“We believe in going above and beyond…”

This autumn, law firm Russell-Cooke joined the ILM as its newest Corporate Partner. As a top 100 law firm with around 250 lawyers and offices in London and Surrey, it services a mix of commercial, not-for-profit and private clients. With a dedicated charity team, Russell-Cooke works with hundreds of charities, ranging from household names such as UNICEF UK, Anthony Nolan and the Youth Hostel Association through to startups and local voluntary organisations. Sarah Arnold, partner in the trust and estate disputes team tells us why the firm feels now is the right time to join the ILM.

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ILM: Congratulations on becoming the ILM’s latest Corporate Partner. How do you see the partnership working?

SA: The ILM is an organisation we feel proud to be affiliated with. Many of us here have close connections with the ILM already and I know a key part of what it wants to achieve for its members is collaboration and a feeling of community. That is something we feel very strongly about, and we want to be able to share our expertise and knowledge with members, alongside our existing clients.

We work with a number of big established charities and also with what I term ‘acorn to oak’ charities; those organisations which are starting their legacy journey.

Of course, we want to deliver training – we already have an established training programme for our own clients – and we want to be able to promote the ILM to our clients too. When I’m having those initial conversations with charities, we often say they need to join the ILM and we would love to be able to introduce more members to ILM’s benefits.

We really believe in legacy giving as it can be transformative for charities, so to work collaboratively with the ILM to help grow their legacy offering and support the sector in a wider way will be very rewarding indeed.

ILM: What do you feel helps Russell-Cooke stand out?

SA: We have a large, dedicated charities team which only works for charity clients, and includes property, employment and data protection specialists. I think that’s quite unusual and sets us apart from other firms. We offer bespoke advice on any issue a charity comes to us with and the exciting thing for me is that we can genuinely service all of that work within our team.

It might be a governance issue or an employment one, or it might be about unpaid legacies or a contested legacy case – as a team, we can service that work. We work seamlessly with our colleagues and there are no barriers to internal collaboration.

Russell Cooke believes in “doing the right thing”, which reflects our culture. We feel passionately about taking a thoughtful approach to law and doing the right thing for our clients, community and the wider legal sector.

We are really proud of the fact that we are one of very few top 100 law firms which still commits 5% to Legal Aid and we have a real conscience about the work we do. This work ensures children and families have representation and also those that are at risk of homelessness. We worked as a legal advisor to the victims of the Grenfell Fire disaster to ensure they were rehoused on a Legal Aid basis and provided pro bono support too because we believed it was the right thing to do.

ILM: You have been a charity legacy officer. Has that helped influence the work you do with charities today?
SA: I qualified in 2010, during which time I went to my first ILM conference, and then joined The Brooke Hospital for Animals as a legacy officer. It was one of the best decisions I ever made – I loved it.

I started my STEP diploma while I was there and although I moved back into private practice, I became a trustee of Brooke in 2016. I only stepped down recently from assisting their governance committee, so it was a really long-standing relationship and one which I hope will continue – especially as Alison Regan, who leads our trust and estate disputes team, has taken the reins (no pun intended).

Seeing the inside workings of a charity – both as an employee and a trustee – is fascinating. The issues faced by charities are wide-ranging and it has been invaluable to bring that knowledge and experience to the work that I do in resolving trust and estate disputes.

I know what we need to do to really add value to charities, which might be as simple as dialing in to a meeting for five minutes to give advice, or producing a free report for a trustee meeting so the charity doesn’t have to divert its own resources to do so.

I’m also a trustee of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, which is a real passion project and something I’m really proud of. Like the ILM, it is also a membership organisation and that has given me insight into how such an organisation works and the challenges it faces.

It’s important to stress that our team is very cross-departmental. For instance, James Cook, partner in our private client team, works with Remember A Charity; Chris Rowse, a partner in our charities team was formerly at Withers (another ILM Corporate Partner), and has extensive experience of legacy matters; and Giles Hall, a senior associate in our trust and estate disputes team, was previously a legacy officer at the NSPCC and has, like me, attended the ILM conference many times.

Russell-Cooke is also on the Charity Commission panel which allows us to act as an interim charity manager in the event of any difficulties, so we have a huge breadth of experience and expertise. It’s exciting to know that when a charity comes to us they will be able to instruct someone who knows the sector really well.

ILM: What do you think lawyers need to understand about legacy officers?

SA: I don’t think those outside of the charity sector quite appreciate just how many hats legacy officers often wear. They are not just bringing in the legacy income or trying to convince trustees that the money might not be here as quickly as they might think; they will often also be fundraisers, project managers, they will be looking after donor data (with all the GDPR issues that involves), and they might be the finance person too. The role can be incredibly varied and it is right that we understand the time pressures on our clients.

I think as lawyers we could be more aware of the different demands on that person’s time. A lot of legacy officers are qualified solicitors and I am always very respectful of that.

One of the first conversations I have with any new charity client is to ask them about their role and the demands on their time – how much do you want to do and how much can I help with?

ILM: And finally, name one issue that you think legacy officers should be aware of right now.

SA: The boomer generation is reportedly holding a lot of wealth, which means the projections for the charity sector look healthy. However, that is contingent on the economy, which means we are slightly on a knife edge – an especially relevant consideration as we await the Autumn Budget.

People tend to be more litigious in an economic downturn and firms are increasingly offering fee structures to claimants to pursue claims.

What I am seeing is more people dipping into the boomer inheritance pot earlier because of the pressure of a need for money and this is combined with the increased vulnerability of older people. It could be that someone has been added as a joint signatory to the bank accounts, and once that person has access, they gradually become more and more confident to help themselves.

These individuals are often the children of the vulnerable person (or in very close proximity to them, such as a friend or carer) and I think they do it because they feel entitled (if children) or are giving up their own time to help the vulnerable person and consider it a payment. Or, they believe that the money will ultimately pass to them anyway so cannot see the harm in a little advancement. They might be totally unaware that the vulnerable person has a cause that is really close to their heart and has left a Will benefiting this cause.   

A charity might be the intended recipient of the legacy but the pot has been depleted by the time a person dies and all the good work done by legacy fundraisers has been totally eroded.

I see that as a risk to the sector and believe we need to do much more in this country to protect the elderly and the vulnerable. I will be very interested to see what happens next following the recommendations made in the Law Commission’s report on modernising wills and whether we go far enough to protect our loved ones who may be able to make a digital will but may also be more vulnerable to undue influence.  

To finish, I know and love this sector and I really care about it so I am excited to be part of our journey with the ILM. I am very proud to be part of this incredible team – we genuinely believe in going above and beyond for our clients and making a tangible difference to the causes they are passionate about.