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Neil Smith

Partner

Portrait of Neil Smith

Neil Smith

Partner

Contact
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
Cannon Place
78 Cannon Street
London
EC4N 6AF
United Kingdom
Languages English, French

Neil Smith is a partner in the Pensions team. 

He has extensive experience in dealing with all types of pensions issues. His practice encompasses both contentious and non-contentious issues. 

On the contentious side he acts for leading actuarial and benefit consultants in pensions professional negligence actions.

He has also acted in a number of the most significant Part 8 pension cases in recent years, including MNRPF and Foster Wheeler.

Neil has significant experience of Pension Ombudsman determinations.

On the non-contentious side, he advises both trustee and corporate clients in relation to benefit restructures, the pensions aspects of mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues, employer covenant issues, insolvency issues.

Neil is a full member of the Association of Pension Lawyers and is on the Pensions Litigation Committee of the Association of Pensions Lawyers. He is a regular speaker and has chaired conferences for CLT, a specialist provider of training for the legal profession, as well as for the Association of Pension Lawyers.  

Neil is named as a leading individual in the pensions (and pensions litigation) field in both the Chambers Guide and Legal 500.

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Relevant experience

  • One of the parties in the ground breaking MNRPF case.
  • A financial services client on the successfully defence of over 30 Pension Ombudsman complaints concerning an interpretation of the Scheme rules. Had the determinations been lost the client's liability would have been in the region of GBP 60m.
  • A financial services client on cessation of accrual in the company's pension scheme by way of contractual variation and orchestrating the communication exercise to employees.
  • A retail services client on benefit restructuring issues and dealing with the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund to facilitate the admission of the company's pension scheme into the Pension Protection Fund.
  • On three leading claims for actuarial negligence in the High Court.
  • A successful member in the landmark Foster Wheeler litigation.
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Memberships & Roles

  • Pensions Litigation Committee, Association of Pensions Lawyers
  • Member, Association of Pensions Lawyers
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Publications

  • Contributor to the Pensions Law Handbook (15th Edition), Bloomsbury Professional.
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Education

  • 1992 - College of Law, Guildford, Guildford
  • 1991 – LLB (Hons), Leicester University, Leicester
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Expertise