James leads our nationally-recognised team of specialist charity and social enterprise sector lawyers and acts as the key relationship contact for many of our sector clients.
James is highly motivated by working with organisations supporting a huge variety of good causes, and all doing fantastic work. He takes pride in helping them achieve their social objectives and to increase the impact of what they do for the communities they serve.
Advising sector organisations on a broad range of matters, James can help with the formation of new organisations, getting the right legal structure, governance and constitutional considerations, incorporations, mergers, collaborations and other corporate transactions, charity law compliance and regulatory factors, fundraising and trading challenges, finance and social investment, and commercial agreements.
James, who qualified in 1996, is a solicitor and partner, an active member of the Charity Law Association, and a member of the certification panel which adjudicates on awards of the Social Enterprise Mark. He is recognised nationally for the great work he does with charities and social enterprises of all sizes, schools and other educational institutions, clubs, societies and other not-for-private-profit organisations.
James is a Band 4 ranked lawyer for Charities UK-wide in the Chambers legal directory for 2021. It describes James as being "frequently called upon to advise charities on their registration and incorporation, as well as various commercial issues. He has additional experience advising on contentious matters, such as intra-organisational conflicts and serious incident reporting." with one client saying James "draws upon his experience to provide an enhanced service and warn you about risks you haven't thought of."
James has also been recognised as a Leading Individual in The Legal 500 legal directory for 2021 in which they describe James as “experienced in assisting organisations with the obtainment of charitable status and advising charities on regulatory compliance”.
In addition to working with charities and social enterprises, he also helps private sector businesses and private individuals where they are engaging with the charity sector, for example in helping them set up new charities or corporate foundations.
Recent examples of work:
- Advising on the charity merger between the Marine Biological Association and the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation of Ocean Science (CPR survey)
- Advising the British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) on membership and governance arrangements
- Assisting national charity Libraries Connected (formerly Society of Chief Librarians) in successfully achieving charitable status
