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Pensions

Our Pensions Group of specialist pensions lawyers is a market leading pensions practice with a depth of experience and a proven track record.

Our longstanding clients include many of Ireland’s largest pension funds, master trusts and major employers, plus a range of other stakeholders within the pensions industry, such as consultants, insurers, administrators and professional trustees. We have and continue to support them through the ever-changing regulatory landscape for pensions in Ireland.

Our clients appreciate our pragmatic approach and emphasis on keeping the complex simple. We are consistently ranked in the top tier of specialist pension lawyers by leading directories, including Chambers Europe and Legal 500.

As a full-service law firm, we can draw on our colleagues’ expertise in Technology, Data Protection, Funds, Tax, Employment, Insurance, Financial Regulation, ESG & Sustainability and other areas.

Ian Devlin

Partner

Ciara McLoughlin

Consultant

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Experience

Our experience includes advising:

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

We provide both general and project specific pensions advice, including advice related to:

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

Employment & Benefits

Tax

Insurance & Reinsurance

ESG & Sustainability

Financial Services

Technology

Asset Management & Investment Funds

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Article and Insights

Feb 2026

Legal News – February 26

A selection of our most recent publications from the past month.

Consultant

Gail Nohilly

Article and Insights

Jan 2026

Auto-Enrolment Alert: Minimum Contribution Standards for Exemption Now in Force

New Regulations have introduced minimum contribution standards for a workplace pen...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Dec 2025

Legal News – December 25

Here is a selection of our recent publications from November 2025.

Knowledge Lawyer

Tracy MacDevitt

Article and Insights

Nov 2025

Minimum Pension Contributions Accelerated Under Auto-Enrolment

Social Protection plans minimum pension contribution standards soon; warns stakeho...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Sep 2025

Charting a Course to Auto-Enrolment: Key Dates for Employers

The Department of Social Protection is gearing up to issue the first Auto-Enrolmen...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Jul 2025

Legal News – July 25

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Consultant

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May 2025

Navigating Pension Waters: A Deep Dive into the Pensions Authority’s 2024 Supervisory Activities

We summarise the key findings of the Pensions Authority 2024 Supervisory Activitie...

Consultant

Ciara McLoughlin

Article and Insights

May 2025

Go-Live Date Delayed: A Silver Lining for Employers in Planning for Auto-Enrolment

The timeline for Ireland’s much-anticipated Ireland’s Automatic Enrolment Retireme...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

May 2025

Legal News – May 25

Welcome to the May 2025 edition of Legal News. Here is a selection of our recent p...

Knowledge Lawyer

Jane Balfe

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Apr 2025

Amcor Pension Case: High Court Upholds Employer’s Immediate Termination Rights

The High Court delivered its highly anticipated decision in the Amcor case, confir...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Jan 2025

The DORA train pulls into the station – DORA applies from 17 January 2025

With DORA finally applying from Friday, 17 January 2025, we look at some of the bi...

Partner

John O’Connor

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Jan 2025

Legal News – January 25

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Dec 2024

Legal News – December 24

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Dec 2024

Finance Act 2024: New Era for Pension Savings

A new era for pension savings dawns as the Finance Act 2024 is signed into law. We...

Partner

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Nov 2024

Wheels in Motion for Auto-Enrolment: Next Steps for Employers

The wheels are now in motion for auto-enrolment to launch on 30 September 2025. We...

Partner

Ian Devlin

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May 2024

Legal News Podcast – May 24

Here is a selection of recent publications and podcasts contained in our May 2024 ...

Consultant

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Apr 2024

Auto-Enrolment: Navigating Issues for Employers with New Bill

With the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024 published, we con...

Partner

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Article and Insights

Apr 2024

Mind the Gap! Employees to be allowed work until State Pension Age

The government has approved the introduction of legislation which will allow, but ...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Apr 2024

An Auto-Enrolment Easter Egg? Cabinet Approves AE Legislation

The introduction of the new pension Auto-Enrolment system (AE system) has been pro...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Dec 2023

Pensions Winter Briefing 2023

Our Pensions team considers key issues of concern for scheme trustees and sponsori...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Announcement

Dec 2023

William Fry Advises Softbank on Strategic Investment in Cubic Telecom

We are delighted to have advised SoftBank on its investment in Cubic Telecom Limited.

Article and Insights

Dec 2023

New Flexible State Pension Age – Impact on Employers

We consider the likely impact on employers and defined benefit pension schemes.

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Oct 2023

Mechanical Engineering SEO Struck Down by the High Court

This article discusses the recent order of the High Court quashing the SEO for the...

Article and Insights

Oct 2023

Don’t Just “Roll With It”. How Employers Can Start to Prepare for Auto-Enrolment

We consider how Irish employers can start to plan for the introduction of auto-enr...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Jun 2023

Ineffective Scheme Wind-Up: A Cautionary Tale for Pension Trustees

High Court concludes pension scheme trustees are still trustees, a decade after th...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Apr 2023

Spring Pensions Briefing

With the pensions landscape in Ireland ever-changing, our pension team's Spring Br...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Feb 2023

Auto-Enrolment Proposal: Employer Administrative Headache Ahead?

As pre-legislative scrutiny of auto-enrolment proposals comes to a close our pensi...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Report

Nov 2022

Pensions Winter Briefing

In their Winter Briefing our pensions team consider key issues of concern for sche...

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Nov 2022

Government approves General Scheme of Auto Enrolment Bill

Rolling on Up – Government approves General Scheme of Auto-Enrolment Bill

Partner

Ian Devlin

Article and Insights

Mar 2022

Government Announce Final Design of Ireland’s Auto Enrolment Pension System

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys announces finalised design of Ire...

Consultant

Ciara McLoughlin

Article and Insights

Mar 2022

Welcome Amendments to Bulk Transfer Regulations Provide a Shorter Path for Schemes Moving to Master Trusts

Amendments to bulk transfer legislation will reduce the requirements on schemes mo...

Consultant

Ciara McLoughlin

Article and Insights

Dec 2021

Mind the Gap – Irish Employers need to review pension provisions

Consultant

Ciara McLoughlin

Article and Insights

Dec 2021

IORP II – The Pensions Authority publishes final Code of Practice

IORP II full compliance picture revealed: we discuss the Pensions Authority's fina...

Consultant

Ciara McLoughlin

Article and Insights

Nov 2021

The Pensions Authority publishes form of 2021 Annual Compliance Statement

On 11 November 2021, the Pensions Authority published the form of annual complianc...

Consultant

Ciara McLoughlin

Article and Insights

Nov 2019

Pensions Winter Briefing

In their latest briefing paper our pensions team discuss new pension rights for mo...

Senior Associate

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Article and Insights

Oct 2022

Pensions Winter Briefing

In their Winter Briefing, our Pensions team provides an insight into some of the k...

Partner

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Practice Areas

Pensions

Our Pensions Group of specialist pensions lawyers is a market leading pensions practice with a depth of experience and a proven track record.

Key Contacts

Ian Devlin

Ciara McLoughlin

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