Charities Solicitor

Job Description

Charity Solicitor - senior associateLeading Legal 500LondonExcellent remuneration packageThe firm wishes to recruit a Solicitor with significant experience in Charity work to join the firms successful and growing Private Client Department as a Senior Associate.Duties and ResponsibilitiesThe Charities practice is encompassed within our Private Client department, and the practices of all Partners in the team include advice to Charities and their Trustees as well as advice to Private Clients generally on their Philanthropic giving and testamentarywishes. You will be expected to assist Partners in giving this advice, alongside more general estate planning advice and the preparation of testamentary documents.Your primary focus will be on Charity work, and on helping the firm to develop a standalone Charities practice. This will be built on our strong history of acting for a number of very large Charities, and dealing with reporting accounting and compliance formany more. This firm have recently had a partner join them from a very large firm, bringing with him a large and important Charities practice, and he acts as Trustee or Protector for many internationally renowned, and very well endowed Charities. They arelooking for someone who will be a good support to the new partner, and become the go-to Charity practitioner for the firm.You will be expected to be able to prepare constitutional documentation for Charitable Trusts, Companies and CIOs, policies, agreements, deeds of gift and covenant, on occasion working closely with members of the firms Corporate Department. This may includeadvice on a Charitys commercial engagement and brand exploitation, GDPR and data protection. You will need to be able to deal with applications to register Charities in the UK, advise on regulatory and compliance issues, dealing with Charity land and specialendowments, the merger and restructuring of schemes and other applications to the Charity Commission, and assisting with bringing and rebutting complaints. You will further need to be aware of cross-border issues affecting Charities, and be able to liaiseas necessary with advisers in other jurisdictions.This may include advice on inheritance tax and capital gains tax, income tax and Gift Aid issues (including potential mitigation strategies), as well as VAT and SDLT, working with the Departments trust and tax team.You should have a strong background in Private Client and Charity work, and a good knowledge of tax, Company and Trust law, and Charity law generally.Private ClientThe Private Client department has two sections, the legal section and the tax and trust section. The legal section consists of solicitors and legal executives (the latter specialising exclusively in probate and estate administration), and the trust and taxsection comprises qualified and unqualified trust and tax accountants and practitioners. Across the sections we work closely together on our clients affairs so as to provide a seamless service.The department, numbering 40, comprises seven Partners, ten Associates, two Legal Executives, one Professional Support Lawyer, nine Tax and Trust Managers, one Trainee Solicitor, four Apprentices and six Secretaries.The IndividualYou should have the following attributes:* A confident, personable nature* The ability to be proactive and reactive in addressing clients affairs and requirements* Strong communications skills and an ability to work as part of a team* A track record of achieving minimum time targets and meeting regular billing requirements* The desire and ability to keep abreast with changes in legislation and market developments* A strong interest in the Not-for-profit sector, both in the UK and internationally, and extra-curricular experience of working with and supporting charitable endeavours is desirablePlease apply as directed or contact Catherine Knowles on for a confidential discussion.