Published 13/05/2020

It is with great sadness that we have received news that our longstanding charity lawyer, Michael Harbottle, has passed away at home after a period of illness.

Michael was responsible for helping us to achieve charity status in 2006. The move came at a time when it was harder for campaigning organisations like us to achieve all-encompassing charity status for everything we do. He continued to act for us on charity governance and staffing matters subsequently for a number of years.

Our Global CEO, Philip Lymbery, says: "He was a rare breed. Michael was one of those solicitors who was always focused on achieving a successful outcome for us as his client. I never once heard him lay out that old, ‘Well, on the one hand you could do this, but on the other hand you could do that…’, the non-committal kind of response that some others employ. Instead, he was always attentive to what we as his client were trying to do and was quick to unlock the best way to achieve it. Equally, if it couldn’t be done, he’d just tell us straight. He was nothing if not straightforward. His straight honesty and loyalty were professional qualities that I treasured very much."

We will always be grateful for Michael’s legal insight, sound advice, representation and friendship. He will be greatly missed.