Alison Paines

Consultant | London


Client services contact Claire Stent

Alison is a consultant in the charities team.

She has over 25 years of experience in advising charities and other non-profit bodies, and those who contract with or donate to them.

Her clients include an eclectic mix of service providers, grant-makers, educational bodies, aid agencies and research institutes, as well as individual and corporate philanthropists.

She advises on all aspects of charities' activities but specialises in strategic and governance advice. She is particularly well known for her expertise on medical charities (especially those linked with the National Health Service), educational charities, charities associated with government and international charity issues.

Alison is well used to negotiating for clients with the Charity Commission and other regulators.

She is the past Chairman of the Charity Law Association and the current Chair of Governors at a leading school.
Headshot of Alison Paines

Me in a minute

I count myself very lucky to do the job I do

Almost every day brings something new and interesting - charities operate in so many different areas and have so many different projects - and the clients I work with include some truly inspiring people.

When I started as a lawyer I did property, tax and trust law; this knowledge has proved to be very useful, but in the 1990s I realised that charities needed proper legal advice which took account not only of whatever contractual, commercial or fiscal law affected them, but also of their special status as charities and their own governance arrangements. And so the charities team at Withers was born.

Track record

Governance reviews

Governance reviews for Cancer Research UK, Girls' Day School Trust and Orders of St John Care Trust.

Interim General Counsel role

Undertaking the role of interim General Counsel for the International Baccalaureate Organization.

Establishment of Education Endowment Fund

On behalf of Sutton Trust, establishment of Education Endowment Fund, and related negotiation with Department for Education relating to £120 million funding.

Grant and operational procedures

Advice to Local Trust on the development of its 'Big Local' grant and operational procedures, following its receipt of £200 million from the Big Lottery Fund.

NHS charities

Advice for NHS charities on the impact of the Government's proposals to establish Academic Health Science Centres with leading universities; and the structuring of relevant corporate and charitable entities.

Association of NHS Charities

Advice to Association of NHS Charities on Department of Health's deregulation proposals.

University College London Hospitals

Charity law advice on property development structuring for University College London Hospitals Charity, and related dealings with Charity Commission.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity

Merger advice to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (involving employment and property transfers, as well as future fundraising issues).

Talks

  • Lectured with the Department of Health and the Charity Commission at roadshows in Manchester and London on the Department's deregulation proposals affecting NHS charities

  • Spoke at a variety of events in Hong Kong and Singapore on fundraising and governance structures for international charities - November 2013

Insight

External publications

  • Charities chapter to Chambers & Partners publication 'Legal Brexit' - August 2016

  • Edits and contributes to Oxford University Press' 'International Charitable Giving' - published - November 2012

  • She writes the Department of Health's Guidance on 'NHS charities' conversion to independence' - December 2012, updated March 2015

  • Comparative legal structures for charities and other non-profits across the European Union

  • Revenue Law - Principles and Practice', ‘Charities' chapter of Tolley's

Admissions

  • England and Wales, 1981


Education

  • University of Cambridge (Girton College), M.A.


Languages

  • English

Memberships

  • Charity Law Association

  • Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners

  • Law Society of England and Wales


Key dates

  • Year joined: 1988
  • Year became partner: 1991