Principal Associate - Pensions in London

We have an exciting opportunity for a Principal Associate to join our award winning Pensions team in London.

About The Team

Gowling WLG has a multi-award winning pensions law team. We are around 50 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, Master Trusts and other industry players.

About The Role

This role will involve acting in relation to a wide range of pensions issues for a variety of parties including pensions trustees, their sponsoring employers and insurers, providing advice on various pensions matters, 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;
• Preparation of benefit specifications, discretions tables and advising on benefit related issues, in preparation for pensions risk transfer or a strategic decision to run on;
• Execution of risk transfer exercises, whether to consolidator or buy-in;
• Advice on benefit discrepancies or interpretation issues within pension scheme rules;
• Impact of legislative changes including changes resulting from case law (e.g. GMP equalisation);
• Scheme documentation;
• Scheme benefit change exercises and liability reduction exercises;
• The impact of corporate re-organisations and negotiating appropriate mitigation;
• Scheme mergers;
• Scheme wind ups;
• Investment issues, including investment management agreements.

About You

You will be a qualified Solicitor, ideally with 6+ years' PQE and experience in both pensions advisory (trustee and sponsor) and pensions risk transfer.

You will have:

• 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 including experience of risk transfer projects.
• An established history of advising across the spectrum of pensions risk transfer, including preparation for and execution of bulk purchase annuity contracts, and advice to trustees and sponsors in respect of ongoing liability and protections.
• Successfully managed and supervised junior lawyers to provide an excellent service to clients.
• Worked collaboratively and effectively with lawyers in other specialist teams.
• 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 and in the preparation of benefit specifications and queries arising in relation to surplus and wind up.
• Demonstrated success in building and maintaining long term client relationships, but also ability to quickly gain the trust of clients and other advisers when delivering projects.
• Experience of participating in business development events and involvement in a broad range of marketing and profile-raising initiatives.
• A clear understanding of the importance of accurate and efficient financial management.
• 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.
• Proven understanding of technical legal issues;
• Solid organisation and time management skills, including in the context of transactions;
• The ability to adapt to a broad range of situations and circumstances and remain calm under pressure;
• 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;
• 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 best places to work in the UK and has been ranked by Great Place to Work for 25 consecutive years.

• A hybrid approach to office and remote working.
• Lawyer bonus
• Generous 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
• Opportunities to flourish in your role through training and personal development

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.

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