Practising charity and social enterprise law

Working as a charity and social enterprise lawyer is varied and challenging, and many lawyers in this field go home after a day at the office feeling good about being a small part of the fantastic things that their clients are achieving. Pippa Garland of Bates Wells Braithwaite is one such lawyer – read on as she describes what it means to work in this rewarding sector.

Charity and social enterprise law is a wonderfully diverse and eclectic area that is attractive to a wide range of law students, including me not so long ago!

Why? Well, because charities, other not-for-profit entities and social enterprises including campaigning bodies, community sports clubs, faith-based organisations and educational establishments cover the whole spectrum of human interest and endeavour. They interest those whose passions range from the arts and culture to religion/spirituality, from the environment to international development, from human rights to sport.

There are a wide variety of charities and social enterprises. Some people hear 'charity' and think only of community groups run by volunteers rather than paid staff. These sorts of charity are vital to underpinning the sector and meeting local needs, but at the other end of the spectrum there are charities with turnovers of tens of millions of pounds, managed and operating on a highly professional and commercial basis. Many of these charities will have trading subsidiaries to carry out the business activities that the charity is unable to undertake. This can include venturing into the realms of social finance to find alternative ways to fund the organisation’s good causes, while offering a return to investors at the same time.

As an aside, we are often asked, "What is a social enterprise?". There is no single accepted legal definition, though a number of statutes contain definitions which apply in particular circumstances. It is possible to define social enterprise broadly to include any business venture that pursues trading activities intended to result in social or environmental benefits, which includes a charity with a trading subsidiary. This is a rapidly growing sector. There are now around 10,000 community interest companies which have embedded features that mean that legally, they must act for the community benefit and their assets are locked for that end, but they can still distribute limited profits to investors.

So, what does a charity and social enterprise lawyer do? At Bates Wells Braithwaite (BWB), where I am an associate in the charity and social enterprise team, we see ourselves as business lawyers who act for charities and social enterprises.

This is because charity law is not simply a narrow sub-section of trust law and therefore a lesser bedfellow of the private client department. BWB, under Andrew Philips its founder (now Lord Phillips of Sudbury in the House of Lords) and later under senior partner Stephen Lloyd, pioneered a new way to be a charity lawyer, establishing it as a dynamic discipline in its own right. Social enterprise, drawing on entrepreneurial and philanthropic underlying principles, is a rapidly developing area and there are few law firms with solicitors who are dedicated to advising on its ins and outs. BWB sees itself as particularly innovative in the social enterprise sector, and indeed, came up with the idea for the community interest company which has revolutionised this area.

Keeping abreast of recent developments is obviously important, but the most important attribute for a charity and social enterprise lawyer is genuine passion and interest in the voluntary sector or businesses seeking to do more than simply generate profit. This will give you, effortlessly and naturally, the empathy that is required for successful and enduring client relationships. One of the aspects of working in this area that I enjoy most is the opportunity to meet wonderfully interesting and stimulating clients - many of whom have taken a leap of faith and imagination to put into place their particular vision of a better and more just society. It is a privilege to help them to achieve their goals.

My particular area of sector expertise is international non-governmental organisations and development, and just over half of my clients work in this area. This sector focus means that I work with lawyers with other specialisms (including property, employment and dispute resolution) that also have this sector focus on a regular basis. Other sector focuses include the environment, arts and faith-based organisations. We even have a campaigning and elections unit which advises on political activity undertaken by our clients.

You are still expected to muck in on a wide range of matters and to advise on a broad spectrum of issues. In terms of particular legal attributes, a junior charity and social enterprise lawyer is a generalist rather than a specialist as our clients have diverse needs from advice on governance and relationships with the Charity Commission or Community Interest Company regulator, to tax and VAT, contracts, mergers, partnerships, fundraising, intellectual property, events, competitions and lotteries, trading, finance and more. While each lawyer in the team has particular areas of specialisation, it is important for everybody to have a general overview. One important reason for this is costs; charities and social enterprises are accountable to their stakeholders including beneficiaries, donors, members of the public and, for charities, the Charity Commission. They are (as they should be) acutely costs conscious and do not want vast teams of lawyers involved in every problem. This also means that as a junior lawyer, you are given about as much responsibility as you can handle - although you are of course carefully supervised by a more senior lawyer.

Other skills required by those who practise in this area are the ability to think on your feet and to be pragmatic and practical, without at the same time compromising on intellectual vigour and thoroughness. As well as giving advice as a solicitor in the traditional solicitor-client relationship, charity and social enterprise law allows you to diversify your skills base. BWB has an excellent reputation for education and training in the sector, and provides all sorts of courses, seminars and lectures for charity trustees, employers and advisers with our partners, including the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the Institute of Fundraising and the Directory of Social Change. You are encouraged as a junior lawyer to deliver lectures and seminars when you can as part of giving back to the sector, which is excellent experience (albeit a little scary at first!).

There are almost limitless opportunities to undertake pro bono work to support organisations and causes that you are particularly passionate about. This includes being encouraged to sit on the board of a charity or social enterprise so you get hands-on experience of what it is like to participate in some of the decisions that our clients make every day.

Having said all of this, the usual rules for working in private practice do still apply from regulatory requirements to recording time and meeting targets.

If you are interested in practising charity law or working with social enterprises, first of all, get involved in the sector. Why not volunteer for a local charity or social enterprise or even offer to serve on a board as a trustee or director - this would be invaluable experience as well as giving you a fantastic grounding in basic legal principles. You could also offer to shadow an in-house lawyer in a charity, which would give you a good understanding of how charities work on the ground.

Who are the best firms in the field to practise charity law? Naturally I am biased. BWB is seen as dynamic and innovative and, according to one recent survey, "renowned for its expertise in charity law" and "cutting-edge advice on social enterprise". But there are other excellent possibilities. Farrer & Co has a great reputation and is closely allied to Ann-Marie Piper, who set up the Charity Law Association. Other options include (in no particular order) Russell-Cooke, Stone King and Withers.

Pippa Garland is an associate in the charity and social enterprise team of Bates Wells Braithwaite. Email her at [email protected] if you would like to know more about charity and social enterprise law.