Overview

Sarah is a Solicitor in Burges Salmon’s Pensions team and a member of the Association of Pensions Lawyers. She advises clients on a wide range of pension’s matters, in relation to both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes.

Sarah trained in Scotland, specialising in Employment Law, and joined the Pensions team as a solicitor in 2022. Before embarking on her legal career, Sarah worked as a nurse, predominately within Accident and Emergency and has also attained degrees in Forensic and Biological Sciences and Health and Safety. In 2019, Sarah was awarded the Oxford University Prize for Top Law Student and Best Student in Commercial Law from the University of Strathclyde.

Experience

Before joining the pension team at Burges Salmon, Sarah specialised in employment law, advising clients on a wide variety of contentious and non-contentious issues, gaining experience in data protection, large scale redundancies, TUPE’s, unfair dismissals and long term capability matters.

Sarah advises pension scheme trustees and companies on a broad range of pensions legal issues, including:

  • Buy-in/out projects for schemes of varying values, reviewing benefit specifications, insurer’s terms and preparing detailed legal advice.
  • Scheme wind-up, including drafting relevant documents and deeds, and liaising with the Pensions Regulator.
  • Pension’s aspects of corporate transactions.
  • Complex issues around benefit structure.
  • Commercial agreements in relation to the impact of key terms on the clients.
  • Compliance for master trust authorisation.
  • Interpretation of scheme documentation, member queries, scheme governance and the exercise of trustee discretions.