CHARITIES LAWYERS

Your charity’s reputation is crucial to its success and you need to protect it. With a wide range of regulations governing how you manage your business, it’s important to be proactive to meet industry guidelines and avoid issues such as employment disputes and tax matters. By getting expert advice on the laws you need to adhere to, you can follow best practice to safeguard your standing as you grow your organisation.

Key Contacts

Karen Lintern

Partner 02077 665 665

LEGAL ADVICE FOR CHARITIES

A number of organisations are influenced by the Charity Acts. Whether you run a large-scale charity, a small trust, an independent school or a voluntary organisation, when you are operating on a tight budget legal assistance can feel like a costly investment. However, without this expert advice it can be difficult for any not-for-profit to meet the strict industry laws in place, which can lead to otherwise avoidable disputes.

While most general commercial regulations are in place for not-for-profit organisations, there are also more stringent requirements to meet as well as a number of reliefs available to you. Our team has in-depth knowledge and experience in this field, so we can help ensure you fully meet your obligations. And if you are facing a dispute, we will help you protect your reputation.

What’s more, you will want to nurture your organisation and see it flourish, which is why strategic business advice and financial planning set the foundations for success. Working closely with our leading Employment, Tax and Real Estate Teams, we will create a support network for your charity, helping you reach your commercial objectives and maximise your longevity.

Our team has provided legal support to a range of charities. Highlights include:

  • Advising on the complex merger of two large grant-making charities; one incorporated under Royal Charter and the other by Act of Parliament. The two parties formed a charity with funds of over £80m, including negotiations with Charity Commission, Privy Council and many stakeholders
  • Advising St John’s Hospital, the second largest landowner in Bath, in respect of their property portfolio, including asset management, portfolios and leases
  • Managing all legal aspects of the leases for Dorothy House’s portfolio of charity shops, located across the UK
  • Advising independent schools registered as charities on a range of issues, from exploiting their assets to navigating public benefit tests
  • Acting for several of the region’s major land-owning charities, assisting them with all property management issues, ranging from acquisitions and sales, assignments, lease terminations and renewals, through to possession actions, rent and dilapidations disputes, or boundary, rights of way, and nuisance actions
  • Advising and assisting individuals, groups of individuals, institutions and existing charities in the creation, registration and administration of a new charity
 

Our expertise in this area encompasses:

  • Achieving charitable objects
  • Annual returns and accounts
  • Charities as businesses
  • Charitable trust deeds and companies limited by guarantee
  • Commercial and residential acquisitions and disposals
  • Compliance with the Companies Act
  • Constitutional issues and the mechanics for changing the constitution
  • Creation of charities
  • Employment law
  • Intellectual property rights
  • Landlord and tenant issues
  • Lease renewals
  • Liaising with the Charity Commission
  • Mergers of charities
  • Probate disputes and legacies
  • Property transactions involving charities
  • Regulatory and trust law
  • Rent reviews
  • Rights and duties of trustees and their exposure to third party liability
  • Structure
  • Taxation and fundraising
  • Third party contracts
  • Trustee appointments
  • The Charities Act 2006 and particularly the ‘public benefit’ definition
  • Trading subsidiaries
 


Contact

FANTASTIC – THEY PROVIDED ALL THE EXPERTISE I NEEDED AND I WAS MOST IMPRESSED WITH HOW THEY WERE ALWAYS THERE AND ALWAYS CALLED ME STRAIGHT BACK. CHAMBERS AND PARTNERS 2016

Latest