Experience

I help clients with their difficult charity, commercial and governance issues, always recognising that these are human as well as legal matters. I particularly enjoy the challenge of structuring new ventures and finding the best ways to implement my clients’ great ideas. And I like to find the paths around and through apparent blockages. My clients are charities and non-profit organisations of all kinds as well as individuals and commercial companies engaging in philanthropy.

Highlights
  • Kids Company (Official Receiver v Atkinson and others [2021] EWHC 175) I advised the majority of the former Kids Company trustees in their successful defence of the Official Receiver’s disqualification proceedings and in relation to the Charity Commission inquiry
  • Lehtimäki and others v Cooper [2020] UKSC 33 I advised Jamie Cooper on her successful appeal to the Supreme Court, securing a grant of $360M for her charity and clarifying the law on fiduciary duties of charitable company members
  • The Human Dignity Trust v The Charity Commission for England and Wales (CA/2013/0013) This charity brings international human rights law to bear around the world in challenging the criminalisation of consensual homosexual conduct. We succeeded in the First Tier Tribunal in overturning the Charity Commission’s refusal to register.
  • I advised a global fashion brand on the structuring of its international philanthropy, the establishment of a corporate foundation in the UK and the relationships between the commercial entities and foundations in other jurisdictions.
  • I supported an international charity (established by a UK Act of Parliament) through a global governance change.
  • I have advised on many high profile inquiries into charities by the Charity Commission and other regulators that have received significant press coverage.
  • I advised a prominent benevolent fund on governance and regulatory matters including a highly contested AGM at which electoral irregularities were detected, and assisted the client to declare a legitimate result.
  • I have advised many well-known Royal Charter professional membership bodies on such matters as conversion to charitable status; a complete review of the national and international structure; and internal disputes, including the removal of board members.
  • I currently advise the corporate trustee of a donor advised fund on compliance, general charity law, grant making and other matters.