CharityHigher Education and Commercial Trusts Lawyer; –PQE

Description

Charity/Higher Education and Commercial Trusts Lawyer (26 Years PQE)

BIRMINGHAM GLASGOW EDINBURGH MANCHESTER LEEDS LONDON

Brief

This is an excellent opportunity for a lawyer to join our Charities & Higher Education and Commercial Trusts practices.

It is recognised that candidates may bring more experience in one of these areas and be interested in developing expertise in others. The role can to some extent be shaped around the successful candidates experience interests and development goals with training and support provided from senior lawyers in the firm.

Location

The role is available in any of our UK offices. A willingness to travel periodically to Birmingham would be required to meet with the wider team who are predominately based there.

The Team

The role sits within a specialist team which forms part of the wider Higher Education team but the work is highly collaborative and will involve working closely with colleagues across the firm. You will have the opportunity to build strong relationships across the firm and contribute to a varied cross-practice workload.

This role would suit someone who enjoys technically interesting work and wants to develop a broad transferable skill set within a market-leading international firm.

The key areas of work are summarised below:

The team provides strategic specialist charity law advice with a particular focus on higher education clients as part of the firms well regarded Higher Education team - helping themto reconcile the requirements of charity law with often complex and innovative projects.

We advise across the full range of charity issues including in relation to constitutional matters governance gift acceptance and the structuring of commercial activities investments and joint ventures. These may be either standalone projects or supporting larger transactions.

In particular the Universities and Higher Education Regulatory and Governance team (led by our Birmingham Head of Office) regularly advises universities and other higher education institutions on the charity law implications of commercial activities including the establishment and structuring of subsidiary companies spin-out arrangements licensing of intellectual property and revenue-generating partnerships. This includes advising on the scope of charitable powers the application of the private benefit doctrine and ensuring that commercial arrangements are structured in a manner consistent with the institutions charitable objects and regulatory obligations.

The team has extensive experience providing charity law support on university mergers and institutional restructurings an area in which the firm has a market-leading reputation. This work involves advising on the interaction between charity law requirements and the statutory and regulatory framework governing higher education mergers including the application of charitable assets the transfer of restricted funds and endowments and the constitutional steps required to give effect to a merger such as amendments to royal charters the making of statutory instruments and obtaining Privy Council and Charity Commission approvals.

The team also has significant experience advising universities and other higher education institutions on governance and constitutional matters including amendments to governing documents. We regularly advise on regulatory and compliance issues arising from the higher education regulatory framework including engagement with the Office for Students and on broader governance reviews board effectiveness and the structuring of academic and corporate decision-making arrangements.

The team also works with the education finance team on issues arising from lending to charities including the scope and application of charitable powers.

Our commercial trusts work is market leading and closely connected with the firms insurance financial services and pensions practices. The work is varied and includes drafting suites of documents advising on technical issues and supporting clients on development of innovative products and services. Much of it involves collaboration with colleagues across the firm particularly our Insurance & Regulatory team

It includes:

• Advising many of the UKs leading insurers on the development and structuring of new trust propositions in connection with their protection and wealth products
• Advising healthcare trust administrators (e.g. Axa Bupa) regarding technical issues…