Laura Clarke
Laura joined the Firm as a trainee solicitor in 2010 and qualified into the Pensions Team in 2012, having spent six months there as a trainee. She advises employers and trustees on general pensions issues, litigation matters, Ombudsman investigations and the pensions aspects of corporate transactions. Laura also acts for a large insurer on buy-in/outs.
She is the secretary of the Pensions Ombudsman Liaison Group where she meets regularly with the Pensions Ombudsman. She is also a member of the Pensions Ombudsman Legal Forum which is a group of private practice and in-house pensions lawyers who provide feedback and share ideas with the Pensions Ombudsman Legal team.
Laura’s recent experience includes:
- Several different trustee clients of large pension schemes on negotiating valuations with Regulator involvement and putting in place covenant improving security packages;
- The trustees of a pension scheme with c£10bn of assets during an attempted hostile takeover of the employer group;
- The trustees of a segregated 14 section pension scheme of c£3bn including advising on security packages, funding, corporate restructuring and conflict issues; and
- A large dairy company on an asset backed funding structure using maturing stock as the underlying asset