Education: institutions

Gary Attle

Head of education and governance. Gary leads the firm’s national practice in the higher education sector, which advises on all areas where universities need legal advice, ranging from spin outs to student accommodation developments to international joint ventures. His own specialist area relates to governance and student issues. Gary’s recent work involves advising universities on allegations of research misconduct, the student-university legal relationship, the regulatory framework for higher education, defamation and freedom of speech. Many of his matters have an international element to them.

Diane Gilhooley

Sector Group Head

Smita Jamdar

Partner & Head of Education

Sam Macdonald

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.

David Smellie

David is head of the Employment team. He has wide experience of advising commercial and institutional clients including newspapers, magazines, banks and academic establishments. David advises on restructuring and redundancy programmes and on the complexities of the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations, as well as handling industrial disputes, team moves and individual cases. He is a regular author of Croner’s publications and writes chapters for both Butterworths Commercial and Tolley’s Personnel precedents. David was runner-up in the Employment Lawyer of the Year award sponsored by the Insiders Guide to Employment Lawyers and is given a four star rating in the same guide. He is rated as a leading expert in the field by both Chambers and Legal 500.

Jean Tsang

Jean is our Head of Education and provides legal and strategic advice to charities, social businesses and educational institutions on a variety of commercial, charity law, governance, education law and safeguarding issues. Jean regularly provides training on charity, safeguarding and education law, participating in internal and external events.

Kathleen Heycock

Kathleen is a Partner in the Employment Team who is recognised for her pragmatic and commercial advice.  Her national and international practice focusses on resolving high level complex employment law issues for senior executives, individual partners, employers and partnerships. She is experienced in advising and negotiating on contractual issues, employee relations, employee regulatory issues, mediation and litigation.    Kathleen has particular experience in advising senior partners and partnerships and is a member of the firm’s Professional Practices Group. She has hands on experience of working in a large international professional services firm during a year-long secondment. She advises senior executives across the City negotiating their entrance and exit, including issues relating to post-termination restrictions. She regularly advises partnerships and employers across sectors on issues such as discrimination, mediation, employee relations, contracts, TUPE transfers and large scale redundancies. Kathleen also focuses on the education sector and is a member of the firm’s Higher Education Group and Child Protection Unit. She is a regular speaker at external national and international conferences and is a member of the Union Internationale des Avocats.

Bettina Rigg

Bettina is the head of our higher education sector. Recognised as a leading expert on advising higher education institutions by Chambers and Partners for several consecutive years, Bettina advises on a variety of higher education matters, including employment, regulatory and student matters. Having been a member of the Council of the University of Exeter for nine years (where she was the dual assurance lay lead for HR and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and worked closely with the teams involved in obtaining accreditation with Athena Swan and the HE equality charters), she has a deep understanding of the issues facing the higher education sector and the role of governance. She also works closely with sector associations to help their members to engage with topical legal issues. Bettina advises clients on operational and strategic issues relating to staff and students and regulatory matters concerning the Office for Students. She has developed a specialism in Equality Act issues. She has spent time on secondment to university in-house legal teams. Bettina is an ADR Group accredited mediator and has mediated a wide range of employment and education matters.

Glynne Stanfield

Partner