Charities

The climate is tough for charities. As well as having to deal with the rapidly changing legislative and regulatory environment, many are operating with limited resources, both financial and human.  Charities are having to be more commercial, which means dealing with the challenges of the data protection act, pension provision and staffing and HR issues and at the same time they need to remain transparent whilst protecting their reputation.

The Charities team at Speechlys is recognised for its “in-depth knowledge of the sector” and “clear understanding of the issues facing charities” by Legal 500. The group spans the entire firm - we share expertise, knowledge and resources and provide our clients with the support and advice they need to help them respond to the challenges they are facing. 

Our clients include household names, national and international charities, family charitable trusts and foundations and schools.  We advise them on a range of diverse issues from developing joint ventures and partnerships, establishing new charitable bodies, advising on employee rights, pensions and data protection issues, estate and legacy issues and, of course, advising on their obligations with regards to the Charity Commission.

Our team delivers cost effective advice to charity clients, whether they are advising the trustees or the executives.

Experience

We encourage our team to get involved with charities that mean something to them. Many of us are trustees, which helps us to really understand our charity clients from the inside and empathise with their issues and challenges. Some examples of work include:

Assisting a disability charity with a programme of mergers or take-overs of similar charities including advising on employment, pension and property issues and substantially revising the charity’s own constitution to facilitate merger programme.

Supported the fundraising activities of a national charity through drafting a promotional document outlining the benefits of making or leaving donations to charities

Advising a top 100 charity in relation to its negotiations with the Charity Commission concerning its sole investment and obtaining agreement that it did not need to diversify.

Acting for a high profile charitable foundation in connection with a dispute surrounding the provenance of an iconic painting it owned. Advising the trustees on strategies and tactics to employ in resolving the dispute across the UK, the US and Continental Europe.

Acting for nine national charities where the professional executor was failing to distribute estate funds in a timely fashion. Having obtained an interim distribution of several hundred thousand pounds within days of being instructed, we went on to take over the running of the administration.