Stone King LLP

Interim CEO: Peter Woodhouse, Partner

Chairman: Alison Allen

Number of partners: 49

Number of assistants:116

Total number of fee-earners: 165

Contacts

Charity: Rosamund McCarthy Etherington

Business & Social Enterprise: Ciara Campfield

Education: Roger Inman

Employment & HR: Craig Vincent

Commercial Property: Caroline Taylor

Construction: Caroline Taylor

Corporate & Commercial: Miguel Pereira

Criminal Law: Matthew Graham

Dispute Resolution: Tony Pidgeon

Transport: Peter Woodhouse

Trust & Estates: Kathryn Layzell

Family Law & Mediation: Caroline Fell

Residential Property: Sarah Lane

Court & Regulatory: Andrew Banks

THE FIRM Stone King has earned a national reputation for the specialist legal advice it provides to schools, colleges and charities across the country. The firm has also been independently recognised for the first-class legal support it offers to both its private and commercial clients. In addition, Stone King has been named a top law firm by The Times.

Stone King has offices in Bath, Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London and Manchester. Regarded as a leading firm for the education and charity sectors, the firm’s growing education team currently represents more than 1,000 maintained and private schools, and has advised on hundreds of academy conversions.

Stone King has worked closely with influential bodies including the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) on the legal architecture that underpins the academy schools programme. Within the charity and not-for-profit sector, Stone King is also widely recognised as one of the UK’s top practices.

The firm acts for hundreds of voluntary organisations, including many of the country’s largest charities, and is renowned for its advice to religious organisations and independent schools seeking charitable status.

Stone King has seen growth across its business and private client divisions as well. The firm offers a full spectrum of legal services to commercial organisations, advising business clients both nationally and internationally. And Stone King has established a strong reputation for its high-quality advice to individuals and families, especially on matters relating to care funding and family mediation.

PRINCIPAL AREAS OF WORK

Charity & Social Enterprise: Stone King’s expertise encompasses the formation and registration of new charities, Charity Commission investigations and review visits, charity mergers, establishing trading subsidiaries, and duties and liabilities of trustees. The firm also specialises in modernising and restructuring charity constitutions, governance and compliance issues, legacy disputes, corporate sponsorship and fundraising, employment matters, acquisition, lease and disposal of functional and investment property, dual registration and overseas activities.

Education: Stone King’s work for educational institutions includes academy creation and conversions, governor training, corporate and regulatory issues, student disputes and issues arising from negligence in relation to the provision of education. The firm also advises on safeguarding and employment matters including TUPE, the establishment of relevant employment contractual documents and advice on appointment process.

Employment & HR: Stone King advises clients on a wide range of employment matters including those arising from a business sale, purchase or organisational change (TUPE), changing terms and conditions and restructuring. It also offers practical advice on redundancy, dismissal and discrimination whilst providing representation at employment tribunals and offering workplace mediation services. In addition the firm provides HR support to help clients implement ‘best practice’ within their organisation.

Commercial Property: Stone King has expertise in commercial, charitable, educational and social housing work, providing expert advice on all aspects of planning and environmental law.

Construction: Stone King’s experience covers a vast range of projects, from refurbishment works for existing facilities to large-scale new developments. This includes legal advice on construction procurement, building contracts and preparing bespoke schedules of amendments to standard forms, consultants appointments, letters of intent, collateral warranties, novation agreements, performance bonds, parent company guarantees, development agreements, funding agreements and PFI/PPP documentation.

Corporate & Commercial: The firm offers advice on business start-ups, administration and compliance, director duties and liabilities, IT, IP, shareholder and joint venture agreements.

Dispute Resolution: Including contentious work involving litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution.

Transport: Stone King handles all aspects of road transport legislation, including public inquiries, appeals to the Transport Tribunal, tachograph and drivers’ hours regulation, construction and use regulations, registered services operation and monitoring, traffic regulation conditions, traffic regulation orders and the Bus Service Operators Grant.

Trusts & Estates: Stone King provides bespoke advice to individuals on wills, trusts and tax planning, including advice on overseas assets. In addition the team is developing a strong reputation in providing specialist advice to clients in later life and their families and carers, particularly issues relating to care funding.

Family Law & Mediation: The firm’s expertise includes divorce and separation (including financial aspects), mediation, cohabitation, civil partnership, pre-nuptial agreements and cases involving children.

Residential Property: Stone King advises on local and national sales and purchases, transfers of equity, shared ownership, new-build purchases, residential leases and remortgages.

Court & Regulatory: The firm handles all manner of crime, including white-collar crime and fraud. The team also deals with regulatory defence in matters such as environmental, consumer protection and health and safety issues.

UK OFFICES

Bath: Upper Borough Court, Upper Borough Walls, Bath, BA1 1RG

Tel: 01225 337599 Fax: 01225 335437

Birmingham: Colmore Gate, 2-6 Colmore Row, B3 2QD

Tel: 0121 516 3028

Cambridge: 3rd Floor Bateman House, 82-88 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1LQ

Tel: 01223 351000 Fax: 01223 314027

Leeds: One Park Row, Leeds, LS1 5HN

Tel: 0113 302 4701

London:

Boundary House, 91 Charterhouse St, Barbican, London EC1M 6HR

Tel: 0207 796 1007 Fax: 0207 796 1017

Manchester:

11 York Street

Manchester

M2 2AW

Tel: 0161 383 2199