16 September 2025
Contributor: Stephanie Hepburn
15 September 2025
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Iain Drummond, Alejandro Coghill
15 September 2025
Contributor: Jonathan Carey
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Our Charities team includes people from several different areas of the business – such as employment, property and public sector – so that we provide high-quality and specific advice to our third-sector clients.
Those clients include high profile national charities, health care providers, universities and educational institutions, and several privately endowed charities. We advise them on a wide range of issues: constitutions; the creation, reorganisation and merger of charities; governance; charity trustee duties; and compliance, including interaction with the Charities Commission, OSCR and HMRC.
Because many of our lawyers are qualified in both Scotland and England & Wales, we can advise on both jurisdictions, including for charities that need to be registered with both The Charity Commission and OSCR.
We also help individuals and families who choose to create a charitable trust. Our full service includes advice on governance and compliance (including training for staff), preparation of annual accounts and of reports for the appropriate regulator, administering and paying donations, hosting meetings (including secretarial services), and assistance if the regulator launches an investigation. In short, everything apart from auditing the accounts, as this is legally required to be done by a third party.
All of this helps our clients to avoid the serious potential consequences of making mistakes. When a regulator carries out an investigation, it is obliged to publish its findings, and reputational damage can have a devastating effect on fundraising. If trustees do not carry out their duties correctly then the regulator can remove them and even take the charity off the register.
Our team also includes experts on wills, again in both Scotland and England & Wales. So if your charity is a beneficiary in a will, we can help you to fulfil your duties by advising on how that will should be interpreted and the legacy implemented in your favour.
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