Pensions

Client relationships are important to us, and we understand that every business is unique. That’s why we make it our priority to understand the dynamics of our clients’ business and needs. We’re really proud of the long-lasting relationships we’ve built and maintain with our clients and we’ll do everything we can to help them achieve their goals.

We’ve got experience advising on all aspects of pensions law. If a matter becomes litigious or involves a pensions-related dispute we’ll work together with our specialist pensions litigators to get the right result for you. Our clients’ diverse needs means that our specialist knowledge includes:

• Pensions Regulator interventions
• Scheme change and liability management exercises
• Pension scheme mergers and de-mergers
• Buy-in and buy-out transactions
• Legal reviews of investment management agreements
• Schemes for privatised industries including water, electricity, coal and rail
• Beckmann issues on TUPE transfers
• Pensions aspects of corporate transactions and restructurings, including across multiple jurisdictions
• Schemes with international reach

The work we do comes in all shapes and sizes and we work with trustees and employers on a range of pensions: our largest scheme has liabilities of over £1bn while the smallest has liabilities of around £4m. We know that pension scheme employers and trustees are encouraged to act in partnership so if that’s what you want, we’ll accept appointments to act for both employers and trustees as a ‘trusted adviser’ – as long as there are no conflicts of interest.

• A service for you: we’ll always try to understand your requirements and provide you with the service you want. To do that, we take time to understand your business and to build a sustainable long-term relationship that works for you.
• Proactive and straightforward advice: we know that pensions law is complicated. Our focus is on delivering clear, pragmatic advice which is solutions-driven. Where there’s more than one answer, we’ll tell you and suggest a practical way forward to help you achieve your aims.
• Working to a budget: we understand that you are rightly cost-conscious and want value for money. We produce an annual budget of projected legal work for many of our trustee clients, and we are happy to agree to fixed or capped fees and consider other pricing structures.

Project managing complex transactions

We like to provide more than just legal advice and we help some of our clients run complex projects or transactions from start to finish. We act as a central project manager, co-ordinating workflows from multiple advisers and keeping the project to an agreed timeframe and within budget.

Supporting you as a trusted adviser

We believe in building long-term sustainable relationships with our clients, that are based on more than just providing legal advice from time to time. For example, we provide assistance to a number of our pensions clients on the appointment of new trustees, taking part in interview panels, providing support on the selection and appointment process and providing suitable training and guidance for new trustees.

Value creators

We also believe that we should be giving our clients proactive advice to manage upfront potential legal issues, rather than taking remedial steps to fix problems once they’ve happened. This is why we flag in advance any legislative changes that will impact our clients, before they come into effect.

Achieving results

We’re proud of the results we achieve, all of which are a result of:

• each team member fully understanding your needs
• making sure we deliver solutions-driven advice within the agreed costs and timescales
• communicating effectively, both within our team and in our dealings with you, so that our working relationship can truly flourish.