Specialist lawyers for social businesses

Community organisations face real legal complexity, and often with limited resources, from funding agreements and governance, to a whole host of employment-related challenges including TUPE, contracts, collaborative ventures.

We’ve been supporting community-led organisations for decades, so you don’t need to catch us up. We support the full lifecycle including formation, growth, restructure or merger. Whether you’re a tenant management organisation (TMO), Locality member, community-based organisation or community land trust network (CLT), our experienced communities team and co-operatives lawyers bring additional depth where it is needed the most.

From grassroots football and rugby clubs, to community leisure centres, we help sports groups access funding and get governance right.

As experienced charities and social enterprises solicitors, we’re trusted by clubs, local authorities and funders alike to access funding, set up sharp governance structures and secure long-term success.

We advise on Sport England applications, Community Ownership Fund bids, Lottery and Football Foundation grants, and governance structures including CASCs, CIOs and CICs.

We’re big supporters of marrying growth and governance in ways that matter most to communities, from on ground ownership and investment, to facility redevelopment and supporter-led investments, our track record is strong.

We are market leaders in co-operative and mutual law. We advise retail societies, housing co-operatives, multi-stakeholder organisations and national bodies across a wide range of sectors. Our co-operatives lawyers bring genuine depth, from democratic governance and member accountability to innovative co-operative capital structures and platform co-operatives.

We don’t just advise co-operatives. We advocate for them. From Westminster policy conversations to grassroots governance, we’re shaping the sector’s future as actively as you are.

Where success is everyone’s. Employee Ownership Trusts help succession strengthen culture, rather than disrupt it. EOTs offer a tax-favourable, values-aligned route to succession or growth, protecting culture, rewarding employees and securing long-term independence.

EOTs work for founder successions, public service spin-outs, start-ups and recovery situations, with significant added tax advantages too.

Our employee ownership trusts lawyers guide you through every stage of the process. They carry out model assessments, pre-transaction restructuring, trust setup, share transfer, employee engagement and HMRC compliance.

When people are your superpower. EOTs can be the structure that turns great employees into great owners.

B Corp certification demands more than good intentions. It requires governance, contract, operational policies that hold up to scrutiny, and importantly care.

Our B Corp lawyers and B Corp solicitors help you build legal foundations that make certification achievable, authentic and not as daunting. As a B Corp ourselves, our social enterprise lawyers bring lived experience to every action and every instruction.

Because the legal architecture of a business for good isn’t just paperwork, it’s the difference between purpose that’s powerful and purpose that peters out.