Charity law and governance solicitors

Having the right legal structure for your organisation is vital to good governance.

We can help you chose the right structure, tailor your governing document to meet your needs and, where applicable, apply for consent or register your organisation with the Charity Commission.

Our Charities Team has a broad range of experience with establishing and registering charities and not-for-profit organisations. We are expert in establishing and registering charitable structures such as unincorporated associations, charitable trusts, charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) and charitable companies, and can help you to establish complex group structures to ring-fence risk and benefit from the tax advantages of charitable status.

We also advise on the establishment of social enterprises and other not-for-profit organisations that benefit the wider community, including not-for-profit companies, Community Interest Companies (CICs) and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs).

We frequently advise on the conversion of unincorporated bodies into corporate structures, so trustees can benefit from limited liability. This includes the transfer of assets and liabilities to the new organisation (including TUPE transfers of employees) and updating the governing document to comply with charity law.

Effective governance is key to ensuring both regulatory compliance and ensuring your organisation can provide the best outcomes for your beneficiaries.

We can help tailor your governance structures and policy documents so that they ensure best practice but also reflect the practical workings of your organisation. Everyone in our Charities Team are trustees of local charities, meaning that we understand the practicalities of governance and how this is put into practice.

Governance and policy are areas that the Charity Commission expect charities to keep in constant review and we will keep you updated on major changes in law and regulation. We offer bespoke training for trustees which we tailor to each individual organisation and focuses on particular issues your charity may face and reminds trustees of their duties and obligations.

Whether you are thinking of partnering with another organisation on a project or merging multiple organisations into a new structure, securing the right legal guidance from the outset will ensure a smooth transition in what can be a complicated area of law.

The Charity Governance Code recommends that trustees ‘consider the benefits and risks of partnership working, merger or dissolution if other organisations are fulfilling similar charitable purposes more effectively’.

We can help you consider possible solutions, including informal partnerships, subsidiary charities, formally ‘linking’ charities and full mergers. We are sensitive to the importance of considering the history of an organisation, its stakeholders, brand, culture, compatibility and reputational management throughout the process.

If you are working with commercial organisations to raise funds or deliver your activities, we can help you to ensure that the necessary agreements are in place to protect your organisation and its reputation.

Charities operate in a very regulated increasingly environment and can be under intense scrutiny. Even with effective governance, policies and procedures in place, you may still face a crisis.

We have extensive experience of assisting charities in difficulties to provide sensitive and timely advice and how to work with regulators to secure the best possible outcome. We help charities with Serious Incident Reports (SIRs), internal investigations and complaints as well as dealing with Charity Commission investigations if they occur.

Our primary aim is always to help you to ensure that you have robust policies, procedures and governance frameworks to ensure that if an incident occurs it can be dealt with in a way which helps reduce any negative impact to your charity’s reputation, staff and beneficiaries.

Charity trading can be an excellent way to raise funds, but if the trading activity does not further your charitable purpose, your charity may be liable to pay corporation tax on any profits made. We have extensive experience helping charities to structure and manage their trading activity including setting up a trading subsidiary. We can also assist you with putting the necessary agreements in place to document the shared use of property, staff and services if applicable.

We have a particular specialism in advising charities that hold substantial property assets and the complex historic trust arrangements that these can entail.

We are experienced in dealing with property issues that are bespoke to charities, such as holding and Custodian trustees of land, identifying and managing permanent endowment and designated land, Charity Commission Schemes in relation to property, amending trusts of property, advising on the rules that must be followed when disposing of, or mortgaging land under the Charities Act 2011.

Depending on your size, activity and degree of maturity, your charity will require tailored support when dealing with HR matters. The requirements range from assisting you on how to meet your legal obligations as employers to helping you deal with particular challenges, including relationships with volunteers. These can arise at an employee level, such as dealing with an individual’s poor performance or ill health, or at organisation-wide level such as the adoption of a new reward framework or restructuring.

For more information, get in touch with our Employment team.

We can guide your organisation to follow its procedures when a complaint or dispute arises. In some cases, trustees or members may need to be removed to protect your organisation and we can ensure that you follow your governing document and deal with such disputes as sensitively and quickly as possible. We can also advise you on amendments to your governing document to ensure that such difficulties can be dealt with more easily in future.

Disputes can and do arise, and when this happens it is important to ensure that they are dealt with sensitively and as quickly as possible. Our priority is to ensure that such disputes do not escalate unnecessarily but where legal action is necessary, our dispute resolution team will be able to help.

We know how increasingly vital legacy income is for charities, and how important it is to protect it – while navigating through the issues of risk, reputation and regulation. As a full service, Top 100 UK law firm we’re on hand to support our charity clients, partners and colleagues with innovative, cost-effective and tailored solutions. That’s HJ Legacy.

Estate and legacy administration

Our award-winning estate administration team is proud to be one of the largest and most well-known providers of legacy, estate and trust administration services in the UK. We work to strict service level agreements and have built-in, tailor-made processes to ensure beneficiaries receive their legacies as quickly as possible.

Will writing

As one of the largest providers of will writing in the UK, we provide services for charities, individuals and financial institutions across England and Wales and beyond. And, because we’re regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, your benefactors can be assured they’re in safe hands. We offer will writing services tailored to your specific needs, including online, telephone and face-to-face appointments.

Legacy disputes

Our market leading legacy will and estate dispute team advises charities across the whole range of will, trust and estate disputes and we offer a range of funding solutions tailored to your needs, from fixed fee and blended rates to retainer and ad hoc advice services. We understand that legacy officers and trustees have a challenging role; to manage risk, make the most of opportunities and ensure decision-making is in the best interests of the charity. With a proven track record of success, we can provide practical guidance on the options available when faced with a legacy dispute, helping to protect this much needed source of income.

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