Experience

I’m the joint lead on all our work with faith-based organisations, and also have a particular interest in working with International NGOs and environmental organisations. I’m a trustee of the Christian charity, Tearfund and Chair of the Bates Well Foundation. My trustee experience helps me to provide practical and empathetic advice to clients.

My day-to-day work involves dealing with the Charity Commission on registrations, consents and regulatory compliance cases, governance advice, supporting charities with collaborative working and mergers. I also advise on contracts, grant-making (including overseas), fundraising and trading, intellectual property, social franchising, equality and discrimination, and corporate philanthropy.

Highlights
  • I’ve worked on creating a world-class humanitarian health force. When international health charity Merlin prepared to join Save the Children, I advised on charity regulation and corporate structure issues.
  • I advised CAFOD on its incorporation. CAFOD is the official international development agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. I helped establish a new charitable company limited by guarantee and transfer CAFOD’s assets to the new entity.
  • I advised the McCall MacBain Foundation on a £75 million donation. The gift, made to the Rhodes Trust, was the largest since the scholarship was established in 1903. It will help the Trust continue to send future global leaders to the Oxford University.
  • I advised on the registration of the Marriage Foundation as a charity, overturning the Charity Commission’s initial decision not to register the Foundation. The Marriage Foundation was established by High Court judge, Sir Paul Coleridge. It aims to see fewer people drawn into the family justice system each year and reduce the numbers who go through the emotional pain and financial cost of broken marriages and other relationships.
  • I advised British Waterways on establishing the Canal & River Trust, a new independent charity which took on the care of 2,000 miles of waterways, historic buildings, museums and archives. The new charity has a sophisticated governance structure, reflecting the many stakeholders with an interest in inland waterways. I provided specialist charity and company law advice on the transaction.
  • I advised a large international faith-based organisation on transferring their international secretariat from the UK to a new location overseas.
  • I’ve given advice to charitable foundations established by a number of high-profile businesses, in connection with grant-making and advising on the relationship between the corporate founder and charitable foundation.
  • I acted as the specialist advisor to the Joint Committee on the draft Protection of Charities Bill – specialist advisor to the Select Committee established in Parliament to carry out pre-legislative scrutiny on what became the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016.