Ben Wood

Ben is a Partner on our top-ranked Education team advising educational institutions on governance, regulatory and employment matters.

Ben advises college clients on sensitive issues involving corporation members and senior postholders. His experience includes advising colleges on collaboration and constitutional change. Ben has also advised a number of sixth form colleges on academy conversion.

He is Eversheds Sutherland's national lead for academy work. He advised on some of the most contentious early academy projects. Academy clients include multi-academy trusts, converters, UTCs and free schools. Ben’s insight into the Academy sector is supplemented by his role as trustee of a multi-academy trust.

Ben edits Eversheds Sutherland's unique commentaries on the instrument and articles of FE colleges and the articles of academies. He has published numerous articles on governance in the Education sector.

His work with higher education institutions spans providing advice on policy change, industrial relations, managing matters involving academic staff under University Statutes and Ordinances.

Ben is regularly involved in providing training for governors and senior managers of educational institutions covering a wide range of topics including governance models, managing conflicts of interest, whistleblowing, misuse of social media, performance management and restructuring.

Ben has experience representing education clients in employment tribunals over many years. His contentious workload includes unfair dismissal, whistleblowing and discrimination cases.

Client testimonial:

"Throughout the many years of dealing with Ben, he has always been extremely personable and pragmatic in his approach when dealing with myself and colleagues. His expert and practical knowledge has helped us to make both short and long term decisions that are well informed."