Keystone Law boosts Charity & Not-for-Profit team with double hire

Keystone Law has today announced that it has boosted its charity & not-for-profit capabilities with the appointment of two new lawyers, Robert Meakin and Kelly Sayers.

Robert is a highly accomplished charity lawyer with more than 30 years’ experience advising charities and not-for-profits, and schools. His practice includes advising clients on applications for charity registrations, high-profile charity investigations, charity disputes and mergers.

Robert also provides canon and charity law advice to religious charities, having completed an LLM in Canon Law at Cardiff University. His clients include Catholic and Church of England Churches who he advises on canon law, and ecclesial rights and obligations.

Prior to joining Keystone Law, Robert was a partner at Stone King LLP and an ex-Charity Commission lawyer. He holds a PhD in Charity Law and is the author of The Law of Charitable Status: Maintenance and Removal (CUP, 2008) and Charity in the NHS: Policy and Practice (Jordans, 1998).

Kelly Sayers is an employment lawyer with more than 20 years’ experience in advising employers within the charities and not-for-profit sectors, on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law. Her practice includes helping employers manage difficult employees, defend complex Employment Tribunal claims, undertake redundancy and restructuring exercises, and manage the employment aspects of corporate transactions.

In addition to advisory work, Kelly also acts as hearing officer in high-level grievance and disciplinary hearings, undertakes investigations into complex employment disputes and provides in-depth training on a variety of employment issues.

Kelly is a specialist in ecclesiastical law and has over 10 years’ experience working alongside a range of Church of England organisations across the UK on HR and clergy-related matters. She provides advice to Diocesan Secretaries, Heads of HR, Bishops and Archdeacons as well as trustees of Parochial Church Councils. She also provides training on such things as safe recruitment and managing clergy.

Prior to joining Keystone Law, Kelly spent over 17 years at Prettys Solicitors LLP, the majority of which as a partner and head of one of the largest employment law teams in East Anglia.

Founder and CEO of Keystone Law, James Knight, commented:

“Charity and not-for-profit enterprises require specialist legal advice. Robert and Kelly’s combined experience significantly strengthen our growing team and we are delighted to welcome them to the firm.”

Keystone Law’s dedicated team of charity & not for profit lawyers have over 30 years’ of experience in the sector and regularly act for charities, not-for-profits and other public-benefit organisations in addition to faith schools, sports clubs, museums and heritage organisations.