This year’s theme was “knowledge is power”.
Our experts, Victoria Simpson, Gillian Harkness-McKinlay, and Barry Nichol teamed up with Martin Tyson, head of regulation at OSCR, and Katherine Jenkins, senior relationship manager for charities and the not-for-profit sector at the Royal Bank of Scotland, to provide you with the latest updates and information on the charities and third sector.
Together they covered:
And after all that, there was time for lunch and networking.
If you have any questions regarding this event please contact the team at events@andersonstrathern.co.uk.
Victoria is a director and head of charities at Anderson Strathern. She specialises in charity law and is accredited as a specialist in this area by the Law Society of Scotland.
Victoria acts for numerous charities. These include housing associations, royal charter bodies, religious bodies, colleges and universities, independent schools, educational endowments, trusts, charitable companies, Scottish charitable incorporated organisations or SCIOs, ALEOs and community benefit companies. Victoria also acts for a number of dual registered and international clients.
Dealing with all aspects of charity and charity tax law, Victoria’s work includes formation and appropriate legal structure, restructuring, mergers, amalgamations and joint working, dual registration, governance issues and training, renewables, regulatory requirements, compliance, fundraising, trading and tax issues, trustee duties, winding up, OSCR investigations and much more.
Victoria is both tax and investment qualified. She is a trustee of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and also the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust. She sits on the ICAS charities panel and the charities committee of the Law Society of Scotland. She has co-authored a book titled: ‘The Practical Aspects of Scottish Charity Law’.
Gillian is a corporate, commercial and charities director at Anderson Strathern, specialising in working with public and third sector clients. Gillian was drawn to working with these sectors due to their focus (in the case of the public sector) on objectives linked to improving life for Scotland’s citizens and (in the case of the third sector) for improving the world around us more generally.
Gillian has worked on some of Scotland’s flagship public sector projects including having established more ALEOs (arm’s-length external organisations) than any other solicitor in Scotland. She also advised on the Hub public sector infrastructure projects throughout Scotland and is a specialist adviser on public sector corporate structures and alternative forms of delivery of public services.
Gillian is a member of the charity law sub-committee of the Law Society of Scotland and advises on the incorporation of charities in addition to matters of charity law and corporate governance for Scotland’s third sector organisations. She was involved in the incorporation of Scotland’s first ever SCIO (Scottish charitable incorporated organisation).
She is recognised in both the Chambers and Legal 500 directories.
Barry is a director in our employment team and provides expert and pragmatic professional advice on employment and equality law issues to a wide range of clients across many sectors, ranging from individuals to PLCs. Barry has a particular interest and expertise in acting for clients in the education, charity and arts/theatre sectors.
Barry is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in employment law and has been for many years been a charity trustee of creative, theatre and sports charities. He deals with all aspects of employment law both contentious and non contentious. This has ranged from advising clients in respect to disciplinary and grievance matters, restructuring, business transfers, maternity and paternity rights and discrimination issues. He also regularly provides training and workshops on employment law issues. Recent examples have included training on investigating complaints, employment status and bullying and harassment issues.
Barry regularly represents clients in the employment tribunal and the employment appeal tribunal and has represented clients (both employees and employers) in a range of cases involving unfair dismissal, discrimination and working time issues. Barry was lead solicitor in a case in the education sector which was heard in the Supreme Court.
Martin leads OSCR’s main outward-facing functions. This includes overseeing delivery and continuous improvement of OSCR’s regulatory casework, as well as its work with the charity sector and key stakeholders to build improvement and public confidence in charities.
Martin has worked in OSCR, with a particular focus on casework and policy issues, since 2006. Brought up in the north-east of England, he is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. He began his career at the National Archives of Scotland, serving as the inspecting officer for government records in Scotland. Following that, he was seconded to the former General Register Office for Scotland and managed its public search facilities, including Scotland’s People website.
Katherine is a sector specialist for charities, not-for-profit organisations, and public sector entities. She provides day-to-day support for operational banking needs and the provision of wider business services and solutions.
After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Katherine first started her career at Clydesdale Bank, before embarking on her work at the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2006. At RBS, Katherine has worked across a variety of roles, gaining extensive and specialised experience over the past 18 years. For the most recent eight years, she has managed a portfolio of charity clients on behalf of the bank and now focuses on working with and adding value within the third sector.
Away from work Katherine sits on the children’s panel and enjoys spending time outdoors with her horse or walking her dog.
