Politics, Elections & Campaigning

We’re one of the only UK firms to specialise in electoral law and give a holistic view of any political project.

Campaigning isn’t all waving placards and knocking on doors. It’s digital. It’s driven by Big Data. It’s constantly changing. It’s also heavily scrutinised.

We’ve advised on the biggest political issues of our time. Including Brexit, where we worked with Britain Stronger in Europe – the lead Remain campaign. Whatever your political objectives, we’re one of the few UK firms who can give charities, trade unions, political parties, local authorities and companies big picture advice.

We’re politically connected. We’re one of the best at what we do (so says the Legal 500). And our breadth of services is hard to match.

How we help

We advise on almost every legal issue affecting political organisations and campaigning charities. That includes local and national campaigning legislation, campaign finance, donations, and lobbying. We make sure your campaign content makes its mark, without getting you into legal hot water with defamation, advertising or election law.

We can support you with related issues too, such as data protection and dispute resolution. And we help campaigning charities navigate legal issues and regulations specifically affecting them.

It helps that we know the regulatory landscape inside out. We work with relevant regulators, including the Charity Commission, the Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) amongst others to make sure your political work and campaigning always stands up to scrutiny.

“There is real strength in depth in this team and its election law expertise spans political parties and third party interveners.”

Electoral, Legal 500 2025

“Bates Wells are consistently superb, giving comprehensive but accessible guidance.”

Electoral, Legal 500 2025

“The team at Bates Wells has been invaluable to us. They understand our sector and how compliance applies and have proactively been helping us navigate a complex and changing regulatory environment. We ask questions that they’ve already written memos or blogs on and they’ve really worked to understand our campaigning so they can best advise us.”

Electoral, Legal 500 2025

“We have been well served by a team at Bates Wells that is broad in its experiences, and deep in its own individual areas. We always feel like we are getting clear, concise, trusted guidance.”

Electoral, Chambers 2024

“The team worked on highly complex matters and have demonstrated a strong degree of ability to think round the issues.”

Electoral, Chambers 2024

“Bates Wells had a strong grasp of the detail, had the imagination to consider all the nuances and complexities, yet could explain this in simple language to a non-lawyer. They were quick to respond, clear about the process and followed through as promised.”

Electoral, Chambers 2024

“The elections practice at Bates Wells is well-reputed for its expertise in campaigning and party political matters and is capable of handling a broad range of issues in this space.”

Electoral, Legal 500 2024
Meet our team