Alison is a Senior Associate in our Employment, Labor and Pensions group. She advises both corporate and trustee clients on UK pensions and benefits issues in relation to both defined benefit and defined contribution pension arrangements.
Whether you are a corporate sponsor or board of trustees, Alison can advise you on a broad range of pensions work.
Alison's experience includes: advising both sponsors and trustees on pension scheme benefit redesign projects and mergers (including the closure of defined benefit pension schemes); advising trustees on scheme funding, investment and liability management projects; advising on DB and DC governance issues (including compliance with Regulator codes of practice); advising on sex and age discrimination issues; and preparing and dealing with PPF contingent assets. Alison also provides advice on the defined contribution side and has experience of advising on transfers to DC master trusts.
Alison's recent experience includes:
- drafting updated definitive trust deed and rules for a complex, multi-sectional scheme with legacy benefits from wider industry arrangements
- advising trustees on their new climate change reporting requirements
- working with a board of trustees on a complex funding, security and guarantee package for a hybrid pension scheme
- assisting trustees with the buy-out of the scheme's liabilities with an insurance company and subsequent winding-up of the pension scheme
- advising a sponsor on the status of a former non-UK participating employer where the statutory employer status of that company was unclear (which involved detailed analysis of the employer debt and PPF entry legislation)
- advising on the use of a forfeiture power by Trustees, in light of the Axminster case
- supporting a trustee client on the closure of the scheme to future DC accrual and the bulk transfer of DC assets to a master trust
- Committee Member, North West Association of Pension Lawyers
- Legal Practice Course, Nottingham Law School, 2002-2003
- Master's in Law, University of Cambridge, 1999-2002