The Legal 500 > United Kingdom - Solicitors > Yorkshire And The Humber > Charities and not-for-profit

The charity and social economy practice at Wrigleys Solicitors LLP, widely regarded as being at the top of its game, advises on the full gamut of legal issues, from governance, social investment and mergers, to property, ecclesiastical, health and heritage-based matters. The firm has strong connections to key sector bodies, including the Charity Commission, which it is advising on the improvement of their systems, as well as the Charity Law Association and the Charity Tax Group. Department head Malcolm Lynch , who has now been at the firm for almost two decades, has specific expertise in the area of community benefit and co-operative societies.

Addleshaw Goddard's multi-disciplinary private capital department is led out of the firm's Leeds base by Pervinder Kaur. Alongside traditional charity law advice, the team has a dual focus - charities with commercial arrangements, and commercial entities entering into arrangements with charities. The team operates hand-in-hand with the wider firm, drawing on Addleshaws' considerable national and international reach. The practice's work includes advising on investigations and inquiries, such as those conducted by the Charity Commission. Kaur works alongside Yorke Eaton and legal director Charlotte Smart, who also has a focus on educational organisations.

Hempsons’ charities and social enterprise team operates across the firm's four UK office, with the Yorkshire arm of the practice run out of the firm's Harrogate base. The practices combines its corporate and charities capabilities with the firm's wider expertise in health and social care. The local team is led by associate Helen Hirst, who joined the firm in 2018 from Schofield Sweeney, working in tandem with the 'very knowledgeable' national practice head Ian Hempseed  in London. The firm's credentials in the sector were underlined by its recent appointment by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as the prime contractor for GoMutual consortium to support new public service mutuals.

The 'extremely professional' charities and not-for-profit team at Irwin Mitchell is based in the firm's Sheffield office, from where it serves a national client base of specialist charities of varying sizes across all sectors – from leisure to religious, heritage, education and health charities. Laurence Gavin leads the practice, which has lately been particularly busy advising education charities during mergers. Other areas of intense activity include corporate governance and compliance.

Lupton Fawcett's charities and not-for-profit offering is organised among two groups across York, Leeds and Sheffield: the ecclesiastical and charities department and the charities and social enterprise Team, led by Mark Honeywell, who stepped up to lead the team on his promotion to partner last year. The former comprises a number of ecclesiastical law specialists, the majority of who also act as registrars for Yorkshire dioceses; while the latter provides 'seamless, responsive and flexible service' in matters of regulation, registration, collaborations and mergers, governance and trust law issues.

McCormicks' charity and not-for-profit team offers the full range of services to clients, advising on matters relating to asset transfers, property issues, sponsorship agreements, procurement and commercial litigation. Practice head Peter McCormick continues to act as a trustee for many charities, including the Football Foundation, which which receives millions of pounds of funding from the Premier League, the Football Association and the Government to deliver community projects at grassroots level.

Rollits LLP's Hull-based charities and social enterprise team is led by Gerry Morrison. The practice draws support from the firm’s commercial, corporate, property and disputes departments, enabling it to advise its clients - which include housing associations, education providers, museums, community benefit societies and healthcare providers – on the full spectrum of their needs. Other areas of focus include advising public bodies on their relationships with external charities, as well its work with education providers and multi-academy trusts.

The charities unit at Andrew Jackson Solicitors LLP assists local and regional organisations in a wide range of matters. The main area of expertise is advice in the process of obtaining charitable status, especially after refusals, when difficulties arise in demonstrating a public interest, or when aspects of the application are contended. The team also advises on the winding up and transfer of charities and in relation to Charities Act compliance. The team, led by Daniel Hammond, has a number of lawyers who act as trustees of several private and charitable trusts as well as partners in different areas, including real estate, litigation and dispute resolution, tax and commercial property.

At Schofield Sweeney, the firm has established education and academies as its sector of expertise within the charity arena, and is now developing its client base and growing with it. The team handles academy conversions, re-brokerages and reorganisations, and also offers a package to support organisations post conversion. This consists of, for example, advice relating to data protection, freedom of information, exclusions, special educational needs, litigation, commercial and procurement matters. The practice is led by commercial lawyers Chris Schofield (Leeds) and Andrew Hurst (Bradford).