Profile

Alison heads up Penningtons Manches Cooper’s pensions team and works mainly in the London, Guildford and Basingstoke offices. She has a broad range of pensions experience and provides her clients with well-reasoned, practical advice, having taken into account the relevant technical complexities and important reputational, commercial and personal factors.

Advising on all aspects of pensions law, her clients range from individuals and small self-administered schemes to large defined benefit multi-employer schemes with assets in excess of £350 million. Alison is well versed in advising overseas clients who may be less familiar with their UK pension obligations. 

Areas of particular specialism include advising on governance, pensions aspects of corporate restructurings/transactions including employer scheme-exits, section 75 debts, implementing flexible apportionment arrangements, member disputes, maladministration claims, implementing scheme benefit structure changes (including closure to accrual), liability management exercises such as pension increase exchange and enhanced transfer exercises, auto-enrolment compliance and salary sacrifice implementation.

According to the Legal 500 2022, ‘Alison Hills is practical, legally strong and with a terrific grasp of the whole picture. The real deal – formidably bright, approachable, clear of expression and not afraid to discuss the possibilities.’ She is an associate of the Pensions Management Institute and a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers’ Education and Seminars Committee.