Pensions Disputes
Working closely with our market-leading Pensions team, our pensions disputes specialists help our clients to manage and resolve a wide range of contentious matters affecting the industry.

The cost and complexity of UK pension schemes has led to an increasing number of legal disputes in recent years. These disputes cover a wide variety of issues, ranging from historic problems in mature pension schemes, such as equalisation and scheme amendment powers, to those arising from investment complexities or risk reduction measures and associated employment duties.

We work closely with colleagues in our Pensions team to advise on and manage high-value and innovative court actions. And we use our wealth of pensions knowledge and experience, combined with a detailed understanding of court procedure and alternative dispute resolution across the UK, to achieve positive outcomes for our clients.

Our expertise includes:

Rectification applications to remedy errors in scheme documents
Helping schemes to manage member complaints and claims
Responding to Pension Ombudsman complaints
Applications for directions on the proper running of schemes
Professional negligence claims
Defending claims of professional negligence on behalf of actuaries and administrators

Meet our key contacts

Matt Phillip

Partner

Meet our full team

Thomas Boyle

Senior Solicitor

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Daniel Boynton

Senior Associate

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Elaine Brailsford

Consultant

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Sarah Grant

Associate

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Kirsty Headden

Partner

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Andrew Holehouse

Consultant

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Richard Jones

Senior Associate

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Louisa Knox

Partner and Head of Pensions

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Thomas McFarlane

Senior Associate

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Edwin Mustard

Partner

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Ben Pilbrow

Partner

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Philip Sewell

Partner

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Related articles and insights: Pensions Disputes

13 October 2023

A quick guide to member disputes

Contributor: Thomas Boyle

For the vast majority of pension scheme trustees, disputes aren’t an “if”. They’re a “when.” Schemes need to have a robust process in place for dealing with the issues that result. Here is our quick guide to dealing with member disputes.

30 March 2020

COVID-19: Should I negotiate via video-link?

Contributor: Leonore Dupont

Should you negotiate with counterparts when working remotely as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic? Leonore Dupont details best practice for doing so and the potential pitfalls to avoid.

3 May 2019

Negotiations: Why do we avoid uncertainty?

Contributor: Leonore Dupont

Most of us know that it is important to understand our own motivations in any negotiation-type setting, but how many of you are aware of the natural cognitive biases that we are all prone to? And how these biases can influence both your decision-making processes and those of other people with whom you interact?

5 March 2019

Negotiations: Why do we hate to lose?

Contributor: Leonore Dupont

Negotiating is a part of life. Whether it’s a two year old toddler trying to ‘negotiate’ her way out of eating those vegetables at dinner, a tourist haggling in a bazaar, a salesperson trying to seal the deal or a business executive attending a mediation to resolve a dispute, it permeates every aspect of our lives. Everyone needs to negotiate for something at some point, be it when asking for a salary raise or trying to clinch a multi-million pound buy-out contract. But how effective a negotiator are you?

16 February 2017

Scottish court finds four pension schemes validly amended despite paucity of documentation

Contributor: Elaine Brailsford

Shepherd & Wedderburn’s Commercial Litigation team has secured a favourable ruling for their clients in The Trustees of the Johnston Press Pension Plan and others v. Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Limited and Mercer [2017] CSOH 21, a decision that confirms the common-sense approach applied by the Scottish courts in reviewing pension scheme amendments and provides four examples of circumstances in which the Scottish courts will presume that what ought to have been done was done, in the absence of clear evidence either way.

21 January 2016

Inner House (Scotland’s Appeal Court) upholds common sense approach to pension scheme amendments

In The Trustees of Scottish Solicitors Staff Pension Fund v Pattison & Sim, the Inner House of the Court of Session has confirmed the general application of important principles to the interpretation of pension scheme amendments. This is an important decision that confirms the more practical approach adopted by the Scottish courts, as compared to the more technical approach applied in some English decisions.

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