Hill Dickinson LLP

Pensions

Partner.

Hill Dickinson January 2013 - present

Joined Hill Dickinson in 2013 as an Associate, becoming a Senior Associate the following year and then Partner in 2016.

Paula’s practice is split between trustee advisory and corporate clients to distil complex legal matters into workable solutions for clients to implement. Paula works closely with fellow advisers on her pension scheme clients to provide practical advice ensuring the adviser group work as a team along with the client to produce beneficial outcomes.

Having worked in the technical development team of Capita’s pensions consultancy business and the legal team at Mercer, Paula’s experience within pensions administration, actuarial and legal sectors is particularly wide ranging.

Mercer December 2005 – December 2012

Qualified as a Solicitor in 2007

Completed training contract whilst working within Mercer’s Legal Consulting Team, including a secondment to Squire Patton Boggs dispute resolution team as part of my training contract.

As a Solicitor working within the Legal Consulting team, I provided advice to pension scheme trustees, employers and in-house professionals on a wide range of pension issues in respect of defined benefit, defined contribution and career average pension schemes.

Co-operative Insurance Services December 2001 – December 2005

Providing advice to pension scheme trustees, employers and administrators to ensure compliance with legislative requirements, fiduciary duties and best practice.

Capita October 1997 - December 2001

Working within the Pensions Technical Department to provide guidance on legislation, scheme rules and technical issues along with drafting pension benefit calculation proformas for use by administrators and programmers to design online calculation routines for each pension scheme client.

North-West Association of Pension Lawyers Committee 2015 - present

Served as Chair of the North-West Association of Pension Lawyers from 2016 to 2024 and continue as a member of the committee.

South Yorkshire Pension Group Committee 2015 - present

Serving on the committee of the South Yorkshire Pension Group from inception in 2015 to present. The committee organise seminars and conferences in South Yorkshire for the pensions industry as a means to share knowledge and network.

Hill Dickinson Equality Lead 2022 - present

Paula has a particular interest in driving forward Hill Dickinson’s diversity and inclusion strategy, being one of Hill Dickinson’s equality leads along with being a Mental Health First Aider whose role is to reinforce key messages, share knowledge and ideas, and take an active role in the planning and delivering of our calendar of events to promote Hill Dickinson internally and externally as an employer who celebrates individuality

English

Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute Full Member of Association of Pension Lawyers Committee member and former chair of North-West Association of Pension Lawyers Committee member of South Yorkshire Pension Group

Nottingham Trent University 1993-1996 2:1 LLB (Hons)

Nottingham Trent University Law School 1996-1997 Legal Practice Course

Outside of work Paula is a Trustee of a social housing charity which provides support services to help people with complex needs including mental health, substance misuse, offending, domestic abuse, and trauma/abuse, to grow their independent living skills in a safe environment, build positive relationships and reduce the risk of facing homelessness again.