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We provide a range of know-how materials about private client law for lawyers and others doing business in the UK, including:
PLC Private Client covers the following topic areas:
Claire White qualified in 1997 and worked in the private client practice at BP Collins until 2000, when she joined the private client department at Bircham Dyson Bell as an assistant, then associate solicitor. As a fee earner, Claire has worked as private client advisor as part of a multi-disciplinary team of lawyers for clients with considerable property, commercial and trust interests and she has extensive experience in estate planning, post-death planning and trusts from creation and administration to termination. In 2008, Claire joined Herbert Smith LLP as the professional support lawyer for their Private Wealth and Charities group and she joined PLC in September 2009 as head of PLC Private Client. Claire is currently a non-practising solicitor.
Carol Haworth qualified at Collyer Bristow in 2002, following a ten-year career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. On qualification she joined the private client department at Bircham Dyson Bell, where she became a senior associate and dealt with a wide range of trust and estate planning work, both onshore and offshore. She moved to PLC in March 2008. Carol is currently a non-practising solicitor.
Jacqueline Judge is a former solicitor. She qualified in 2001, following an eleven-year career as an archivist. On qualification she joined Stafford Young Jones, a small City practice, where her work covered probate, administration of trusts and estates and the Court of Protection. In 2005 she moved to Rooks Rider's private client department where she dealt mainly with probate. Jacqueline joined PLC Private Client in April 2008.
Neil Richardson qualified with Simmons & Simmons in 2000 and spent the following five years working as an assistant solicitor in their Private Capital Group, where he dealt with a range of onshore and offshore tax and trust matters. After a brief spell as an associate solicitor in the Tax Department at SJ Berwin LLP, he joined Clarke Willmott LLP in 2006 as their first Professional Support Lawyer in the private client field. Neil joined PLC Private Client in September 2010 and is currently a non-practising solicitor.
Adrian Pashley specializes in all aspects of charity law and practice and the application of corporate and commercial law to the charity and wider not-for-profit sector. His experience includes charity mergers and re-structuring projects and setting up Academy schools. He has worked as a senior lawyer in the education and charities team at Veale Wasbrough (now Veale Wasbrough Vizards) and in the charities teams at Bates Wells & Braithwaite and Blake Lapthorn. Adrian has extensive experience in lecturing and training and is a contributor to the ICSA Charities Handbook. Adrian joined PLC Private Client in October 2010 and is currently a non-practising solicitor.
Mary Ambrose qualified as a solicitor in 1992 following a career as a museum curator. She worked as a solicitor in the private client departments of Lovells (now Hogan Lovells) and Simmons & Simmons before joining Macfarlanes as a professional support lawyer where she worked in the private client department for eight years. She has dealt with a wide range of onshore and offshore tax and trust matters. She joined PLC in September 2011 after three years as an associate solicitor at Ashton KCJ in Cambridge.
Nisha Beerjeraz joined PLC in May 2010 and has been a paralegal in the Private Client team since September 2010 (having previously worked as a team leader in PLC's client relations team). She graduated in 2008 from Brunel University with a degree in law and completed the LPC at BPP Law School in 2009. She has undertaken pro bono work mainly covering intellectual property and housing law and worked as a paralegal in-house and for the Treasury Solicitors.
Chenaara Edghill-Peart graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2008 with a 2:1, LLB (Hons) Law. She moved abroad to do an LLM in Law at the University of Hong Kong, graduating in 2009. She is currently undertaking the part time BPTC at BPP law school, London and is due to be called to the Bar in 2012. She is a Member of Middle Temple Inn and winner of the Quatercentenary Scholarship in 2010. Chenaara joined PLC as a float paralegal in March 2010.
Serle Court, a leading private client chambers, are working in partnership with PLC Private Client as contributing editors. Seventeen members of chambers contribute materials to the service.
" Serle Court is delighted to be making such a major contribution to PLC's ground-breaking and valuable Private Client know-how service. Our members advise and appear across the common law world, and their recognised expertise covers not merely domestic and international trusts but also probate, claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family & Dependants) Act 1975 and charities. Because Serle Court's private client specialists are, at heart, litigators, they have a unique perspective - enabling them to provide other private client professionals with guidance which is both practical and incisive."
Sir Gavin Lightman, Arbitrator and Mediator, Serle Court
A free trial to PLC Private Client includes access to our practice notes, continually maintained standard documents and clauses with drafting notes, checklists and much more - all written by our experienced team of private client legal experts who know what life on the front line is like. See below for an example of the high quality content you could have access to.
A note on the review of the Charities Act 2006 being conducted by Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts. It covers the basis for the review and its terms of reference, tracks the progress of the review as a whole and lists specific matters for review, with links to relevant PLC resources.
This note is about the wide-ranging review of how the Charities Act 2006 is operating in practice currently being conducted by Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts. It covers the background to and basis for the review, and describes its terms of reference. It tracks the progress of the review as a whole and provides details of the 14 specific matters that are to be covered by the review, with links to relevant PLC resources.
