News

Charity Finance: Lawrie Simanowitz comments on coronavirus impact on the charity sector

With disruption continuing to adversely impact many charities, Lawrie Simanowitz spoke to Tristan Blythe, Editor of Charity Finance, on the trends he is seeing across the sector. In light of the unprecedented situation in which charities find themselves, Lawrie gave his views on how this crisis has affected the ability of charities to raise funds …
Read more

Bates Wells writes for The Forum on waqf, charity law and charitable giving within Islam

Augustus Della-Porta, partner in our Charity & Social Enterprise team, has contributed an article to the latest issue of The Forum, the quarterly journal published by the Muslim Charity Forum (MCF). Augustus provides an update on the waqf (a process by which charitable giving can take place within Islam), and the legal requirements governing its …
Read more

Luke Fletcher speaks to Investment & Pensions Europe on Charity Commission responsible investment initiative

Following news that the Charity Commission is gathering views on the subject of responsible investing by charities, Luke Fletcher spoke with Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE) to provide his perspective on this topical issue. Noting that questions concerning investment are often addressed by charities’ investment committees, Luke goes on to explain how matters such as …
Read more

Employers facing post-Brexit uncertainty: Chetal Patel comments on Global Talent visa launch

In the run-up to the UK’s official exit from the European Union, Chetal Patel responded to the launch of the Global Talent visa with her thoughts on what recent developments in the field of immigration law mean for employers. Addressing the “pivotal” announcement of the new visa, Chetal makes the point that the development and …
Read more

Charity Finance: Paul Seath provides legal guidance on how employers can address bullying in the workplace

Paul Seath, partner in our employment team, has provided legal insights to Charity Finance for a feature focusing on workplace bullying and how charities can put in place effective policies to address and prevent it. Charity Finance’s article follows the publication of ACEVO’s In Plain Sight report, which examines the presence of bullying across the …
Read more

People Management: Chetal Patel on key workers and points-based immigration

The government’s points-based immigration scheme has passed its second reading in parliament, despite concerns it will be too restrictive for key sectors including care, food production and supermarkets. Chetal Patel, partner in our Immigration department, has spoken to People Management on this scheme. This new points-based scheme will come into force in January. The bill, …
Read more

Bates Wells completes work to get emergency loan finance to charities and SEs

We are pleased to announce that our Charity and Social Enterprise team has just completed work on the formation of a new Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund to provide charities and social enterprises with emergency coronavirus related loan finance. The fund will be run by our client Social Investment Business and is backed by an …
Read more

Civil Society: Coronavirus and charities’ real estate

Amanda Gray and Mark Traynor from our Real Estate team have written to Civil Society to assess the implications of the lockdown for landlords and tenants. In their article, the discuss how we’ve all heard plenty about the challenges facing the charity sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and about the various government …
Read more

Victoria Hordern writes for Privacy Laws & Business: Is Morrisons to blame for actions of an employee with a grudge?

Victoria Hordern, partner and head of our Data Privacy team, has recently written an article for Privacy Laws & Business. In the article Victoria discusses what the UK Supreme Court’s decision in Morrisons tell us about liability under data protection law. The article focuses on an incident where a Morrisons’ employee maliciously uploaded payroll data …
Read more

The Independent: Lucy McLynn on minimum wage investigations over volunteers for coronavirus testing

Lucy McLynn, partner in our Employment team, has provided comment to The Independent over the news that Boots could be risking investigation under minimum wage legislation after recruiting hundreds of volunteers to carry out coronavirus testing for the government. Lucy has commented that treating the testers as volunteers “feels pretty abusive” and may fall foul of minimum wage legislation, …
Read more

Bates Wells profiled in the Times Best Law Firms 2021

Bates Wells has been recommended across three areas in this year’s Times report. Bates Wells have been commended for its work in Administrative & public law; Charities and Immigration. The Times Best Law Firms 2021 has recognised Bates Wells as “Best for Charities” in this year’s report. Drawn from surveys among our peers in the …
Read more

Victoria Hordern speaks to LexisNexis on data transfers—the aftermath of Schrems II

Victoria Hordern, partner and head of our data privacy team, has recently been interviewed by LexisNexis to consider the impact of the judgment taken by the Court of Justice on 16 July 2020 in the Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Ltd, Maximillian Schrems (Schrems II) case on European data protection law. This decision by …
Read more