Bates Wells & Braithwaite has taste for sweet charityLEAGUE TABLE: Tate Gallery, British Red Cross among clientsCity firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite has come top of a league table of leading charity solicitors, with more than twice as many clients in that sector as its nearest rival.The Dresdner RCM Global Top 3000 Charities guide found that the firm lists the Tate Gallery and the British Red Cross Society among its 122 charity clients; fellow London firm Farrer & Co was second, with 56 charity clients, including The Princes Trust and National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Charles Russell and Eversheds were third and fourth respectively.

Completing the top ten were London firms Withers, Sinclair Taylor & Martin and Bircham Dyson Bell, Bath firm Stone King, Witham Weld, also in London, and top City practice Nabarro Nathanson.

Rising commercial pressures on charities have resulted in increasing workloads for their lawyers and growing client numbers across the board, according to Stephen Lloyd, head of the charities department at Bates Wells & Braithwaite.He said this has led to consolidation, as charitable clients look for specialists.

There are more professionals and higher expectations in the sector.

Charities are feeling the need to respond to this, beginning with looking at their lawyers.

Stone King, unplaced in 1998, now figures in eighth position.

Partner Michael King attributed this rise in the number of clients to charities realising they are no longer a public trust, but now a public body.

He continued: We now specialise in charity work following the increase in its volume and the fact that I cant see it decreasing in the near future.Andrew Towler