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Philip Sutton
Partner
Philip has over 20 years’ experience advising corporate sponsors, trustees and others on a wide range of issues relating to UK pension plans. He regularly helps clients to establish, change or close their pension plans as well as assisting on a wide range of compliance and day-to-day advisory issues.
Philip is recognised as a national expert on matters relating to the treatment of pension plans following corporate failure and has advised plan trustees or insolvency practitioners in a number of high profile cases. He also advises on project based work relating to pension plans including the pension aspects of corporate sales, purchases and restructuring, plan mergers and demergers and risk management strategies such as enhanced transfer value projects and pensioner buy-ins and buy-outs.
Philip is well regarded by his clients who comment that he helps to “achieve the best of the possible outcomes in very difficult circumstances” and is also a regular speaker at a wide variety of industry conferences.
Philip also runs the firm’s highly successful professional trustee business, which currently provides trustee services for around 70 pension plans. Philip himself acts/has acted as trustee to 15 plans of various types and sizes including acting as trustee chairman for the pension plans of a household name national retailer.
- Acting for a household name scheme pursuing a “financial support direction” from the Pensions Regulator against the former private equity owners of their sponsoring employer. The case concluded with an out-of-court settlement favourable to Philip’s client.
- Acting for three pension plans on asset-backed funding deals. The assets involved included real estate, intellectual property, loan notes and trade receivables.
- Acting for the trustees of a US parented plan sponsor, including working with US colleagues to optimise the outcome for the plan in the US parent’s Chapter 11 proceedings.
- Acting for the corporate sponsor of a plan funding the full buy-out of the plan’s liabilities, including the use of deferred premiums secured on a number of real estate assets.
- Acting for, and settling, equalisation litigation for a FTSE100 corporate plan sponsor.
- Acting for the trustees of a plan seeking to distribute a significant surplus.
Education
- Birmingham City University, Law Society Finals, 1992
- University of Birmingham, LL.B., 1989
Admissions
- England and Wales, 1993
Memberships & Affiliations
- Full member of the Association of Pension Lawyers.
- Recommended in Chambers UK 2018 for Pensions, Midlands
- Recommended in The Legal 500 UK 2017 for Pensions
- Recognized as a leading individual by Chambers UK 2016
- Recommended in The Legal 500 UK 2015 for Pensions
- Listed in the 2014 edition of Chambers UK as a leading individual.
- Listed as a leading individual in the 2011 edition of The Legal 500 UK.