The Ecclesiastical Team offers advice on all aspects of the highly specialist and complex area of law relating to the Church of England.
Our dedicated ecclesiastical lawyers have a wide range of legal experience, particularly advising clergy, laity, church officers, parishes, dioceses and the national church institutions as well as to bishops and cathedral deans and chapters.
Years of experience and practice have given our Team an appreciation of the priorities of clergy and laity at a local level, as well as the strategic challenges faced by bishops, senior staff, and diocesan boards of finance and education. The members of our team have a deep understanding of ecclesiastical laws and are committed to the Church’s mission and ministry, and to supporting these priorities.
Birketts currently hosts five diocesan registries: James Hall is Registrar of the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich (since 1998); Stuart Jones is Registrar of the Dioceses of Norwich (since 2009) and London (since 2020); Kevin Wilson is deputy in all three and is Registrar of the Diocese of Guildford (since 2024); and Alison Stock is the Registrar of the Diocese of Exeter (since 2018) having joined Birketts at the beginning of 2025.
