Tom Murdoch

Background

About Tom Murdoch

I act for a wide variety of charities and social enterprises on diverse legal issues including: novel charitable purposes, spin-offs from the state, structural re-organisations, including governance reviews, amendment of royal charters, trading issues, charity campaigning, charity appeals, mergers and charities which support the provision of public interest news. Recent charity work includes: • developing novel charitable journalism purposes and registering the Public Interest News Foundation • contributing submissions to the UK and Scottish Parliaments on the recognition of public interest journalism as a charitable purpose • assisting well known think tanks such as the Resolution Foundation develop novel social investments which deliver social as well as financial returns • appointments both as Interim Manager by the Charity Commission and to assist charities which are the subject of Commission investigations • first registration of new charitable purposes Wikimedia UK (the organisation underlying Wikipedia) and local Healthwatch (local authority public health responsibilities); • closure of The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund; • assisting DEFRA with the establishment of the Canal & Riverside Trust, the successor organisation in England and Wales to the British Waterways Board; • assisting with the transfer of the Royal Parks to the new Royal Parks charity; • advising National Citizen Service on its transition to a Royal Charter body; and • advising various charities on social investment in businesses which provide social as well as financial returns; and • participating in various projects on public benefit journalism and public interest news. Special areas of expertise: charity spin-offs from the state; royal charter bodies; novel forms of social investment; charitable think tanks; charities and campaigning. Outside work, I am a member of the Audit Committee of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and sit on the Appointments Panel of IMPRESS - the Independent Monitor of the Press. Interests include the 'common good', charities and social enterprise/social finance, public benefit journalism and natural history.