Neil Smith is a Partner in CMS Cameron McKenna's Pensions group.
Neil has extensive experience in dealing with all types of pensions issues and his practice encompasses both contentious and non-contentious issues. In particular, he advises both trustee and corporate clients in relation to benefit restructures, the pensions aspects of mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues, employer covenant issues, insolvency issues, Pension Ombudsman determinations and professional negligence claims against pension professionals including actuaries and investment managers.
Neil is a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers. He is a regular speaker and has chaired conferences for CLT, a specialist provider of training for the legal profession, as well as for the Association of Pension Lawyers.
Neil is named as a leading individual in the pensions field in both the Chambers Guide and the Legal 500.
Relevant experience includes advising:
- A financial services client on the successfully defence of over 30 Pension Ombudsman complaints concerning an interpretation of the Scheme rules. Had the determinations been lost the client's liability would have been in the region of £60 million
- A retail services client on benefit restructuring issues and dealing with the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund to facilitate the admission of the company's pension scheme into the Pension Protection Fund
- A financial services client on cessation of accrual in the company's pension scheme and orchestrating the communication exercise to employees
- The two leading claims for actuarial negligence in the High Court
- A successful member in the landmark Foster Wheeler litigation
Education:
Leicester University (1991 LLB Hons), College of Law, Guildford (1992).