If you enjoy the challenge of the legal analysis, 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.

Typical work | Tax | Pensions | Employment | Employee Benefits | Notable deals| Accolades and awards | Quotes

In this department we are particularly 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. 

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Tax

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

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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. 

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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 a complete range of contentious and non-contentious employment issues.

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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. 

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Notable deals

• Project Tanzanite: Sale of the Barclays Global Investors (BCI) business from Barclays to Blackrock. BGI is a multi-national business with a significant presence in the US and the UK and employees based in various other jurisdictions. Clifford Chance advised on the employment, incentives and pensions aspects of both structures across a variety of jurisdictions and subject to a tight timeframe for a deal of this magnitude.
• Citi International Plc: John Pickett -v- Citibank International plc: high-value, complex whistleblowing claim brought by former hedge fund manager
• Kraft Foods Inc. - acting for Kraft on its £10.2 billion offer for British confectionery manufacturer Cadburys
• Bank of New York Mellon - rapidly sourced and co-ordinated global advice to facilitate strategy for a global remuneration re-mapping project.
• Visteon - acting for administrator in relation to 100+ collective consultation claims arising out of closure of plants in Northern Ireland, and a related union dispute arising from a collective agreement • Advising Barclays on a wide range of pensions matters, including the closure of its final salary pension arrangements to future accrual of benefits
• Advising Swiss Re on its first longevity swap transaction, providing longevity risk cover to a local government pension fund in the UK
• Advising the trustees of the Meggitt pension schemes on a 3-way pension scheme merger
• Advising Pearl Group on its funding agreement with the trustees of its pension scheme
• Acted for lead arranger Bank of Scotland on the transaction that will see the restructuring of debt in De Vere hotels. Hailed as one of the biggest debt-for-equity swaps in UK corporate history
• Advising the trustees of the Strand Lighting Pension Plan and the Findus Limited Pension Scheme on issues surrounding their expected entry into the Pension Protection Fund
• Advising Diageo on the design and implementation of two new executive share plans (a long-term incentive plan and a plan combining share options with a longterm incentive plan), one of which involved an employee choice of awards
• Advising Abbey National on the design and implementation of an all-employee sharesave scheme for parent company Banco Santander and on a new plan to award free shares to former Bradford & Bingley employees
• Advising Deutsche Telekom on the pensions implications of the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Orange

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Accolades and awards

• Tier 2 for Employment - Chambers Global 2011
• Tier 2 for Tax - Chambers UK 2011
• Tier 2 for Tax - Legal 500 UK 2010
• Tier 2 for Pensions - Legal 500 UK 2010 

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Quotes

• Clifford Chance's stellar employment team specialises in complex employment issues in the financial sector. This "intellectual powerhouse" is commended for its "constructive approach and fantastic preparation." Chambers UK 2011
• This substantial [tax] group is extremely well regarded for private equity, real estate, structured finance and securitisation matters. Indirect tax is also a forte for this practice. Clients benefit from the firm's international reach when seeking tax advice on Islamic finance and sovereign wealth funds. Chambers UK 2011
• Performing to a ‘consistently high technical standard', the tax team at Clifford Chance is ‘responsive and commercial'. The full-service practice is particularly well regarded for its funds and private equity work. Legal 500 UK 2010
• Clifford Chance ['s pensions group] is praised for its strength in depth and is ‘good at identifying solutions to problems rather than simply highlighting them'. Legal 500 UK 2010

 

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