Hannah Beacham Legal Director Co-lead of the Family Matters network


Parle :  Anglais


Bureau principal :  Birmingham




Hannah Beacham

Through her experience in both pensions and employment law, Hannah Beacham helps her clients to manage the legal and financial risks associated with employee benefits. Her expertise includes advising on benefit re-design exercises including pension scheme changes; outsourcing; workplace pension reform; and liability management exercises. Her clients include the trustees and sponsoring employers of occupational pension schemes of all sizes, as well as public sector bodies, contractors and charities.

Hannah has a wide range of experience in pensions advisory work and is a trusted advisor to the trustees of defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes. Recently, she has advised on a complex pension scheme merger involving the establishment of a new pension scheme. Separately, she has worked with the trustee of a very large defined benefit pension scheme to carry out a full benefit specification review in preparation for liability management exercises and ultimately the securing of the scheme's liabilities with an insurer.

Hannah also has a particular interest in public sector pensions, having worked with public bodies and private sector contractors on projects ranging from the establishment of new public sector pension schemes through to advice on outsourcing contracts. Her combined knowledge of employment and pensions law means she is ideally suited to advise on complex and specialist topics including TUPE and "Beckmann" rights, discrimination in relation to pension benefits and employee consultation exercises.

Hannah's ability to identify and prioritise the issues which matter most to the client and to deliver clear and commercial advice makes her an invaluable addition to her clients' team.

Experience

  • Delivering numerous benefit change and pension liability management exercises, ranging from pension scheme closure through to introducing new benefit categories and schemes. Hannah has particular experience in working with employers to manage complex employee and trade union negotiations in relation to pension benefit changes.
  • Providing joined-up HR (employment and pensions) support on the negotiation of outsourcing contracts for contractor clients who work closely with central and local government bodies, including detailed advice on Fair Deal requirements and Beckmann risk.
  • Drafting new public sector pension schemes including the award-winning Unified Pension Scheme for the Isle of Man (which brings together a number of different pension arrangements into a single benefit structure).
  • Supporting trustees in complex and/or contentious scheme funding negotiations including pension schemes under close scrutiny from the Pensions Regulator.
  • Successfully defending a claim in the Employment Tribunal against pension scheme trustees in relation to the calculation of pensions for part-time members. The claim was then appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal who, again, found in favour of the trustees.
  • Providing a comprehensive legal review of the benefit structure for several defined benefit and hybrid pension schemes, often with a complex history of scheme mergers, in order to facilitate liability management and de-risking exercises.

Mandats clients