The purpose of the Charities Act 2006 (ChA 2006) was to overhaul and modernise the law regulating charities (www.practicallaw.com/7-506-5262) in England and Wales. ChA 2006 sought to implement a majority of the recommendations for charity law reform made in a report, Private Action, Public Benefit, published in September 2002 by the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit (now defunct).
The majority of the provisions in ChA 2006 were implemented between 8 November 2006 and 1 August 2011. For details of the implementation of ChA 2006, see Private client legislation tracker: Charities Act 2006 (www.practicallaw.com/7-383-4113).
Many of the provisions in ChA 2006 amended the Charities Act 1992 (ChA 1992) and the Charities Act 1993 (ChA 1993). In this note, references to provisions of ChA 1992 and ChA 1993 are to those provisions as amended by ChA 2006. We have not referenced the original amending provisions.
ChA 1993 and most of ChA 2006 are consolidated by the Charities Act 2011 (ChA 2011) (see Charities Act 2011). Where provisions of ChA 1993 and ChA 2006 referred to in this note have been consolidated, we have provided links to the consolidated measures (see also Practice note, Charities Act 2011: destinations and origins (www.practicallaw.com/1-500-3644)).
Section 73 of ChA 2006 required the Minister for the Cabinet Office to appoint a person to generally review the operation of ChA 2006 within five years of the commencement of the Act (that was, by 8 November 2011). A report must be prepared and a copy laid before Parliament.
The review will consider only charity law in England and Wales with the exception of issues affecting charities that operate in more than one UK jurisdiction, see UK cross-border issues.
The review must address:
The effect of ChA 2006 on:
public confidence in charities; and
the willingness of individuals to volunteer.
The status of the Charity Commission (www.practicallaw.com/7-383-6372) as a government department.
Any other matters the Minister considers appropriate.
(Section 73(2), ChA 2006.)
On 8 November 2011, Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, announced that Conservative peer Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts will lead the review of ChA 2006.
Lord Hodgson will work without remuneration for one day a week on the review, with support from officials from the Office for Civil Society and an expert charity lawyer (Stephen Lloyd, senior partner of Bates Wells and Braithwaite).
Terms of reference for the review were published on 8 November 2011 (see Cabinet Office: Review of the Charities Act 2006: Terms of Reference).
The terms of reference state that the fundamental aim of the review is to understand how ChA 2006 is operating in practice, how effective it is, and whether the legal and regulatory framework for charities in England and Wales is fit for purpose now and in the future. The scope of the review is therefore very broad.
The terms of reference require the review to address the following three issues (while noting that formal recommendations should only relate to the third issue):
What is a charity and what are the roles of charities?
What do charities need to have and be able to do to fulfil those roles?
What should the legal framework for charities look like in order to meet those needs (as far as possible)?
In addressing these issues, the review should relate to the following core principles:
The need to maintain public trust and confidence in charities.
The need to maintain independence and diversity of the charity sector.
The need to ensure the sustainability and resilience of the sector.
The need to facilitate innovation and growth in the sector.
The review must also consider the 14 specific matters listed in the terms of reference that the charity sector and other stakeholders have indicated to the government that they wish the review to consider. For details of all of these matters, including links to relevant PLC materials, see Specific matters for review.
The terms of reference make it clear that the review may also consider any other matters in relation to charity law it sees fit. It may also consider other matters with the agreement of the Cabinet Office.
ChA 2011 received Royal Assent on 14 December 2011 and came into force on 14 March 2012.
ChA 2011 consolidates ChA 1993, the Recreational Charities Act 1958, most of ChA 2006 and other enactments that relate to charities. It updates the text and simplifies the structure of the existing legislation, but does not introduce or change the law.
The new licensing regime for public charitable collections (sections 45-66, ChA 2006; see Public charitable collections: licensing regime) is not consolidated into ChA 2011.
To review developments leading up to ChA 2011 being passed and to follow future progress, see Private client legislation tracker: Charities Act 2011 (www.practicallaw.com/7-383-4113). For tables showing the destinations and origins of provisions in ChA 2011, see Practice note, Charities Act 2011: destinations and origins (www.practicallaw.com/1-500-3644).
The Law Commission has announced a project to examine selected issues relating to the legal framework within which charities operate. The project will include an examination of issues:
Relating to charities structured as charitable corporations by Royal Charter or statute. (For further information about these forms of charity, see Practice note, What is a charity?: Legal structures for charity: an overview (www.practicallaw.com/6-503-5888).)
Arising from the review of ChA 2006.
The Commission is expected to start the project in late 2012 and intends to publish a consultation paper in late 2013.
For further details of this project and to follow developments, see Private client legislation tracker: Law Commission projects: Charity law reform (www.practicallaw.com/7-383-4113).
Our coverage of the progress of the review as a whole is set out in the following table:...
