Rosamund McCarthy Etherington

Practice Areas

Rosamund's practice includes:

• Innovative charity applications, including advising on wide-ranging public benefit issues.

• Optimal structuring including donor advised funds, community benefit societies, CICs, fiscal sponsorship, conduits.

• Governance and membership advice for a wide range of charitable, professional and campaigning bodies, as well as entities established by Royal Charter and Acts of Parliament.

• Charities under investigation - everything from operational cases to statutory inquiries, often where there are multi-disciplinary issues.

• Grant making including to non-charities and overseas, as well as participatory grant making, collaborations and partnerships, grant agreements, financing, Charity Commission and HMRC requirements.

• Campaigning, political activity and electoral related activity, including advice to charities and non-party campaigners. She also advises political bodies and campaigners on non-party campaigning electoral law and is the co-founder of the Electoral Law Forum.

• Corporate Foundations on philanthropy, donor advised funds, corporate social responsibility, including extensive advice over many years to the Foundations of FTSE100 global brands.

• Arts charities including high profile literary prizes on governance, sponsorship and charity registration.

• Advice on fundraising, sponsorship as well as compliance with the requirements of the Fundraising Regulator.

Rosamund is a trusted advisor to the chief executives, chairs, and boards of charities. She works across many sectors, including children and young people, international development, education, the arts, faith, animal welfare and health. Rosamund’s clients include start-ups, household name charities, international foundations, membership bodies, royal charter bodies and corporate foundations

Career

Rosamund is Head of Charity Sector at Stone King. For more than 30 years she has utilised the law to create, merge or restructure charities and not-for-profits, set up efficient funding arrangements and work alongside as well as challenge the decisions of regulators. As well as advising on-long term and technical charity law issues, she also advises charities in the eye of the storm, helping them to navigate through a regulatory, governance and media maze. Rosamund has a track record in defending the rights of charities and campaign bodies.

Rosamund was previously a Charity Partner at Bates Wells where she trained and worked for thirty years, playing a key role in growing and building the Charity and Social Enterprise Department

Work Highlights

Rosamund's work highlights include:

• Advising a charity on a judicial review of the Charity Commission.

• Obtaining a parliamentary scheme for a household name charity that took many years, liaising extensively with the Charity Commission, OSCR, the Cabinet Office, Treasury solicitors and Parliamentary Counsel.

• Guidance on campaigning, political activity and electoral related activity including advice to charities and non-party campaigners in the 2017, 2019 and 2024 general elections, mayoral elections and in the EU Referendum on the Remain side.

• Advisor to a global international children’s charity on high-profile and general issues.

• Advising national and high-profile dual structure entities with a charity and a campaign entity on governance requirements, funding, arm’s length agreements, name and data sharing.

• Charitable issues arising out of peacebuilding, peaceful protest, conflict resolution, racial justice, and equality as well as links of endowments to slavery and indentured labour including a scheme for charitable reparations.

• Representing charities subject to exposure in the national media on ‘culture war’ issues including racial justice, white privilege, trans issues and equality.

• Investigations into trustee conduct and other investigations where there are inter-related issues: for example, governance conflicts, external whistleblowing, internal complaints and employee grievances.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

England and Wales