Fiona Wharton | Associate, Company and Commercial

Fiona specialises in advising charity and social enterprise clients on all issues relating to formation, registration, governance and trustee duties, re-structuring and reviewing governing documents including company secretarial compliance, collaborative working including mergers, fundraising and trading and advice on grant agreements.

Before joining Ward Hadaway, Fiona worked both in-house as Comic Relief’s first in-house lawyer, where she was responsible for legal advice related to their Red Nose Day and Sport Relief campaigns and other fundraising events as well as issues relating to their grant making activities, and subsequently in private practice in Leeds for several years where she continued to work with charities and other social enterprises.

She has advised charities and other third sector clients, such as community interest companies, on a wide range of issues and across the full spectrum of types of charities; including working with schools and other academic institutions, museums and other visitor attractions, building preservation trusts, grant making and service providing charities during all stages of their development from initial formation through ongoing governance issues to what happens on dissolution.

She can provide bespoke training for trustees if required.

Fiona is a member of the Charity Law Association and as well as her time at Comic Relief, has more recently acted as a volunteer with regional charities and been the Secretary for the North West Yorkshire branch of the British Horse Society.