I joined Bates Wells in 2014 and my practice now focuses on supporting purpose led organisations across charity law, governance, mergers, structuring and restructuring, social investment and impact investment.
I qualified as a Solicitor in 2009 and spent the first 7 years of my career as a finance lawyer at Clifford Chance, advising large banks and multinational companies on high value, cross border, investment grade and leveraged finance transactions and restructurings (including secondments in-house to the EMEA leveraged finance team at Citibank and the corporate banking team at Barclays Bank PLC).
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 2000 businesses across the UK. I am Vice Chair 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 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.
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 an international charity (which manages a global climate disclosure system) on the legal aspects of a multi-jurisdictional spin out of a collaboration which provides a framework for companies to set targets, including securing charitable status and advising on the transfer of assets which involved multiple cross jurisdictional transfers of employees and assets.
- Advising Fair4AllFinance on Debt Consolidation lending and guarantees and 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 Better Society Capital on a number of investments into social intermediaries as well as the restructuring of the Access Growth Fund; and
- Advising an international NGO on the spin out of a network of humanitarian organisations, designed to encourage faster response times to humanitarian crisis.