Lighting the way:the Shell building in London, lit up with poppies for Remembrance Day 2003 Charity lawyers say their sector is a great one to work in – and charities are now big business and must operate on commercial lines, writes Nigel Hanson


As MPs and peers knuckle down to pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Charities Bill this summer, there is at least one issue that need not detain them: job satisfaction among charity lawyers.


For practising charity law, it seems, is already as good as it gets. Specialist charity law solicitors simply love their work. They love their clients. They love one another – even if they are competing for the same instructions.


And they pride themselves on their common sense, a quality that sometimes gets lost in other branches of the profession. Take Michael King, a partner at Bath and London-based Stone King, who moved into charity law 15 years ago from broad general practice.


He struggles to identify any drawbacks at all with charity work, saying: ‘I think it’s a fantastic job. You are meeting people who have a particular purpose and who have – this may sound an odd word – a soul.


‘They are people who have values that they want to pursue for the benefit of the community.


‘Obviously we don’t get paid as much as company and commercial lawyers, but why should we? That’s fine, that’s the market.’


Mr King, a former chairman of the Charity Law Association (CLA) whose firm undertakes a lot of religious and educational charity work, refers to CLA members at other law firms as ‘a delightful bunch of lawyers’.


‘They are rivals,’ he says, ‘but it’s not cut-throat rivalry.’


The CLA has 750 members, including accountants and financial advisers. Its expertise has been put to good use over the past three years in the consultation over the forthcoming legislation. A joint committee of both Houses of Parliament is now putting the finishing touches to the draft Bill, accepting written evidence from interested parties until 15 July with a view to securing a new Charities Act in 2005.


At present, the key proposals in the Charities Bill include expanding the existing four heads of charitable purpose – advancement of religion, advancement of education, relief of poverty and other purposes of benefit to the community – to a total of 12 categories.


Among the most eye-catching on the list are ‘the advancement of citizenship or community development’ – which expressly includes the ‘promotion of civic responsibility’ – and ‘the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation’, which Mr King predicts will soon see Amnesty International gain charitable status.


The presumption of public benefit is to be scrapped, meaning all charities will have to demonstrate that they do indeed benefit the community.



There will be wide regulatory powers for the Charity Commission and a new Charity Appeal Tribunal, along with new rules on charity mergers and treatment of donations under the cy pres doctrine – the rule that when literal compliance is impossible, the intention of a donor or testator should be followed as nearly as possible.



Charities will be able to adopt a new corporate structure as a ‘charitable incorporated organisation’ (CIO) in order to avoid cumbersome dual regulation under both company and charity law.


In addition, there will be new rules on remuneration of trustees, power to spend capital and the regulation of street collections.


The proposals, unveiled at the end of May, were described as ‘urgent modernisation’ of the law by Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart, who said at the time that the government was committed to a diverse, expanding and vibrant voluntary sector.


‘We are achieving this by helping charities to realise their full potential to change lives and help transform communities,’ she said.


Judith Hill, head of London firm Farrer & Co’s charity and community team, who began her career in trusts law, disapproves of any attempt by government to bask in the reflected glory of the voluntary sector.


She says: ‘The point of charities is that they should be independent of government. Generally, they are already innovative and vigorous organisations. We don’t want to get to the situation where the govern-ment controls the voluntary sector.’


The potential for over-regulation is also an issue raised by Stephen Lloyd, chairman of the CLA and head of the charity team at London firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite.


He is concerned that the Charity Commission could become too proactive and interventionist in its role as regulator over the next decade. He has commissioned a study from the London School of Economics comparing the commission’s powers with those of other regulatory bodies such as the Financial Services Authority.


But concerns about the likely effects of the new legislation do not seem to dampen enthusiasm within the sector. Ms Hill is also a former CLA chairwoman who now heads the association’s working party on law reform.


She says charity lawyers are genuinely interested in their work and often act pro bono outside office hours because they care. ‘We all want charity law to work. My experience is that lawyers in this sector are nice people and their clients are nice people.


