I specialise in advising charities and other non-profits on a range of governance, commercial and regulatory matters. I have a particular passion for supporting organisations with their structure and governance, whether that’s helping new organisations to set up in the right way at the start of their journey or helping existing organisations to improve their structures and governance in line with best practice.
I have lots of experience supporting organisations that need to engage with the Charity Commission, for example if they need to ask for permissions or if something has gone wrong.
Where organisations are looking to restructure, merge or spin out, I can help with finding the most suitable route to achieve this and ensuring the legal processes are all followed correctly.
I really enjoy working with organisations on how best to manage their relationships with others, whether that’s providing advice on issues that crop up or making sure that the right contracts are in place, and I always aim to keep things as simple and pragmatic as possible.
Two areas I have a particular specialism in are fundraising and data protection compliance and best practice, and I can help organisations to make sure that their policies, practices and contracts are in line with regulatory expectations in these areas.
- I helped a charitable benevolent fund to improve its structure and governance in line with best practice. We spun the benevolent fund out from its founding organisation, to ensure that there was a clear separation between the two organisations and the benevolent fund was operating independently in line with charity law. Once the new independent charity was set up, we put suitable agreements and arrangements in place between the two organisations to define roles and expectations. As well as providing general advice on governance and decision-making best practice, we carried out a comprehensive review and update of the benevolent fund’s policies and procedures to ensure that it was in the best position going forward to operate effectively and compliantly.
- I provide ongoing support to a national charity in relation to its contractual relationships with corporate partners, suppliers and grantees. We have worked together to develop a suite of simple yet robust template agreements for different types of relationship, along with detailed drafting notes so that staff are confident in using the agreements when new opportunities arise. Alongside this, we have an ongoing retainer arrangement so that we can be available to answer ‘ad hoc’ queries that staff might have when they are using the templates and negotiating specific terms with third parties.
- I assist NUS Charity with updating and improving its model documents for students’ unions that are planning to ‘incorporate’ (convert from an unincorporated association into a company or a CIO). These model documents are designed to support students’ unions with making sure that the incorporation process is straightforward while also following the correct legal process. Alongside this, we have provided training for students’ unions on behalf of NUS Charity and we also support specific students’ unions on their individual incorporation projects where they would like additional legal support.
- I advised a national infrastructure charity on its separation from a Government body. This involved redrafting various constitutional documents, advising on engagement with the Charity Commission to obtain urgent approvals, and working collaboratively with the Government body and its lawyers to negotiate the various changes and ensure the separation process was effective.
- I am supporting a large grant-making charity on how to assess the charitability of projects that apply to it for funding. This is particularly important for this organisation because it often seeks to support projects that don’t fall neatly into areas that are clearly charitable. We are providing advice on how to understand which charitable purpose/s a project might fall into, how to make sure that a project is within the legal scope of those charitable purpose/s and how to check that a project doesn’t breach charity law in other areas, such as restrictions on private benefit and on certain types of political activity.