Julian Blake is joint head of the Charity and Social Enterprise Department at specialist social enterprise solicitors, Bates Wells and Braithwaite, where he has worked for 20 years in the establishment, development and promotion of social enterprises and on their relationships with the public sector and the broader public benefit sector. He is currently particularly focused on the progressive development of social financing, social investment and green energy community schemes. His firm was the source of the original idea for the Community Interest Company, as a new social enterprise vehicle and assisted in the drafting of the legislation. Julian was a contributor to the seminal guidance publication "Keeping it legal:legal forms for social enterprises" and has since written and spoken extensively on specific issues for social enterprise, particularly those arising from public policy implementation in education, health and social services, including in relation to capacity-building grants, contracts, employment, pensions, procurement and state aid.