Associate - Pensions

About the team

Gowling WLG has a multi-award winning pensions law team. We are around 45 pensions lawyers and we distinguish ourselves in the pensions law market by being good people to work with and offering:

• Advice which comes off the fence (not just information or legal opinions)
• In plain language
• Backed by the highest technical standards.

Second-to-none training and development for our lawyers is a key part of our profile as a pensions team (and as a firm). And this is a good place to work. Both the team and the firm as a whole regularly wins awards for being a good place to work, for its diversity initiatives, and for the way it handles trainees and training contracts.

Pensions operates as a single team across two UK offices, with roughly equal numbers in Birmingham and London. Most of our larger clients have lawyers from both offices on their client service teams.

We advised (or have done pensions law project work for) employers, trustees, the Regulator, the PPF, NEST, several insurance companies, actuarial firms and other industry players. Gowling WLG (or its predecessor pensions teams Wragge & Co and Lawrence Graham) act or acted on cutting edge matters such as:

• The legal review of the Regulator’s “Tool Box” (online training).
• The PPF’s review of its socially responsible investment adviser mandate.
• The first ever auto-enrolment compliant cash balance scheme (at Morrisons).
• BMW’s longevity swap.
• Advising the Trustees of both L&G Schemes on entering into an Assured Payment Policy (APP) with L&G, two out of only three transactions done in the market.
• The £2.4bn Philips buy-out (the biggest ever in the EU at the time).
• NEST’s initial website structure and member interactions documentation.
• The £320m asset backed funding structure using intellectual property assets for GKN.
• Many of Rothesay Life’s largest buy outs.
• Several leading cases including Steria (Court of Appeal on the effect of Booklets), the Sea Containers litigation and the recent leading cases involving Britvic (Court of Appeal) and Axminster.
• Cutting edge public sector pensions work, including rewriting the entire public sector pensions legislation for the Isle of Man and developing the retention of employment model for managing the effects of TUPE in the context of Health Service Pensions.

We have a partner and two PSLs focussed on excellence and making sure our lawyers are the best they can be: fully supported in the market where they operate.

About the role

This role will primarily involve acting for trustees of pension schemes (but sometimes corporates as well) providing advice on a wide range of pensions law, including some or all of the following:

• day-to-day advice to trustees of pension schemes ranging in size from very small to over £1bn;
• scheme change exercises;
• the impact of corporate re-organisations and negotiating appropriate mitigation;
• scheme documentation;
• impact of legislative changes including changes resulting from case law (e.g. GMP equalisation);
• scheme mergers;
• scheme wind ups;
• all aspects of risk transfer;
• liability reduction exercises;
• investment issues, including investment management agreements.

We like our lawyers to develop their own personalities in the pensions market and you would be expected to be involved in business development and profile raising as well as pure legal work. Our lawyers have a passion for pensions and they are not afraid to flaunt it!

About you

You will be a qualified Solicitor with:

• A track record of advising trustees of large occupational pension schemes and large employers on pensions matters including taking a lead role on large, strategic projects
• Experience in managing and supervising junior lawyers to provide an excellent service to clients
• An excellent understanding of the principal provisions of relevant pensions legislation and how to apply them in the context of a client's key commercial drivers
• A track record of building and maintaining long term client relationships
• Experience of participating in client development events
• A clear understanding of the importance of accurate and efficient financial management
• Experience in marketing and profile raising initiatives
• Experience of writing technical articles and the presentation of seminars and other briefing sessions
• A developed understanding of the commercial issues impacting on a client’s business

We would look for you to have:

• Solid organisation and time management skills
• Experience of working in a team and the ability to develop relationships with colleagues and clients alike
• Proven attention to detail and drafting skills
• Sound problem solving skills
• The ability to adapt to a broad range of situations and circumstances and remain calm under pressure
• Proven understanding of technical legal issues in their chosen field
• Strong interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills

What we can offer you

The opportunity to work for a firm which has been recognised as one of the top 10 best places to work in the UK and has been ranked by Great Place to Work® for 22 consecutive years.

• A hybrid approach to office and remote working, with up to 50% remote working available.
• Excellent benefits, including:
  • Lawyer bonus
  • 25 days annual leave, with the option to buy up to a week's extra annual leave
  • Private medical insurance, and the option to add family members
  • A generous pension allowance
  • Life assurance covering four times your annual salary
  • The chance of a three-month sabbatical every five years
  • Maternity, paternity and adoption leave schemes
  • A range of health and wellbeing programmes
  • State of the art offices, in the heart of Birmingham City Centre, with an onsite restaurant
• Opportunities to flourish in your role through training and personal development.

Many of our people work flexibly in some way. If you would like to explore your own flexible working arrangements with us, we are happy to discuss this during the recruitment process.

Equal opportunities

Gowling WLG is committed both to promoting equality and diversity in the firm and to Equal Opportunities in employment. The firm believes in equality of opportunity regardless of race or racial group (including colour, nationality, ethnicity, national origins), religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender re-assignment and gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy, maternity and paternity. This also includes any incidents of perceptive or associative discrimination and harassment.

At Gowling WLG we seek to attract and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, to create an exciting and rewarding place to work. Our aim is to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals.

Any offers we make will be conditional subject to clearance by the SRA, evidence of eligibility to work in the UK and DBS clearance.

If you have any queries in relation to this position or would like to see a full job description please contact sam.price@uk.gowlingwlg.com

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