Burness Paull LLP‘s strength lies in assisting overseas and UK corporates with the pension aspects of M&A, private equity investments and refinancings; corporate head Sarah Phillips is an essential contact in this space. Elsewhere, the group is well placed to guide trustee clients through projects aimed at de-risking defined benefit pension schemes alongside Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) equalisation and governance issues, among others. Liam Young handles both corporate transactions and trustee advisory work. The practice is led by the Glasgow-based Margaret Meehan, who covers the full spectrum of pensions law.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘Margaret Meehan and Liam Young are an incredible pensions double act. They combine intellectual rigour with formidable strategic thinking and are commercially astute.’
‘Margaret Meehan and Liam Young excel in all areas of pensions law.’
‘Responsive team with expertise in pensions law.’
‘Great responsiveness and ability to seamlessly fit their advice into our M&A process.’
‘Lovely team, always a pleasure to work with.’
‘Margaret Meehan is hugely experienced, sensible, articulate and concise.’
‘Excellent depth and experience across this team. Very highly recommended.’
‘Sarah Phillips and Margaret Meehan are professional, responsive, and provide excellent commercial advice to make the decisions around the complex issues of pensions understandable and accessible.'

Key clients

The Pension SuperFund
Trustee of the Aegon UK Staff Retirement and Death Benefit Scheme
PAI Partners SAS
Scottish Widows
Subsea 7
FirstBus (North) Limited
Mississippi Lime UK Limited
Phoenix Group
Trustees of the Aberdeen Harbour Board Retirement Benefits Scheme
Lewis Mathys Emmerson LLP

Work highlights

Advised The Pension SuperFund on structuring and documenting its capital buffer fund.
Advised the trustee of the Aegon UK Staff Retirement and Death Benefit Scheme on GMP rectification and equalisation matters.
Advised PAI Partners on the purchase of PepsiCo, Inc.’s European juice businesses (including Tropicana and Naked) following the acquisition of juice brands in North America in mid-2021.