David is head of our national Pensions team and has 32 years' experience of working with clients and professionals in the pensions industry. He advises both trustees and sponsoring employers of occupational pension schemes on issues including the closure and re-structuring of defined benefit schemes; scheme mergers; buy-ins and buy-outs of pension scheme liabilities; asset-back contribution structures and contingent assets offered by employers to support pension scheme liabilities; the legal aspects of funding negotiations; drafting scheme documentation; dealing with The Pensions Regulator, and managing complex scheme entries into the Pension Protection Fund.
David advises clients across all sectors, including manufacturing, retail and not-for-profit. Recent work on which David has advised includes:
- a buy-in of scheme liabilities with an insurance company;
- scheme closures and mergers;
- long-term funding and de-risking agreements;
- a Pension Increase Exchange exercise;
- establishment of an asset-backed contribution structure;
- the provision of contingent assets compliant with the Pension Protection Fund requirements;
- transfers to DB and DC mastertrusts;
- GMP conversion exercises; and
- the pensions implications of corporate group re-structurings.
David has acted in a number of high-profile pensions-related High Court cases. In 2012, he advised Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Limited on an application to the High Court for rectification of its scheme rules.
David has a degree in law from Balliol College, Oxford. He trained and qualified in 1991 with City firm Rowe & Maw (now Mayer Brown), becoming a partner in its pensions department in 1997. He joined Shoosmiths in 2000, and since then has been instrumental in developing our successful and highly-regarded national pensions practice.
David is a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers and an Associate of the Pensions Management Institute.