Tax, Pensions & Employment

If you enjoy the academic challenge of the law, a seat in Tax, Pensions & Employment could be for you. From examining cross border tax issues to navigating complex employment and pensions regulations worldwide, we provide innovative and practical advice to our clients in these challenging areas.

In this department we are primarily concerned with evaluating the risks and opportunities arising from changes in the law, as well as tracking and anticipating the latest legislative proposals in the jurisdictions that are relevant to our clients. In addition to the advisory and contentious aspects of tax, pensions and employment, we also play a crucial role in much of the transactional work carried out in other practice areas, and our lawyers often work in teams with colleagues from Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, and Real Estate.

Typical work

As its name suggests, the work in this department concerns international and domestic tax, VAT, employee benefits and share schemes, pensions and employment issues.

Tax

The world's largest international tax group in any law firm, we provide clients, including the leading investment and commercial banks, corporates and private equity houses, with a full range of tax advice on corporate transactions, M&A, joint ventures, lending transactions, Islamic finance, structured finance, securitisation, funds, real estate and VAT.

Pensions

Our highly regarded practice advises a broad client base from trustees and employers to insurers and other product providers, fund managers and investment banks on all the legal issues involving pension schemes, including corporate transactions, buyouts and contentious matters.

Employment

Whether it is an issue relating to an individual employee or a strategic matter affecting an entire workforce, our dedicated employment group offers a full service for in-house counsel, HR professionals and decision makers on the complete range of contentious and non-contentious employment issues.

Employee Benefits

Our specialist team advises both in the UK and on a multinational basis on the full spectrum of employee incentive arrangements from standard share schemes to highly complex bespoke arrangements.

Notable deals

• EUR 67.5 billion proposed merger of Barclays plc and ABN AMRO - advised on a range of tax, pensions, benefits and employment law issues.

• Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR), and bid vehicle AB Acquisitions Limited - we advised on the tax, pensions, employment issues raised by its recommended £11.1 billion acquisition of Alliance Boots plc.

• Xchanging, the business processing services company – advised on the tax, pensions and employment issues raised by its 'Enterprise Partnership' oiutsourcing transaction with Aon Limited.

Accolades and Awards

• Chambers Global - Tier 1 for tax

• Chambers Europe - Tier 1 for Pan-Europe Tax and Employment

• Legal 500 2008 - Tier 1 for UK tax