Sinead O’Donoghue
Senior Associate
About
Sinead is a senior associate in the firm’s Pensions and Lifetime Savings team. She advises trustees and employers on a broad range of pensions law issues, in relation to both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes, including:
- Buy-in and buy-out projects
- Transfers of DC benefits to master trusts
- Winding-up schemes or sections of schemes
- GMP equalisation
- Scheme governance (including cyber security and data protection obligations)
- Closing DB schemes to accrual
- Section 75 debt
- Regulatory powers
- Automatic enrolment duties
- Rectifying past errors in documentation
- Complex issues around benefit structures
- Pensions aspects of corporate transactions
- Ongoing day-to-day advice to trustees and employers.
Sinead is also a member of the firms’ Charity Committee.
Experience
- Trustees of a large manufacturing company’s pension scheme: Advising on a number of issues, including equalisation, scheme governance (including cyber and data protection requirements) and rectifying past errors in documentation.
- Trustees of a mid-size pension scheme: Advising on a concurrent buy-in project and transfer of DC benefits to a master trust, including winding-up the DC section of the scheme.
- Employer client: Advising on and successfully appealing a number of penalty notices from the Pensions Regulator in relation to automatic enrolment duties.
- Employer client: Advising on potential section 75 debt in connection with a large multi-employer scheme.
- Trustees of a mid-size pension scheme: Advising on legal aspects of buy-in and buy-out, including addressing complex benefit structure issues and reviewing and negotiating the insurer’s contract terms.
- Employer client: Advising on restructuring of corporate entities and navigating impact on pension scheme, including negotiating with pension scheme trustees.
Credentials
- Admitted as a solicitor: England & Wales (2017)