Associate – Pensions (NQ)

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer is a world-leading global law firm, where our ambition is to help you achieve your goals. Exceptional client service and the pursuit of excellence are at our core. We invest in and care about our client relationships, which is why so many are longstanding.

The Opportunity

Key Responsibilities

Pensions (within Employment, pensions and remuneration and incentives (EPI))

Main areas covered: corporate, advisory and litigation aspects relating to pensions.

Key clients include: G4S, TimeWarner, TUI Travel, Pensions Insurance Corporation, Pension Protection Fund, Lloyds Banking Group.

Sector expertise includes: accountancy, professional and business services, infrastructure and transport, financial institutions, insurance and reinsurance, TMT.

The Pensions group advises employers, trustees, financial institutions, intermediaries, Governmental bodies and bidders and sellers on all aspects of occupational and increasingly personal pension arrangements. We provide clients with both domestic and cross-border pensions expertise.

We provide a full range of legal services in relation to pension schemes, as well as providing specialist support on transactions, litigation and insolvency matters. These include:

• Advising trustees, employers and scheme administrators on legal issues arising from the operation of schemes.
• Advising in relation to funding deficits in defined benefit schemes and difficulties arising from the increased costs of financing them.
• Advising on risk and volatility management through benefit design and insured solutions.
• Advising on pension scheme reorganisations, mergers and wind-ups.
• Advising professional and regulatory bodies.
• Advising on public/private sector pensions issues.
• A substantial cross-departmental pensions disputes practice.

We are looking for candidates who can help to deal with the full spectrum of issues affecting pension schemes and the companies which sponsor them, from day-to-day drafting of documentation to advising businesses and trustees on a wide variety of legal issues. The successful candidate will provide first-rate legal advice and suggest practical solutions to clients’ problems.

Note that the role is pensions specific and candidates will not be required to lead on employment or employee remuneration and incentive matters.

Qualifications, skills and experience

• Exceptional academics (at least a 2:1 degree classification).
• Broad experience gained at a City or regional firm with a recognised pensions practice.
• We’d envisage the successful candidate to have 2-4.5 years of post-qualification experience within pensions but are happy to consider candidates with more or less experience who have the relevant skills and experience.

Competencies

• Technical Legal ability - detailed grasp of complex legal concepts, excellent drafting skills, ability to see issues from a commercial perspective and able to communicate complex legal advice to clients effectively.
• Delivering excellent client service - excellent communications skills, driven to deliver to clients promptly, sets themselves challenging goals and is resilient in achieving them.
• Client Finding and winning - able to build relationships with clients, identifies opportunities and networks effectively internally.
• Practice/firm promotion - acts as an ambassador for the firm, writes technical articles for publication.
• People Leadership and management - acts as role model to others, provides coaching to those more junior than themselves.
• Initiative and managing change - resilient in the face of multiple priorities, able to deliver difficult messages, takes ownership for resolving problems pro-actively.
• Teamwork and communication - seeks out the views of others, assured and succinct in communication.
• Impact and personal development - proactively requests feedback from others, able to deal with constructive criticism and takes ownership for self-development.
• Firm Financial performance - familiar with key drivers of firm performance.
• Risk management and professional ethics - takes responsibility for personal and professional ethics, understanding of reputational risk and the regulatory framework, prepared to seek advice where appropriate.
• Knowledge management - shares knowledge with others proactively, consults with senior technical experts where appropriate.
• Firm contribution - high level of personal integrity, contributes to developing a diverse and innovative culture, prepared to go the extra mile.

Team: Employment, Pensions & Incentives

Working Pattern: Full time

Location: London

Contract type: Permanent Contract

Diversity & Inclusion

We are committed to attracting people from all backgrounds and creating a respectful and inclusive culture where everyone thrives. We see this as essential to our success, including our ability to innovate and achieve sustained high performance.