW guide 2020. She was named as one of the UK's Top Ten Tax and Trust Lawyers by Spear's Magazine in 2019 and 2020 and appears in the 2020 Spears 500. She was also ranked by Best Lawyers 2021 as a leading specialist in Charity Law, Art Law and Trusts and Personal Tax. Ceris is a trustee of Crimestoppers UK, Philanthropy Impact and National Philanthropic Trust Transatlantic and is Chair of the board of trustees of National Philanthropic Trust UK.

Elizabeth is the practice head for Charities at Farrer & Co. Elizabeth has extensive experience advising charities on governance and constitutional issues, re-structuring, fundraising, equality law (in relation to charitable trusts), charity mergers and regulatory matters. She also advises on grant-making, trading subsidiaries and endowment trusts. Elizabeth is a member of the Charity Law Association's taxation sub-committee and co-authored 'Structuring-not-for-profits in the UK'. In May 2015, she was named as one of Charity Finance's Top 25 Rising Stars in the charity sector.

James advises a broad range of charities and other organisations, including grant-making charities, museums, higher education institutions, faith-based organisations, sports governing bodies and livery companies. He gives advice on issues such as the formation and registration of new charities, charity mergers, constitutional matters, governance, fundraising and trading. James is a regular member of CLA working parties responding to Charity Commission consultations, most recently on charities and investment (for which he acted as secretary) and on the advancement of amateur sport. He is a charity trustee and regularly speaks at conferences and seminars on issues affecting the sector.

Robert is a charity lawyer with more than 30 years’ experience advising charities and not-for-profits, and schools. He is experienced in advising clients on applications for charity registrations, high-profile charity investigations, charity disputes and mergers. Robert is an ex-Charity Commission lawyer who holds a PhD in Charity Law and is the author of The Law of Charitable Status: Maintenance and Removal (CUP, 2008) and Charity in the NHS: Policy and Practice (Jordans, 1998). Robert holds an LLM in Canon Law (Distinction) and offers canon and charity law to religious charities.

Sarah Rowley leads the firm’s Charity, Philanthropy and Not-for-Profit team advising a wide variety of charities and not for profit bodies. She is a regular speaker at our popular Charity Training sessions, records podcasts on sector issues and also speaks at external conferences and seminars. Sarah advises on governance, regulation, structuring, change management, strategic issues, fundraising, constitutional matters and mergers and collaborations involving charities. Sarah is a member of the Charity Law Association and has published articles in several charity sector publications and has first-hand experience working for a charity, as she spent the first two years of her professional life working for an international aid charity. Sarah has worked with a number of charities including RNLI, Samaritans, Dementia UK, City & Guilds of London Institute, Autistica, Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund and the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

Chris is a partner in the charity and social business team.  He advises on all aspects of charity law, including governance, regulatory matters involving the Charity Commission, commercial arrangements, setting up charities fundraising and collaborations. Chris provides strategic and practical advice and is empathetic to what his clients are seeking to achieve. He uses his knowledge of charity law and the sector to resolve complex issues.

Partner in the charity and social enterprise team and head of the firm’s expert charitable trusts special interest group and joint head of the firm’s Legacies cross-departmental team. Advises charities on charity law, governance and structuring issues, with particular specialism in advising on technical charity law issues and complex structures including charitable trusts, endowments, Royal Charter bodies, statutory charities and property holding structures. Laura was closely involved in the Law Commission’s consultation and subsequent stages which led to the Charities Act 2022 both as a member of the Charity Law Association working party and for Bates Wells, including making a submission to and appearing before the House of Lords committee considering the draft Bill. Recent work includes assisting a Royal Charter body with significant changes to its charter and byelaws, working on a governance review and restructuring of a charity network, assisting a University with several major gifts and endowments and supporting a local community group with challenging a scheme made by the Charity Commission relating to charity land in the Tribunal.

Emma-Jane is Managing Partner of Maurice Turnor Gardner. She specialises in advising wealthy families, trust companies and banks in connection with tax, estate planning and philanthropy matters.Emma-Jane has a broad private wealth practice and a diverse portfolio of clients from the UK and the rest of the world, each of whom look to her for sensible and pragmatic advice on all of the issues which affect wealthy individuals and trustees (and those who transact with them). Emma-Jane’s extensive experience of advising on immigration matters and trusts in a commercial context complement her main area of practice.She is also a key member of the firm’s charity and philanthropy team and has a special interest in tax-efficient cross-border giving and the issues which are relevant to counter-parties in transactions with charities. She regularly advises operating and grant-making cross-border charities on diverse legal and governance issues.Emma-Jane is individually ranked in the 2020 Chambers HNW guide and Chambers UK.  She is also ranked as a Band 1 Leading Individual by the Legal 500 2020 guide and by Best Lawyers 2021 as a leading specialist in the area of Wealth Management.

