Event Information

Christopher Graham is head of Watson Burton LLP’s Commercial Litigation, Fraud and Employment Teams and serves on the Management Committee of the North East Fraud Forum.

Chris oversees Watson Burton’s Investigations and Fraud team and who specialise in Directors duties, fraud and civil recovery.  This includes search and freezing orders coupled with disclosure obligations to identify misappropriated funds.  He is involved in investigations into serious fraud compliance and self-reporting.

His career has enabled him to build strong links with the police, governmental anti-fraud organisations and forensic accountants.  He also has experience of dealing with the Charities Commission and other regulatory bodies.  As a renowned expert in his field, Chis is regularly called upon to speak at seminars locally and nationally.

Sarah Atkinson joined the Charity Commission in June 2006 as Head of Corporate Affairs. She was appointed Director of Policy and Communications in October 2014. Before joining the commission, Sarah built her experience in communications and public policy in the private sector, most recently as Head of Public Affairs at Nationwide Building Society.

Sarah is a board member of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years and a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Professional Practices Panel. She has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Julia Unwin is an experienced, well known and respected senior strategic leader, with extensive professional leadership experience in the voluntary and public sectors, and corporate social responsibility. Julia has experience in the regulatory environment having served at a very senior level at the Housing Corporation, Charity Commission and, as Deputy Chair, and later Chair, of the Food Standards Agency and, until December 2016, CEO of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Malcolm Lynch is a partner in our charity and social economy team at Wrigleys Solicitors LLP.

Malcolm is a partner at Wrigleys and head of the Charity and Social Economy Team.  He is a charity commercial lawyer and was an executive committee member of the Charity Law Association until June 2013.  He qualified in 1983.

Malcolm advises a wide range of local, national and international charities on charity law and relations with the Charity Commission, charity trading, fundraising, legal structures, social investment, social enterprise, mergers and governance. He is known for his lateral thinking and innovative approach to clients' problems. 

He is recognised by the National Legal Directories, Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners, as an expert in Charity Law.  He is a trustee of Leeds Youth Opera. 

Sylvie is over 18 years qualified and is a partner at Wrigleys in our charity and social economy team. She advises on a wide range of charity law matters, including the establishment of charities, trustee duties and governance, restructuring, trading issues and setting up and running trading subsidiaries, fundraising and commercial participation, charity law considerations for religious organisations, issues concerning heritage charities (particularly stately homes), Gift Aid and general advice on tax-efficient giving (and anti-avoidance provisions), public benefit, issues facing schools, cross-border issues, disputes involving charities and mergers between charities.

Sylvie is recognised as a first tier charity lawyer (band 1) in the national legal directory Chambers & Partners and as a ‘leading individual’ in Legal 500. She is a member of the Charity Law Association, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and the Ecclesiastical Law Society, and is trustee and/or honorary company secretary of a number of charities and sector bodies.

Peter advises charities, their trading subsidiaries, public bodies, other not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises. His areas of work cover advising charities and social enterprises on:

• Raising social finance, including in relation to share and bond issues and other debt and equity investments.
• Structural transactions such as mergers, reorganisations and joint ventures.
• Operational matters including commercial contracts, data protection, intellectual property, agreements for services, subcontracting and funding arrangements.

Peter is a member of the Charity Law Association. 

Sue is a partner within our charities and social economy team at Wrigleys

Sue advises charities and other not for profit, voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises on all aspects of employment law including strategic issues involving TUPE and restructuring.

Sue has experience of advising on severance packages and on senior executive service agreements. She also represents employers throughout the Employment Tribunal process.

She manages Wrigleys HR Response, our telephone and email employment law helpline for charities including academies and independent schools.

Sue has over 20 years' experience advising on governance and contractual matters. Prior to joining Wrigleys, she was with Nabarro and then DLA Piper, both national law firms.

As a member of our Charities and Social Economy team, Sue advises charities, their trading subsidiaries, public bodies, other not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises. Her areas of work cover structural transactions such as mergers, reorganisations and joint ventures, and operational matters including agreements for services, subcontracting and funding arrangements. Sue also advises in relation to constitutional documents, project structures and matters of governance. She acts for a number of ancient grant making foundations.

In addition, Sue supports our tax planning experts by advising private individuals, particularly entrepreneurial clients and those with family businesses, in relation to company matters such as articles of association, shareholders' agreements and share structures, as well as on restructurings such as share issues and buybacks. She also advises our private clients on commercial joint ventures, LLPs and partnerships.

Sue is a charity trustee and a member of the Charity Law Association.

Duncan joined Wrigleys in 2016 from his previous post as Director and Head of Charities and Social Enterprises for a regional firm of solicitors. With over 20 years' experience in the sector, Duncan advises trust-based and corporate charities primarily on governance issues. He is a trustee of a number of charities, including St George's Crypt, Leeds. He is a trustee of the Real Junk Food Project and has in the past run his own 'surplus food cafe'.

Joanna Blackman is an associate in the charities and social economy team at Wrigleys

Formerly a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments, Joanna started her career as a fund manager, working for a number of years for fund management firms in London and nationally before re-training as a solicitor.

Joanna advises charities, their trading subsidiaries, and social enterprises on a wide range of charity law and other legal matters, including providing governance support and trustee training, advising on registrations and constitutional amendments, and structural transactions such as incorporations, mergers, and asset transfers. She has a particular interest in the health and social care sector, and specialises in advising almshouse charities and other charitable organisations with permanent endowment and complex or special trusts.

Joanna is a member of the Charity Law Association and is recognised as a Recommended Lawyer by the Legal 500 directory. She is also a trustee of a Leeds based charity which assists young people who are experiencing financial hardship by providing grants to support education and training.

Claris is a consultant working with Wrigleys’ clients nationwide.  Claris qualified as a Barrister in 1994 and has been advising charities for over 20 years. Previous experience includes working as a lawyer with the Charity Commission and as an in-house legal adviser for a registered charity, where she gained invaluable experience at the “coalface”.  Claris advises on a wide range of charity law issues including charity formations, incorporations, mergers and collaborations, trustees' powers and duties, public benefit, rationalising funds, handling and reporting serious incidents, governance reviews and dealing with the Charity Commission.

Claris has over eight years experience as a governor a charity trustee of a large charitable independent school and is currently a governor of an all-through academy school with 1300+ pupils. Claris has been on Bursary Campaign Committee for over 9 years which seeks to promote social mobility and she is also part of a task force looking into equality and diversity issues.

Claris regularly speaks at and chairs conferences about charity law and practice issues for the voluntary sector, lawyers and other professionals. She has written articles for amongst others Charity Finance, Third Sector and the Bursars' Review.

Nat is a partner in our charities and social economy team.

Nat has been at Wrigleys for 15 years, and specialises in charity law, including governance, Charity Commission consents, serious incident reporting, setting up charities and registering them with the Charity Commission, charity mergers and de-mergers, and trustee duties amongst other areas.  She works with all sorts of charities, and has a particular interest in faith-based charities and students’ unions.

Laura specialises in community-led housing and is developing her own cohousing scheme in South Cumbria. She also co-founded a community land trust and, until recently, sat on the board of the UK Cohousing Trust. She advises on legal structures, governance, charity law, contractual and commercial matters.