Experience

I advise charities and not-for-profits, and organisations across the education sector on a broad range of charity law, governance, education law, safeguarding and commercial matters. I am also Head of Education at Bates Wells.

I am a regular speaker and trainer on charity, safeguarding and education law. My legal commentary has featured in The Times and on BBC London News, and I frequently contribute to industry events and conferences. Recent speaking engagements include London EdTech Week, where I spoke on key legal and regulatory considerations for EdTech businesses looking to enter the UK market.

I am also an experienced charity trustee and school governor, with a particular interest in causes supporting children and young people, as well as the arts.

Highlights
  • Charity and Not-for-profit
  • Advising on the merger of two large learning disability charities providing supported housing and education, securing regulatory consents from the CQC, Charity Commission and the Department for Education.
  • Acting for a national children’s food poverty charity to undertake a review of its various corporate partnerships (for compliance with charity and fundraising law and regulation), and preparing template agreements for use with its corporate partners and member schools.
  • Establishing a charitable foundation for a high-net-worth couple to support major educational projects in schools.
  • Advising US and French universities to set up UK charities.
  • Education
  • Advising HMC - The Heads’ Conference on a governance and constitutional review.
  • Advising on numerous academy trust and independent school mergers, acquisitions and disposals, including complex transactions involving schools experiencing financial distress or insolvency.
  • Advising several multi-academy trusts on setting up or acquiring independent schools, including to meet increasing demand for specialist educational provision, and on wider state-independent school partnerships.
  • Advising a large educational charity on securing release of £20m of permanent endowment to enable it to fund the substantial redevelopment project of one of its beneficiary schools, and on becoming an academy sponsor.
  • Advising a London maintained primary school on a successful challenge to a local authority's decision to close the school, through a referral to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.
  • Advising in relation to the federation of three maintained schools and their relationship with an associated charitable education trust that founded one of the schools.
  • Safeguarding
  • Advising various national and international charities on improving their safeguarding governance in line with Charity Commission guidance on safeguarding and serious incident reporting, and managing safeguarding investigations, including by the Charity Commission.
  • Advising an academy trust on its response to widely publicised allegations of a toxic culture made by former students, including regulatory, governance and reputational issues arising from a subsequent Department for Education Notice to Improve.
  • Advising Professor Alexis Jay CBE on her report, The Future of Church Safeguarding in the Church of England. We prepared a legal report setting out how her recommendations for independent safeguarding could be implemented. Our report was published alongside Professor Jay’s report in 2024.
  • Advising a global law firm on safeguarding best practice through a comprehensive policy review and training, with a particular focus on its pro bono and social impact work.