Rosie Phillips

Background

About Rosie Phillips

I am a Senior Associate in the Education and Charities team at HCR Law, based in the firm’s Cheltenham office. I advise a variety of charities ranging from very small grant-making charities to larger national charities on a whole suite of charity matters and I have a particular passion for children/young person’s charities and animal charities. I advise, for example, CIOs, CLGs, CICs, educational institutions, Almshouse charities, philanthropists, member associations and I have also worked on various Charity Commission Interim Manager appointments. I have been appointed to the Charity Commission’s Interim Manager Panel in my personal capacity.My advice and support to clients include all aspects of charity law and governance, for example, incorporation and charity registration; mergers; restructuring; the transfer of charitable assets; constitutional issues and governance reviews; linked or connected charities; various Charity Commission permissions, including regulated alterations; serious incident reporting; permanent endowment and restricted funds; trustee training; policy reviews; and advising on the Charity Commission’s various guidance. I have also provided training to Trust Board and Executive Teams on a broad range of governance matters. I also advise our academy trust clients on their conversion, transfer, merger and incorporation projects, as well as various funding and governance issues. I have considerable experience working with the Department for Education and other third parties, such as local authorities and grant making authorities. I am also an accomplished project manager and have experience as client relationship lead and managing bespoke client projects. This includes pulling together the multidisciplinary aspects of a project and working closely with internal teams, as well as third party advisors. I play an instrumental part in the firm’s Trustees’ Week events and lead on the co-ordination of these events in order to celebrate the work that trustees bring to the sector.Since I have a genuine passion for the charity sector, I was also a member of the Charity Law Association’s Working Party responding on:(1) the draft update of the Charity Commission’s guidance “Charities and investment matters: a guide for trustees” (CC14) and (2) the updated guidance on changes to governing documents following phase 3 implementation of the Charities Act 2022 (CC36). This allows me to ensure that I keep up to date with all the various and constant changes in the sector.