My aim is to help charities, campaigners, social enterprises, public bodies and purposeful businesses of all sizes to achieve their missions.
Within our top-tier charity and social enterprise team, I am lucky to support charities and others with registration, new projects, fundraising and general commercial and governance matters. I’m also particularly interested in helping clients who deliver public services to navigate the legal issues which can arise, and regularly advise on the public procurement and UK subsidy control (formerly EU state aid) rules.
At times of crisis, I provide robust and practical advice to help clients through tricky situations. I have extensive experience in charity law, investigations and other regulatory engagement, and have led multi-disciplinary teams advising on regulatory issues and engagement with the Charity Commission, including several high profile statutory inquiries.
As part of our specialist Politics, Elections and Campaigning team, I have a particular focus on advising campaigners on maximising the impact of their advocacy work while navigating complex legal frameworks around elections and campaigning. From election and referendum law to campaign finance rules, transparency of lobbying regulation, and charity law, I guide political parties, candidates, donors, charities and issue-based campaigners to navigate the complex regulatory environment that can be relevant to their electoral and policy goals.
- Mergers: Humankind and Richmond Fellowship I advised Richmond Fellowship on its merger with Humankind, to create Waythrough – a charity with an income of around £120 million and 2,500 staff – putting their combined resources together to support people dealing with drug and alcohol, mental health and housing challenges.
- Regulatory investigations: Oxfam GB I advised Oxfam GB on the 16 month statutory inquiry, the most complex statutory inquiry undertaken by the Charity Commission at that time, covering safeguarding governance and serious incident reporting.
- General Elections 2024 and 2019 With our multi-disciplinary team, I helped a number of political parties, charities and non-party campaigners on national and local campaigns ahead of the UK General Elections in 2024 and 2019, navigating charity law, spending limits and reputation management.
- Spin-outs: Brighton’s Royal Pavilion I advised on this high profile transfer of a portfolio of museums and heritage assets, including Brighton’s sea-front Royal Pavilion, to the new independent charitable trust, working closely with the trustees and Brighton and Hove Council to help to put the new organisation on a solid footing for the future.
- I advise charities on their engagement with the Charity Commission, including applying for consents and filing serious incident reports, as well as on operational cases and statutory inquiries.
- I regularly advise on campaigning and electoral law, and have delivered training and capacity building sessions for charities and other campaigners together with New Economy Organisers Network (NEON, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the Association of Charitable Foundations, and the international development network Bond ahead of the General Elections in 2024 and 2019.
- I act on charity mergers and spin-outs, including advising the Start Network on its spin-out from Save the Children into a new independent membership organisation of humanitarian aid agencies.
- I advise on public procurement and UK subsidy control (formerly EU state aid).
- I have helped to establish and register new charities and social enterprises, including CIOs.
- I advise on grant funding agreements and conditions.
- I advise on fundraising and commercial participator arrangements, and engagement with the Fundraising Regulator: together with Philip Kirkpatrick, I advised Asda on its innovative Fight Hunger Create Change programme to fund Fareshare and the Trussell Trust’s work, initially using carrier bag levy funds. We worked closely with the client and the two food poverty charities to set-up the partnership, including advising on the structure, contractual terms, and compliance with charity fundraising legislation.
- I advise on constitutional and operational issues for charities and social enterprises, including advising on conflicts of interest, procedure and other governance matters.
- I draft commercial agreements and terms of business.