Withers Worldwide

Overview

In addition to providing advice to a number of ‘household name' charities and charities with City livery connections on governance and operational issues, Clive leads the philanthropy practice at Withers, advising both charities and donors in relation to tax-efficient giving and funding.

His practice extends beyond the domestic to the cross-border context and encompasses advice on venture philanthropy, social investment and the structuring of transactions involving charities and others so as to deliver maximum social benefit.

Clive acted in two leading High Court cases concerning trustees' powers and duties: Hillsdown Holdings plc v. Pensions Ombudsman (1996); and Public Trustee and Anor v. Cooper and Ors (1999) and has been acknowledged as a major contributor to the debate concerning the powers of trustees to adopt a socially responsible approach to the investment of their funds.

He is the firm's nominated officer for money laundering reporting purposes and, as chair of the STEP Anti-money Laundering Task Force, has been involved in discussions with HM Treasury, MEPs, the European Commission and the Financial Action Task Force of the OECD regarding the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

In the latter role, he was a recipient of an outstanding achievement award at the STEP 2007 Private Client Awards for his role in securing key amendments to the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 at draft stage. His combination of knowledge and experience in the fields of trust and charity law, on the one hand, and money laundering and terrorist financing issues, on the other, has been described as ‘unique'.

Highlights

Clive is currently advising a number of foreign charitable bodies, including US and other foreign universities, in relation to English charity and related tax law issues. In recent years, much of his work has involved the establishment of US/UK dual qualified charity structures both for institutions and for donors exposed to both UK and US tax. He is standing English legal adviser to Geneva Global Inc and to its wholly owned subsidiary Geneva Global (Europe) Limited.

Publications and speaking engagements

Clive recently collaborated with German lawyers on the English chapter of a book entitled ‘Handbuch des Internationalen Stiftungsrechts' (Zerb Verlag, 2007) and has been commissioned by Cambridge University Press (with Alison Paines) to edit a new book entitled ‘The Law and Practice of International Charitable Giving'.

He is one of the editors of Sweet & Maxwell's ‘Practical Trust Precedents' and ‘Practical Will Precedents' and contributes chapters on governance to Tolley's ‘Charities Manual'.  In addition to writing for the national press, he regularly lectures (both within the UK and overseas) and contributes to leading technical publications on his areas of practice.

Recent engagements include:· 

•  'Specific Uses of Charities in the USA and England'- 18th Oxford Offshore Symposium (Oxford, September 2008)
•  'Setting Effective Policies for Customer Due Diligence' - Anti Money Laundering Compliance for Law Firms Conference (London, June, 2008)
• Effective structuring for Family Philanthropy' - Withers Family Office Roadshow (Zurich, Geneva and Milan, May 2008)
• 'Cross Border Giving' - Lexis Nexis Charity Taxes Conference (London, March 2008)
• 'Examining Money Laundering Policies for Charities' - Lexis Nexis Charity Taxes Conference (London, March 2008)
• 'Effective Structuring for Family Philanthropy' -  Withers Family Office Seminar (London, October 2007)
• 'Getting the most money into the Pot: Tax efficient charitable giving' - Coutts Philanthropy Forum (London, October 2007)
• 'First steps in Family Philanthropy: Getting the Structure Right' - Campden Family Philanthropy Forum (London, October 2007) 
• ‘Specific Uses of Charities in the USA and England' - 17th Offshore Oxford Symposium (Oxford, September 2007)
• ‘Money Laundering and Charities' - STEP Charities Special Interest Group (London, April 2007)·
• ‘The Charities Act 2006' - Tolley's Charity Tax Conference (London, March 2007)·
• ‘Trustees' Responsibilities' - Mercia Charities Conference (Derbyshire, February, and London, March, 2007)·
• ‘Recent Developments in the EU' - European Association for Planned Giving (Geneva, November 2006)·
• ‘Charities and Philanthropy in the International Context' - Offshore Investment World Offshore Convention (Puerto Rico, October 2006)·
• ‘What is a charity?' - 16th Offshore Oxford Symposium (Oxford, September 2006)

Memberships

• City of London Law Society
• Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners
• Charity Law Association

On a personal note

Clive was a member of the Finance and Services Committee and the Audit Committee of Tearfund (a national relief charity) for nine years. He is currently a trustee of the WO Street Charitable Foundation (a grant-making charity), vice-chair of the Capital Community Foundation (which operates within Greater London) and a working member of the Bluebell Railway. He is fascinated by language and history and, in his spare time, enjoys walking, reading and sleeping.