Osborne Clarke's pension disputes team consists of leading practitioners and is best placed to help identify the commercial and legal issues quickly, providing sound, strategic advice. They combine in-depth sector knowledge with specialist pensions disputes skills, across a broad spectrum of disputes, whether before the Pension Ombudsman or the High Court.

We act for trustees, employers, administrators, actuaries and consultants in relation to the full range of pensions-related disputes, advising on schemes varying in size from a few million pounds to several billion pounds. Clients value our depth of experience and our technical excellence. Our expertise is recognised by various professional bodies; we are the only adviser to be appointed to the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority's (OPRA) panel of legal advisers from the South West region, and are active members of the Association of Pension Lawyers. According to Chambers & Partners 2005, we “fight through the legal quagmire of pensions issues”, have a “can do approach” and “high credibility in the industry.” By combining a depth of knowledge of pension law together with commercial litigation acumen, we achieve results for employers, trustees and our clients within the financial services industry, in this complex and challenging area.

• acting for pension trustees defending a claim brought by a trustee in bankruptcy concerning the interpretation of the pension scheme rules and in particular the provisions dealing with forfeiture; the case settled following the use of ADR
• advising pension scheme administrators in High Court proceedings brought by a former scheme member alleging that the administrators failed to effect an instruction to transfer benefits to an alternative scheme
• acting for trustees on an action for rectification of scheme rules