Charities

Members of Ten Old Square provide representation in some of the most prominent charity litigation in the UK and other common law jurisdictions.

Simon Taube KC is a star practitioner in this area and is ranked as a leading silk for Charities work in all the major legal directories. He is ranked as the only Band 1 Silk for Charities work by Chambers and Partners. Several of our barristers have also been selected to serve on the Attorney General’s panels of junior counsel to the Crown.

We act for charities and charity trustees across the charitable sector, in the UK and offshore. We also frequently act for executors, trustees and beneficiaries in trust and estates involving charities.

Contact Us

For more information or to instruct our barristers, please contact our clerks.

Call:: +44 (0)20 7405 0758
Email:: clerks@tenoldsquare.com

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Experience

Our barristers are involved in the full range of disputes and advisory work relating to charities.

This includes:

Claims against charity trustees for breach of trust or negligence
Interpreting and giving effect to charitable gifts in wills
Charity Commission investigations
Cy-près schemes
‘Charity proceedings’ under s 115 Charities Act 2011
Probate claims and disputes under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 involving charities
Advising executors on administering estates with charitable beneficiaries (including tax matters)
Claims on behalf of charities for due administration of estates
Statutory will and gifting applications in the Court of Protection involving charitable beneficiaries

Our barristers are also the authors of leading textbooks which deal with charity law issues, including Williams on Wills, Rossdale on Probate and the Administration of Estates, and Mellows: Taxation for Executors and Trustees.

Significant Cases

Key cases in which our barristers have been involved include:

Rittson-Thomas v Oxfordshire County Council [2021] UKSC 13, [2022] AC 129 (statutory reverter of school sites)
Bhamani v Sattar [2021] EWCA Civ 243 (meaning of ‘charity proceedings’ in a dispute about a place of worship)
Lehtimäki v Cooper [2020] UKSC 33, [2022] AC 155 (a leading case on several issues in modern charity law)
Shergill v Khaira [2017] EWHC 883 (Ch) (dispute relating to a Sikh temple)
University of London v Prag [2014] EWHC 3564 (Ch) (construction of the Warburg Institute’s trust deed)
AG v Charity Commission (The Poverty Reference) [2012] WTLR 977 (whether charities for the relief of poverty for a restricted group of beneficiaries met the public benefit requirement)
The Nina Wang litigation in Hong Kong