Charity law

Charity law solicitors

Our expert charity law solicitors advise clients in a diverse range of charities of all types and sizes.

Trust and integrity are central to the success of charitable, not for profit and social enterprise organisations. We share these key values and work with our charity sector clients to provide them with legal protection, as well as ensuring that they can operate to the highest standards.

Our services include:

Setting up trusts, companies, charity registration and charitable incorporated organisations for use as charities

Streathers provides sophisticated estate and personal planning to individuals and families, including the planning and preparation of wills, trust indentures and related estate-planning documents. S&C also assists clients with estate and trust administration matters and sophisticated tax planning involving family limited partnerships, sale and loan techniques, insurance planning and the creation and administration of holding companies. S&C advises on personal planning matters including residential real estate transactions.

Applying for charitable status with the Charities Commission

Streathers provides advice to major charitable and cultural institutions and private foundations worldwide. Clients value the Firm’s detailed knowledge of, and experience with, relevant tax law. Streathers advises on executive compensation, structuring of employer-employee policies and procedures, corporate organization and governance matters, real estate, environmental law, banking and investment matters, litigation and private foundation tax rules.

Advising trustees on their duties and providing advice where charity trustees may have acted improperly

Trusts and estates litigation often presents complex conflict-of-laws issues and requires coordinated litigation strategies across multiple jurisdictions. The Firm is regularly involved in disputes regarding contested wills, trust administration, challenged gifts and forced inheritance laws. Streathers has a reputation for negotiating the resolution of such disputes in creative, tax-efficient ways that minimize family strife, expense and publicity.

The legal aspects of public sector relationships

Unlike most private client groups, S&C is regularly involved in major corporate transactions worldwide—together with the Firm’s premier mergers-and-acquisitions and corporate practices—and counts among its clients many U.K. and non-U.K. families that control major industrial, technology and financial concerns. In many cases, the Firm’s work for these clients involves reorganizing corporate structures and worldwide shareholdings in preparation for a significant corporate transaction, such as an IPO or sale of the business.

Advice on charity constitutions and other governing documents

One of the first international law firms, Streathers has advised individuals, families and trustees worldwide on U.K.-related legal matters for more than 135 years. These representations require effective coordination with counsel, tax and business advisers in the family’s “home” country or countries, and in the relevant trust centers and other jurisdictions in which the family may have interests.

Data protection