Expertise

Nicola Severn is a Managing Associate in Addleshaw Goddard's pensions department, having qualified into the department in 2011. 

Nicola has a wide practice, advising both pension scheme trustees and sponsoring employers on a wide range of pensions law matters, including automatic enrolment, closing defined benefit schemes, scheme amendments, interpretation of rules, internal dispute resolution and governance.  She also has a large amount of experience assisting on transactions and other projects in both the private and public sectors, and heads up the pensions department's public sector pensions practice. 

Her experience includes:

• Advising the trustee of a sectionalised multi-employer pension scheme on a wide range of both day to day issues and large projects, including bulk transfers in and out, a change of administrator, changing the corporate trustee to a different corporate structure, section buy-ins and buy-outs, and liaising with the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund when a sponsoring employer went into a CVA and subsequent liquidation. 
• Employer advisory work on significant scheme change projects such as closing defined benefit schemes and setting up defined contribution arrangements. 
• Transactional support involving issues such as TUPE transfers, Beckmann rights, mismatched employees, apportionment of employer debt and matters specific to high earning employees.
• Advising on outsourcings from local councils, acting for both authorities and contractors (including in relation to admission agreements and bonds), and on second generation transfers.
• Advising on a variety of other transactions and projects across the public sector, including large scale voluntary transfers, the rebuild of a hospital and the merger of hospital trusts.