Education

Our Education team is dedicated to teachers and learning outcomes for children. We aim to provide a service which acknowledges and complements the increasingly wide range of responsibilities teachers in our communities now face. Our experts give more than legal advice: the team are passionate about the education sector; most also volunteer as Governors or Trustees and bring this experience to their practice. At the heart of everything we do is a commitment to working with you to provide practical, solution-driven advice that is as much about strategy as it is about the law.

We promise to:

• Deal with the distractions so that you can get on with the important stuff (providing education)
• Always seek to provide you with a fixed fee to give you cost certainty
• Deal with the complexity rather than creating it
• Provide support and partnership

We advise:

• Maintained schools, academies & free schools
• Independent schools
• Further education colleges
• Universities and higher education colleges

We are proud supporters of Education and Employers. The charity ensures every school and college has an effective partnership with an employer to provide its young people with the inspiration, motivation, knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to help them achieve their potential.

Our team of experts:

Charlotte Antoniou leads the team and has expertise in supporting Multi Academy Trusts with their strategy and growth as well as their day-to-day legal and commercial needs. Charlotte, along with Tom Briant-Evans, specialises in matters relating to core education and is available to discuss admissions; exclusions; appeals; SEN; disability discrimination claims; DBS; school and trust governance, and complaints.

Pippa Allsop specialises in matters relating to child protection and family law including family proceedings.

Samantha Poulter advises on land and property including academy conversions and transfers; rectifications and non-conversion.

Tom Torkar has a corporate and commercial specialism and brings experience in academy conversions; re-brokering and associated due diligence; company law; charitable law; contract drafting and negotiation, FOIA, GDPR and compliance with privacy and data regulations.

Bethan Jones specialises in contentious employment.

Jayne Clemens advises on contentious and regulatory matters including misconduct or other concerns arising from activities occurring on school premises; administrative and public law; procurement; interactions with the regulatory authorities e.g. DfE, OfSTED, local authorities and advice where necessary in relation to the same; health & safety; conduct of disputes whether court proceedings, mediation, and arbitration or similar; media, internet and reputational risk issues including social media postings and cyber security.