England - London • Public sector
Bates Wells
Bates Wells specialises in advising auditing bodies on a range of activities, providing governance and regulatory advice and representing audit firms in judicial reviews and claims. The team also exhibits notable expertise in matters related to charity law and has a record of advising local councils on their relationships with charitable trusts. The team is led by Augustus Della-Porta, who has extensive experience advising local authorities on service spin-out initiatives. Subsidy control and procurement expert Lindsay Draffan, charity and spin-out expert Erica Crump, and regulatory expert Alistair Williams are also recommended. Former co-head Claire Whittle left for DLA Piper.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘More than any other firm I know, the Bates Wells team is highly committed to and steeped in the local government sector.’
‘Erica Crump is an outstanding partner for public sector work. She is highly technical, yet also incredibly practical and commercial. Erica has a particular skill in simplifying complex business problems and in finding innovative and sustainable solutions for the clients' long term benefit.’
‘The team has very good knowledge and experience of the issues at play in local government, particularly in governance and audit. They apply that knowledge and experience to good effect to provide practical solutions.’
‘Alistair Williams is very thorough in his approach. This instils a lot of confidence in us that our published reports are robust and can withstand challenge.’
Key clients
- Achieving for Children
- Audit Wales
Work highlights
- Advised Achieving for Children on the renewal and updating of their Commissioning Agreement and related Members/Inter-Authority Agreement with the local councils for Richmond-Upon-Thames and Kingston-Upon-Thames.
- Advised Audit Wales on local government law and the functions of the Auditor General for Wales in his capacity as external auditor to local authorities in Wales.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Augustus Della-Porta