Partner

Pippa is a partner in the charity and social business team. She advises charities, social enterprises and other not-for-profit organisations on all aspects of charity law. Pippa combines a strong general practice advising on governance, fundraising and trading, mergers and grant making (including overseas), with a particular expertise in philanthropy, where she advises both individuals and businesses on their giving.  She has helped establish a number of family and corporate foundations.

Oliver is a Partner and advises charities, social enterprises and impact driven businesses on a wide range of legal issues, including establishment, governance and financing. Oliver particularly enjoys helping clients to structure new projects and bringing together commercial and non-profit enterprises, whether that be corporation foundations, new trading ventures, impact investment, or community finance projects.

Philip advises charities, not-for-profits and philanthropists on a wide range of charity law and related issues. This includes governance and strategic matters, mergers and restructuring, establishment and registration, trading and their relationship with non-charitable subsidiaries, tax, fundraising and regulatory issues. He has a broad practice, but with a particular specialism in advising organisations in the education and arts sectors. These include schools, colleges, universities, arts bodies, artists and related entities. Through the Charity Law Association, Philip is a critical friend to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.

Amy advises charities, philanthropists and businesses on charity law and commercial matters, as well as advising a range of not-for-profit and for-profit educational institutions. Amy works with all types of charity, including charitable trusts, charitable companies, Royal Charter bodies and unincorporated associations. She advises many of the UK’s most loved charities in relation to grant-making, fundraising (including society lotteries and major gifts), disposals of land and commercial contracts, as well as governance, corporate and trust advice. She also advises charities, including in the education sector, on mergers and restructurings. Amy advises on engagement with the Charity Commission both at the regulatory engagement stage and the permissions stage. She regularly works alongside our property team to advise on the charity aspects of complex property developments involving charities and their subsidiary companies. Amy regularly advises on the establishment of new charities – both operational charities and grant-making foundations.  She is involved in the structuring of private foundations to take account of donors’ complex tax profiles and works closely with the firm’s leading private client and tax team to provide integrated advice. She advises on major gifts to UK charities, as well as commercial fundraising partnerships benefiting UK charities. Her advice regularly includes an international element, such as the recognition by HMRC of European charities for UK tax reliefs or the creation of dual qualified US-UK charities. She has recently advised on a large complex cross-border restructuring which saw a significant offshore grant making trust migrate to England and Wales. She is passionate about the charity sector and its role within society. She regularly responds to sector consultations on behalf of the firm or as part of the Charity Law Association; most recently, Amy coordinated the firm's response to the Charity Commission's consultation on changes to the Annual Return. Amy spent 5 months on secondment to the in-house legal team at one of the firm’s clients, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). She advised on a range of issues including fundraising regulation, data protection, gambling law, commercial contracts, licensing and corporate governance. She is currently a trustee of a leading disability charity which provides a range of support to disabled and disadvantaged people, their families and carers, including care services and accommodation. As well as being a trustee, she is a member of the Governance and Compliance Committee and the Culture and Remuneration Committee. She has previously been a trustee for two charities in the mental health space: one supporting children and families across Luton, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire and the other supporting student mental health.

Emma's practice involves advising charities on their governance and operational issues. She is also a core member of the cross-departmental Withers education practice. Recent work includes advising charities and other not-for-profit organisations on registration, mergers and collaborations, projects and contracts, constitutional issues and fundraising law. She specialises in advising education providers including independent schools, academies, Higher Education and Further Education establishments. She also acts for philanthropists, investors and sponsors of education-related ventures.

Lucy is a Senior Associate and charity law specialist with a broad practice covering general charity services including charity registrations, mergers and other restructures, governance and constitutional advice and specialist expertise in inquiry and regulatory compliance cases and complex charity law issues and structures. Advises a range of charities and social enterprises including armed forces charities, and individuals and companies engaging in philanthropy.

Gareth is a senior associate in the charity and social business team and advises a wide range of clients including national and international charities, religious charities and sports clubs. He provides governance and commercial advice across a wide range of issues including structural reviews, mergers, fundraising, lotteries and regulatory matters involving the Charity Commission. Gareth combines expert legal and technical knowledge with a pragmatic and user-friendly approach.