Interview
Paul Wild, senior associate, shares some insight into his role.
I am a senior associate in the pensions team at Gateley Legal. I typically advise companies and pension trustees on the legal issues relating to their final salary pension schemes. I also work closely with the firm’s corporate department on the pensions aspects of corporate transactions and with employment colleagues on the pensions issues that can arise in service contracts and settlement agreements.
Final salary pension schemes are governed by a trust deed and rules and therefore I will often be asked to advise on and/ or draft documentation to consolidate or amend these documents. I may be asked to attend trustee meetings to assist the trustees with the day-to-day running of their schemes and to provide training to the trustees on their obligations under pensions law.
I will also work closely with other professionals who advise pensions schemes such as actuaries, administrators and investment managers. This is particularly the case where I am involved in large scale project work, for example, in the merger of two pension schemes or where the responsibility for meeting scheme members’ benefits is transferred to an insurer.
Occasionally I can be involved in contentious work – typically where a member complaint has been made to the Pensions Ombudsman or a historical error has been identified in the pension scheme’s trust deed and rules that requires referral to the counsel and/ or the courts.
There can also be a personal side to my work when I am asked by trustees to advise them on individual member issues, for example, where a pension has been overpaid or the trustees are uncertain as to how to exercise their discretion in the payment of a death benefit lump sum.