Hannah Lily – Legal Adviser to the Compliance team.

“It was a rather bizarre chain of events that led to me applying for my job here. I started my career as a lawyer, but had been working as a manager in charities for the last few years instead. I really enjoyed it, but was becoming frustrated with the lack of legal understanding that I kept coming up against. Then, one evening when I was struggling to sleep, I started to do a little internet browsing. I visited the Charity Commission site and happened upon this vacancy. So at three in the morning (and on the day before the deadline) I applied!

One of the aspects that I really enjoy here (and it’s perhaps not a common feature for many lawyers) is the unpredictability. For example, this week I’ve been advising on issues relating to criminal law, information law, property law, contract law and human rights law, as well as charity law. Plus, because we’re faced with new facts in each individual case, and some legislation affecting charities is still quite new, advising on it is never routine – there’s often decisions to be made about how the Commission should interpret the law. That’s a really interesting challenge.

Aside from the job itself, I’ve really liked the culture here. I feel like the Commission is a regulator with a really helpful and enabling approach. There’s a great attitude towards team-work and I’ve been really impressed with the professional, fair, thorough and conscientious way that people work here.”