We provide strategic legal advice to the sponsoring employers of workplace pension schemes and corporate investors on all aspects of pensions and retirement savings.

We act for UK based businesses of all sizes and in all sectors including FTSE and SEC registered companies, Government bodies and charities. Our unrivalled wealth of knowledge and experience enables us to take a commercial and pragmatic view on the best approach for each client.

Some corporate clients ask us to advise on one-off, stand alone projects. For others we provide ongoing pensions support over the long-term, as and when required. Many of our corporate projects require input from our specialist banking and investment lawyers who have extensive experience of providing corporate clients with cutting-edge advice on the full range of innovative funding and derisking solutions for DB schemes.

We are often asked to provide services to other law firms who do not have the appropriate resources or expertise themselves, or where conflicts prevent their own pensions experts from acting.

We have experience of all types of transaction and transactional structures, from private mergers to distressed schemes. Many transactions have an international element and we regularly advise clients with no prior knowledge of the UK pensions system.

How we can help

• Advising on corporate pension strategy
• Advice relating to defined benefit schemes, including managing DB risk and funding solutions
• Advising on the pension aspects of M&A activity and corporate group restructurings
• Advice relating to defined contribution arrangements, including automatic enrolment
• Assessing health and group risk arrangements
• Outsourcing contracts
• Key issues in relation to tax for pensions
• International arrangements

Recent experience

• Leading negotiations for an employer on an asset-backed contribution structure
• Moving members form the employer’s scheme into a master trust
• Advising an employer on the closure of its DB scheme, including negotiations with unions and other key stakeholders
• Restructuring and harmonising pension contributions and related employer benefits across the workforce
• Negotiating with trustees on the change in the employer covenant supporting the scheme following a major restructuring of the employer group.