Bates Wells is a full-service law firm with more than 30 years’ experience in education. We are proud to be highly ranked in the legal directories for our work in the Education and Charity sectors. 

We are experienced in advising on the establishment of new schools, restructuring, governance and the acquisition and sale of independent schools (both charitable and non-charitable), often involving an international element (as many independent schools have international students and/or international franchises).  We also advise increasingly in their collaborations with state-funded schools. 

This often involves advising in relation to complex charity law and education law issues (such as obtaining necessary consents from the Charity Commission and the Department for Education), undertaking legal due diligence, and advising on real estate issues, TUPE and pensions. 

We also advise non-charitable independent schools on the process of converting into charities.

We advise on issues that are distinct to independent schools including parental contracts, charity law regulation (including serious incident reporting), fee collection and inspection by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

In addition, we advise on all the issues that are common across the whole education sector such as pupil welfare and safeguarding, complaints and appeals, immigration, data protection, commercial contracts, and intellectual property.