Practice Areas

Employment, Pensions & Incentives

Our Employment, Pensions & Incentives practice brings together a market‑leading team advising on the full spectrum of employment legal, pensions and employee reward issues.

We guide Irish and multinational employers, trustees, pension scheme providers, public bodies and industry stakeholders on everything from day‑to‑day workforce management to the most complex challenges, advising with clarity to support compliance and commercially driven outcomes.

Our practice is consistently recognised by international legal directories for its depth and technical strength.

We advise on all aspects of the employment relationship, including contractual terms, statutory rights and obligations, design and enforcement of policies and procedures, equality matters, whistleblowing, dismissals, workplace investigations, redundancy and complex restructurings. Our team also has significant experience in corporate immigration, guiding clients through mobility, work permissions and cross‑border employment matters. In addition, we have specialist expertise in occupational health and safety law and regulatory compliance and our lawyers are expert in handling matters which intersect employment law and financial services regulation.

Our pensions expertise spans scheme establishment, governance, restructuring and ongoing administration, working with leading pension funds, master trusts, major employers, trustees, insurers and consultants. We navigate clients through Ireland’s evolving pensions regulatory landscape with a pragmatic approach that prioritises clarity and simplicity.

We also advise businesses on the design, implementation and operation of employee share schemes and other incentive arrangements, as well as the treatment of incentive plans in mergers, acquisitions, takeovers and IPOs. Supported by our tax team, part of the Taxand global network, we offer deep cross‑border expertise on the taxation and operation of equity‑based incentives.

Our lawyers have advised on the employment, pensions and incentives aspects of many major corporate transactions in Ireland and have represented clients before the Superior Courts in cases that have helped shape Irish employment and pensions law.

As a full‑service firm, we draw on specialist colleagues across areas such as tax, financial regulation, ESG, data protection and intellectual property to deliver seamless, comprehensive guidance.

Nuala Clayton

Partner

Ian Devlin

Partner

Louise Harrison

Partner

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Experience

Our experience includes:

Advising market leaders in almost all industry sectors including DCC, B&Q, Marsh Ireland Ltd, CPL, Hitachi, Boots, Diageo, Digital Realty Trust and Smurfit Kappa Group
Represented Boots Retail (Ireland) Limited in its successful defence of regulatory action involving pharmacists and working time legislation;
Acted for SOLAS (the Further Education and Training Authority) in successfully obtaining an infrequently granted Isaac Wunder Order before the High Court;
Represented B&Q Ireland Limited before the High Court in the leading Irish case in respect of Payment of Wages legislation and the withdrawal of bonus and allowance entitlements;
Acted on behalf of Kilsaran Concrete in the leading Irish decision on sentencing in workplace health and safety actions.
Advised J&E Davy on all employment legal and incentives aspects of its acquisition by Bank of Ireland/IQ-EQ;
Advised Uniphar in the context of its purchase of the NAVI Group;
Advised Nordic Aviation Capital DAC on various contentious and non-contentious employment matters in the context of a highly publicised complex restructure;
Advised Irish privately held “unicorn” fintech company Fenergo on its acquisition by London-based Bridgepoint and French group Astorg;
Advised Clayton, Dubilier & Rice on employment legal matters and the treatment of outstanding employee share options in its $4.1 billion acquisition by way of scheme of arrangement) of UDG plc;
Master trust establishment, design and administration and governance.
Scheme restructurings, liability management, wind ups, mergers and bulk annuity buy-out and buy-in transactions.
All aspects of scheme governance issues related to IORP II, including supporting trustees on engagement with the Pensions Authority and supervisory review processes.
Master trust transition from negotiating contractual terms with master trust providers to dealing with the wind up and transition process.
Advising employers on the impact of auto-enrolment legislation on their existing pension schemes and subsequent restructuring of schemes.
Advising trustees on SRD II, ESG and SFDR and drafting related updates to scheme documents and policies.
PRSA product design and related operational and regulatory issues with the Pensions Authority.
Trustee and employer support in contracting with service providers, including key function holders, investment managers, custodians and administrators and drawing on our technology expertise in GDPR, DORA in that context.
Scheme amendments from day-to-day benefit changes to scheme redocumentation.
All aspects of corporate transactions, including share sale, asset sales, IPOs and various other forms of corporate restructuring.
Pensions disputes and complaints, including complaints before the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, Pensions Authority investigations and pensions litigation before the High Court.

Areas of Expertise

Our areas of expertise include:

Advising on all legal issues relating to the employment relationship
Representing clients before the civil courts and the Workplace Relations Commission in employment disputes such as discrimination claims, unfair dismissal cases, breach of contract actions, injunction proceedings and prosecutions
Industrial relations
Employment aspects of business sales, group reorganisations, corporate recovery, insolvencies and outsourcings
Employee share plans
Bespoke employment law training sessions for HR personnel
Corporate immigration
Health & Safety
Master trusts
Scheme restructurings.
Liability management
Bulk annuity buy-out and buy-in transactions
Scheme governance
Supervisory review processes
Pension aspects of corporate transactions
Auto-enrolment
ESG & Sustainability
PRSAs
Trustee outsourcing
Scheme documentation
Pensions disputes.

Related Areas

Intellectual Property

Tax

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Reports

Our ‘Age in the Workplace, Employment Report 2019’ looked at some of the current issues around two well debated topics – an ageing workforce and mandatory retirement. Click here to download a full copy.

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Practice Areas

Employment, Pensions & Incentives

Our Employment, Pensions & Incentives practice brings together a market‑leading team advising on the full spectrum of employment legal, pensions and employee reward issues.

Key Contacts

Nuala Clayton

Ian Devlin

Louise Harrison

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