I am an impact lawyer with a strong desire to apply my legal skills to help clients committed to positive social and environmental change. I spent the first 7 years of my career working as a banking lawyer at a magic circle law firm, advising large banks and multinational companies on high value, cross border, emerging market financial transactions, investment grade and leveraged finance transactions and restructurings (including two secondments in-house to the EMEA leveraged finance team at Citibank and the corporate banking team at Barclays Bank PLC).
During my time working as a banking lawyer, I advised (on a pro bono basis) a number of charities and social enterprises on raising social investment and became interested in using my skills to effect positive impact in a more meaningful way.
Since joining Bates Wells over 8 years ago, I have enjoyed bringing my transactional expertise across to the charity/social enterprise sector and I regularly advise on the social investment transactions as well as international investment and financing transactions, particularly in emerging markets.
My practice now spans governance, structuring, commercial, impact investing, social investment, international development finance for clients who want to achieve deep impact, beyond ESG.
Purposeful Business: I co-lead the firm’s Purpose & Impact strategy and advise corporates, charities, B Corps, philanthropists, social enterprises and investors seeking to have a positive social impact through their business, investments and other activities. I helped to bring the B Corp movement to the UK and to design the B Corp legal requirements in the UK which are used by now over 1100 businesses across the UK. I am a trustee of B Lab (UK), the charity which was founded in 2015 to advance the B Corp movement in the UK.
I increasingly work with commercial organisations looking to embed purpose in their governance and practice and I have been involved in a number of key policy developments in this area, including advising the Government Inclusive Economy Unit on the Mission Led Business Review.
Charity Law: I have a wide ranging charity law practice and advise well known household charities, international NGOs, not-for-profit organisations, social enterprises, and philanthropists. I advise on a broad range of legal and commercial issues, ranging from corporate structure, establishment, governance, regulatory matters and financing. I often advise at the intersection between charities/corporates and have particular expertise in advising foundations on impact investing.
I have worked on many significant developments within the Purpose & Impact space, including:
- Advising Fair4AllFinance on the No Interest Loan Scheme, a national pilot which offers credit unions an HMT backed bad debt guarantee for offering no interest loans to disadvantaged borrowers;
- Advising Near East Foundation on its first refugee development impact bond in Jordan, funded by IKEA Foundation, Novo Nordisk and the Norweigan Agency for Development Cooperation, with upfront capital investment from the US International Development Finance Corporation and Ferd;
- Advising Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation on an impact investment into an infant nutritional food start up;
- Advising City of London Corporation on the establishment of Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology, a new centre recommended in a recent government review;
- Advising Big Society Capital on a number of investments into social intermediaries as well as the restructuring of the Access Growth Fund;
- Advising an international NGO on the spin out of a network of humanitarian organisations, designed to encourage faster response times to humanitarian crisis;
- I advised LifeArc on the monetisation of its royalty interest in a blockbuster immuno-oncology drug;
- I advised on loan documentation to arts organisations as part of the Cultural Impact Development Fund and the Nesta Arts Impact Fund;