Withers Bergman LLP

Providing legal services to charities has always been a core area of work at Withers. Our team helps not-for-profit organizations at every stage of their development involving lawyers from many of the firm's different practice areas.

We are recognized as one of England's leading charity law practices. We act for many of the UK's top charities and are frequently referred work by other lawyers and intermediaries because of our in-depth knowledge of charities and the laws that apply to them.  We have particular experience in relation to charities operating in the fields of education, healthcare and the arts.

Many of our charity and philanthropy team are themselves charity trustees, giving our team a very real insight as to the concerns, governance and aspirations of not-for-profit organizations.

We are privileged to have one of the largest portfolios of charity clients in the UK and act for 60% of the Top 50 UK charities by income, according to Caritas and 20% of the Sunday Times Giving List.  We work with a broad spectrum of clients, including well-known registered charities such as the British Red Cross Society, the NSPCC and Macmillan Cancer Support, exempt charities and public bodies such as The TATE and the UK Film Council. We act for more NHS-related charities in the UK than any other firm. We also help to set up new charities for clients ranging from entrepreneurs, wealthy families and companies to existing charities with innovative ideas for making a difference.

Recent work
 

• Assisting with the establishment of US/UK dual qualified charities for the NSPCC and RNLI.
• Working with the British Olympic Foundation and the British Olympic Association on the structuring of their charitable activities in the light of London's successful bid to host the 2012 Games.
• Advising the British Red Cross Society on various issues, including their leading role in operating the London Bombings Relief Fund, the UK's National Floods Appeal and their reconstruction work in Indonesia following the Asian Tsunami.
• Advising Yale University on negotiating and drafting various economic development agreements with a municipality and its economic development corporation.
• Advising the Girls' Day School Trust on its ground-breaking conversion of two fee-charging schools to Academies and working with the Trust on its international joint ventures in India and China.
• Advising private foundations on domestic and foreign grantmaking, program related investments and structuring loans to public charities.
• Working with Macmillan Cancer Support on its re-branding.
• Advising on the merger of GuideStar UK and Civil Society Systems to form GuideStar International.
• Representing a 501(c)(3) organization in connection with the sale of approximately $700 million of operating assets to a for-profit purchaser.
• Advising a prominent New York healthcare organization on property tax exemption issues and on a $100 million secured financing.
• Advising 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations on impermissible political activities and 501(h) elections.
• Drafting applications for private letter ruling requests on a variety of tax matters, including obtaining church status for St. Regis Hospital and allowing a private foundation to make a liquidating distribution to an entity abroad.

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to enhancing diversity within the workplace.

We recognize and value the benefits that a diverse workforce can bring to the organization. Diversity is not limited to gender and ethnicity, and includes factors such as religion or belief, disability, age, marital status and sexual orientation. All our employees and Partners are responsible for the promotion and advancement of equality and diversity within the Firm.

Much of our work on diversity in the last three years has been about putting good monitoring tools in place to ensure that we understand where the gaps are within our workforce, making changes to our strategies and communicating our policy on equal opportunities and diversity to our staff and training those involved in managing and recruiting others.

Since 2002, Withers has experienced a period of growth. The expansion of our client base has highlighted our clients' need for a highly skilled and diverse workforce. The business need to support diversity is evident and Chris Priestley (a Partner in our Commercial group) has been nominated to ensure that Diversity is high on the partnership agenda.

Diversity Audit

In 2006 we undertook our first diversity audit of our workforce, monitoring age, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity and disability. New joiners are monitored on an ongoing basis. Our diversity statistics are published below.

Communication of our commitment to Diversity

Each year our staff are asked to acknowledge their understanding of and commitment to the Firm’s Equal Opportunities Policy as part of our annual audit.

Our Supervisors and Partners receive training to ensure they understand their obligations in implementing our equal opportunity policy in the workplace.

In addition, all interview panelists are trained in the Firm’s approach to diversity and given guidance on our structured skill based approach to interviewing.

Promotion and Access to Development

Opportunities for promotion are communicated and made available to all staff on a fair and equal basis. A skills framework is used in all promotion, appraisal, and pay discussions to ensure a consistent and fair approach across the Firm.

Selection of candiates for promotion to 'Of Counsel or Partner' status is undertaken by a panel of Withers Partners, whose selection decisions are based upon technical expertise and pre-defined partner competencies.

Training is made available to all staff and Partners in line with our business needs. Training needs are recognized formally via our appraisal process, which is objective and skill based, to ensure a fair and equal approach.

Recognition for Diversity

Withers was ranked 2nd (out of the top 100 law firms) for having a high percentage of female equity partners in The Lawyer Career Report Survey 2006.

Withers also ranked 2nd (out of the top 50 firms) for Diversity with respect to women and ranked 1st for Diversity with respect for Gay and Lesbians in the Vault survey 2006.