‘It’s a very friendly environment in which to practice. We vie with one another for work but there’s no unpleasantness.’


Even better, perhaps, Ms Hill says the charity sector is now ‘enormous’, and charities are increasingly prepared to pay top rates for the best advice.


‘It isn’t a sideline to calm the consciences of corporate lawyers,’ she says. ‘The days when charities felt squeamish about lawyers’ fees are long gone. Charities are big business. They increasingly need to operate on commercial lines.


‘Their motivation is rather different, but they need proper advice and they realise there’s no point muddling along and having to pay five times as much later to get things put right.’


Such positive appraisals of life in the charity trough amount to a glowing prospectus for anyone considering a career move.


So what are the skills required of a would-be charity lawyer?


Lloyd: concerned about over-regulation According to Mr King – who specialised after a background in commercial property, company mergers, probate and family law – charity specialists need broad legal knowledge and good peripheral vision. They could be called on to handle anything from tax and property matters to insolvency and employment.

He says: ‘As a profession, we have to ensure that sufficient young people think of charity law as something they can follow, because it’s a very interesting area, but they have got to be quite broad and lateral thinkers.


‘Quite often, a charity seeks advice about one thing and then you see it’s something else that is the real problem – and you either deal with that yourself or refer it to another specialist if necessary.’


On job satisfaction, Mr Lloyd agrees that charity clients are a pleasure to work with. ‘They are an amazing amalgam of people. An awful lot aren’t interested in just making money; they also want to change the world, so they have a different scale of values.’


The downside, in his view, is that clients can be ‘a bit woolly’; some are hard to get hold of on a Friday afternoon, and they often share the legal advice letters they receive with other charities, undermining law firms’ precious intellectual property rights.


It is clear that charity law continues to appeal to solicitors in both the early and late stages of their careers. Hannah Candlin, an assistant solicitor at London firm Speechly Bircham who qualified six years ago, is sold on the subject.


She says: ‘I am trying to do more and more of this kind of work. The clients are interesting and varied – it’s much more interesting than any of the areas I’ve worked in. And when it comes to dinner party conversations, it’s more interesting than what colleagues are involved in. It’s the range of work and the people you meet.’


A bad day at the office, in her experience, is when two charities fall out over whether one should be allowed to continue using an asset free of charge, or when the Charity Commission cannot find documents filed a few years ago.


Meanwhile, after more than 30 years in the field, John Hughes, a consultant and former partner at Speechlys, particularly likes the fact that he can continue acting as a trustee in his spare time for charities that he helped to set up years ago, such as The Abbado European Young Musicians Trust and Radio Lollipop, which now operates in seven UK children’s hospitals as well as hospitals in Australia, New Zealand and the US.


Work for charity lawyers shows no sign of drying up. The new legislation is likely to spawn fresh work for the top firms as charities grapple with the changes.


Many private schools, for example, are known to be worried about losing charitable status. Some may not be able to show how they benefit the public, warns Ms Hill.


‘The question is: who are the public?’ she says. ‘For the top independent schools, I don’t see a difficulty. They are already providing enormous public benefit with facilities being used by the public, links with state schools, and scholarships.


‘But for some smaller schools, there could be quite an issue. They haven’t got the money. Parents at these schools aren’t so keen on fees being spent on others.’


With potential new income streams, what does the future hold for the sector as a whole?


Mr Lloyd says: ‘I think the market will remain steady, with some lawyers in demand in the short term because of the new law. There’s likely to be increased specialisation. Those firms that are doing a little bit of charity work will find it difficult, but specialist firms should do well.’


In line with his prediction, Stone King, which was joined by charity law specialists from City firms Simmons & Simmons in 2000 and Stephenson Harwood in 2001, is planning to expand its charity team from six to ten fee-earners over the next year.


As Mr King puts it: ‘You have to take it seriously and specialise. And you have to keep your common sense.’



Nigel Hanson is a freelance journalist