Bates Wells Braithwaite: Heritage Alliance legal partner

The Heritage Alliance is delighted that Bates Wells Braithwaite (BWB) is now our legal partner. BWB is one of the UK’s leading law firms for charities and social enterprises, ranked in the top tier nationally by legal directories Chambers UK and Legal 500.

BWB is not only home to charity and commercial law experts, but has a specialised team of solicitors in Real Estate, Employment and Dispute Resolution, all of whom are genuinely passionate about the heritage sector. With an array of heritage clients, BWB has the expertise to advise on the full spectrum of issues, from governance and structure through to managing listed buildings.

BWB has a wealth of experience in supporting heritage organisations including the donation of heritage properties, fundraising and grants for maintenance and refurbishment of heritage properties and spinning out of heritage services from local authorities. BWB’s specialists can provide support at every stage in the process, from options appraisals, to reviewing legal and governance structures and updating these, undertaking due diligence and negotiating grant documents, transfer agreements and other documentation needed for transactions.

As part of its legal partnership with Heritage Alliance, BWB is offering each of our members a free 20 minute telephone call to discuss any legal issue.

If you would like to speak to someone from BWB please send a brief summary of your legal issue through to policy@dev.theheritagealliance.org.uk.

Calls will then be scheduled with a relevant expert depending on your particular issue. If the matter requires deeper consideration BWB would provide the first two hours of advice at a 20% discount on their already discounted charity and social enterprise rates, following this, any further advice would be provided at BWB’s standard charity and social enterprise rates.

BWB Get Legal is BWB’s online tool which allows users to build and customise legal documents to precise specifications, through a simple question and answer process.

Each document is drafted to the highest specifications by BWB, but is priced at about 10% of the cost of engaging a solicitor for the task.

Documents include employment contracts, a data protection policy and a staff handbook, and much more.

BWB is offering Heritage Alliance members the opportunity to “buy one document, get one free” (with the lower-priced document free).

BWB produces a variety of updates on key legal issues of relevance to Heritage Alliance members, these include:

• A weekly email update on key developments in the charity sector
• Regular professional newsletters and legal updates by email or in paper form
• Topical e-flashes on significant legislative changes or case law developments
• Invitations to free training seminars at our London offices on variety of legal issues
• Invitations to roundtable lunches on sector specific issues
• Low cost training sessions at our offices (or yours) where we explore subjects in more depth

You will be able to pick and choose which issues you receive information on from the below list:

• Charity & Social Enterprise
• Compliance
• Corporate / Commercial
• Data Protection / Freedom of Info
• Education
• Employment
• Environmental
• Faith-Based
• Health & Social Care
• Immigration
• Intellectual Property
• Media
• Legacies/Probate
• Governance Development
• Property
• Public
• Social Finance
• Sports
• Theatre & Arts
• Trustee Recruitment

You can sign up to receive these at bateswells.co.uk/newsletter

For more information on how Bates Wells Braithwaite can help your organisation, please contact Real Estate partner Jamie Huard.