Sara van der Pas
Counsel
Sara has been advising charities and not-for-profits for over 15 years, both in private practice and in-house. She combines technical knowledge with a keen understanding of the internal and external issues these clients face, helping them achieve pragmatic solutions that balance risk and benefit.
Sara has split her career between private practice at Farrer & Co and in-house roles at the Wellcome Trust and The Old Vic Theatre. As such, she has first-hand knowledge of what in-house teams want from their external advisers and understands that technical legal advice is often only half of a trusted adviser’s role. Sara strives to provide clear, commercial and – wherever possible – actionable advice informed by clients’ objectives and with a careful eye to their constraints.
Sara advises on the full range of charity law issues. She has particular expertise of governance matters and grant-making, having advised on both extensively from an in-house perspective as well as for clients. She also has specific experience of mergers, fundraising, charity incorporations, trading arrangements and restricted funds.
She advises charities across the board, with a particular interest in charities with complex structures and Royal Charter bodies. She has served as a trustee and on her local school's board of governors and so appreciates the complexities of these roles from a personal perspective. Clients choose her for her clear advice, sound judgement and instant grasp of the differing stakeholders charities need to manage.
Recent significant work includes advising a Royal Charter body on clarifying its governance arrangements and advising the Fundraising Regulator on its 2024 review of the Code of Fundraising Practice. Sara also recently advised a large national charity on its grant-making operations, including application of the Equality Act 2010.
