Our commercial and charity teams bolstered by arrival of new lawyer

We have recruited Kate Hickey to our company commercial team. She was previously a senior associate at Top 50 UK law firm.

A Birmingham university graduate with first class honours, Kate has worked in corporate teams at two City law firms. She qualified and worked at Eversheds before joining Charles Russell in 2008. She has wide experience in all corporate commercial work including M&A, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, LLP’s and private equity as well as providing general commercial advice.

With the arrival of Kate, the three-partner strong company commercial team takes the Legal 500-rated department to five experienced lawyers.

Whilst continuing her general corporate and commercial practice, one of Kate’s specialist areas will be charities & not-for-profit. The firm’s charity team which is ranked tier one in the county by Chambers UK legal directory acts for local and well-known national clients. Kate will support Margaret Austen on a range of charity law matters including regulatory and constitutional issues. She will also work with colleagues in the firm’s property and employment teams to advise charities on contractual matters.

Margaret Austen, joint managing partner of Willans LLP, said:

“We are delighted Kate is joining the firm. She is an excellent lawyer with first class credentials. Our charity and not-for-profit department in particular has grown considerably in recent years and Kate’s arrival will enable us to develop our services even further.”

Commenting on her new role, Kate Hickey said:

“I am delighted to be joining Willans and am looking forward to acting for local businesses within Gloucestershire and the surrounding area. I am also very excited about the opportunity to work alongside Margaret to help develop the firm’s charity practice”.