Joanne Tibbott > Gowling WLG > Birmingham, England > Lawyer Profile

Joanne Tibbott

+44 (0)121 393 0694 joanne.tibbott@gowlingwlg.com

Position

Partner

Career

Joanne Tibbott helps clients to make commercial decisions that work for their businesses and pensions schemes. Joanne understands that pensions law can be very technical and she ensures that her advice is accessible while still getting to the heart of the issue.

She advises both trustees and sponsoring employers on all aspects of pensions law ranging from day-to-day issues to larger projects including scheme mergers, restructurings, benefit change exercises and funding issues. She has a particular interest in the ever-evolving DC landscape, with a focus on the DC governance issues trustees are now faced with.

Building client relationships is central to Joanne’s work and she has worked with a number of her clients since she qualified into the team in 2004. Joanne enjoys getting to know her clients and working as an extension of their team. This enables her to deliver advice in a way which reflects her client’s concerns and addressing them in the most effective way possible.

The pensions arena has changed enormously in recent years, the volume of changes has brought (and is still bringing) significant challenges for our clients. We spend time ensuring we understand the detail so we can deliver sensible and commercial solutions to our clients in a way they can easily digest.

Highlights

• Advising one of the big four retailers on the design and introduction of a new auto-enrolment compliant cash balance scheme for tens of thousands of its employees. This was a ground-breaking piece of work, completed on very tight timescales as the Department for Work and Pensions continued to release new auto-enrolment legislation.
• Advising a FTSE 100 company on the implementation of an asset backed funding structure for its two defined benefits pension schemes.
• Advising a corporate client on managing its liability to an industry-wide pension scheme where its potential exposure is millions of pounds. As well as dealing with pensions issues this involved a consideration of the wider employment position of those employees it had in the pension scheme.
• Advising a trustee client in relation to a proposal from its sponsor to implement a flexible retirement option and pension increase exchange in the new regulatory environment.
• Helping several trustee clients with defined contribution arrangements navigate through the latest governance requirements by providing training and advice on the new requirements.
• Sitting on the Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co Internal Governance Committee for its staff pension schemes.

Clients

Trustees of pension schemes, whether defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid schemes with values ranging from under £10 million to over £3 billion. Corporates across a variety of sectors who run defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid schemes together with corporates who participate in industry-wide schemes. Her clients operate in sectors including banking/professional services, retail, construction/aggregates and the marine industry.

Recognition

Joanne Tibbott “is seen as a star in the making and definitely one to watch,” commentators reported. She has experience of high-value transactional matters and scheme management. Chambers 2015

Awards and professional associations

Association of Pensions Lawyers.

Experience

Advising trustees and companies on the issues they must consider when engaging in corporate activity, including advising the trustees of a billion pound scheme in relation to a takeover of its sponsoring employer.

Assisting the trustees of four schemes in relation to a multi-scheme merger which involved the design and …

Languages

English, German, French