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Matthew Giles leads our Pensions Group and is based across our Birmingham and London offices. Our wider Pensions team is the home of the #How2DoPensions and #PensionsTensions social media campaigns. The team are back-to-back winners of “Educational Initiative of the Year” at the Pension and Investment Provider Awards 2019 and 2020, and were commended in the “Pensions Law Firm of the Year” category in 2021.
He is a former finalist at the British Legal Awards. He is regarded as a "Leading Individual" in Pensions by The Legal 500 UK. Chambers UK identifies him as a "Notable Practitioner" in the "National Leaders" category.
Matthew specialises in advising on defined benefit pension plans, focussing on a range of deficit management strategies. He helps trustees and sponsors on all aspects of pension plan management and compliance, with a reputation for finding creative solutions and communicating very clearly and effectively.
He is a PMI Accredited Professional Trustee and has a portfolio of pension scheme and charity trusteeships.
Reflecting the many engineering and manufacturing clients Matthew represents, he is on the leadership team of the firm’s Industrial Products group.
Matthew regularly provides training sessions and has been described as “a particularly engaging presenter, able to bring clarity and simplicity to complex legal subjects.”
Matthew has featured in BBC Radio 5Live’s “Wake up to Money” and been a contributor to the Financial Times. He has held meetings with Treasury Ministers lobbying for changes to pensions policy on behalf of clients.
- Leading a team comprising pensions, securitisation and water industry specialists to advise a pensions plan trustee in respect of the sponsoring employer’s £1 billion+ disposal of its UK regulated water business, dealing with three bidding consortia and negotiating material mitigation for the pension plan.
- Advising the trustee of three pension arrangements (combined assets £8 billion+) within the same corporate group on a change to future benefit accrual.
- Advising on the demerger of a £1 billion+ pension arrangement into separate arrangements, with a common investment fund and special purpose funding vehicle.
Education
- University of Law, L.P.C., 1996
- University of Hull, LL.B., Honors, 1995
Admissions
- England and Wales, 1998
- Recommended in Chambers UK 2021 for Pensions, National Leaders: "He is brilliant – he's fantastically pragmatic, very commercial and the real bonus is that he can explain complex issues in a really simple and straightforward way."
- Recommended as a Leading Individual in The Legal 500 UK 2022 for Pensions: “Matthew Giles delivers on point advice that is tempered with a commercial insight and a keen understanding of the practicalities. His ability to outline issues and solutions in a way that is understandable to all is a quality that is rare but so very valuable.”
- PMI Accredited Professional Trustee, 2020
- Former finalist at the British Legal Awards (Young Solicitor of the Year)