Parminder Latimer

Expertise

Parminder has nearly three decades of experience in the Pensions industry advising: trustees, corporates, individuals, in-house legal counsels on all types of pensions legal complex issues, as well as pensions disputes experience, highlighted by leading teams to the Court of Appeal in high profile Pensions litigation cases.

She was also a Professional Trustee of a large award-winning professional trustee company for over 10 years, managing several trustee appointments, from ongoing trustee appointments, schemes in wind-up, entering the Pensions Protection Fund, to one-off projects.

As pensions advice stretches into all sectors, Parminder has often sat with senior management teams of PLCs, global companies right to smaller owner managed businesses, to apprise clients of potential risks and costs associated with those risks, so working with them to arrive at practical and business related solutions to their pension issues.

Parminder was the Head of Pensions at a previous firm, recognised in the Legal 500 since 2014, rising in the rankings and competing strongly with more well-established City law firms.

Experience Highlights

• Advising a global German car manufacturer on technical and trustee issues surrounding death in service benefits, project managing, advising the trustee board on complex discretionary decisions, setting up and facilitating a smooth governance process of the claim process.
• Advising a household named PLC and separately a global insurer on large-scale pensions consultation exercises in relation to scheme closures and scheme amendments, which involved negotiations with trustees of the schemes who were seeking suitable mitigation for members.
• acted for individuals, trustees and corporates on a whole range of pensions dispute cases, including internal dispute cases, maladministration matters, Pensions Ombudsman applications, court cases involving errors in scheme documentation, errors in historical equalisation exercises, which were adding significant liabilities to the pension schemes.
• Advising on corporate M&A transactions, including on de-risk strategies and negotiating on Flexible Apportionment Arrangements.
• Having been a professional trustee to several pension schemes, she is able to anticipate and avoid issues for both trustees and employers during projects.
• Advising on GDPR issues related to data protection agreements and processes for several clients.
• Advising a global airline client, leading a team to the Court of Appeal on a defective drafting case, and as a Professional Trustee on the Olympic Airlines case, Parminder led a team again to the Court of Appeal, and her team successfully persuaded the DWP to change legislation so the Olympic Airline scheme could enter the Pension Protection Fund and provide members with retirement benefits, where otherwise the scheme was not eligible.
• Advising clients in relation to the Pensions Regulator’s intervention and penalties.
• Advising small to medium sized schemes on a range of tricky pensions legal issues, and governance issues, getting results, reaching commercial solutions, adding value and becoming a trusted advisor.

Career History

Previous Law firms

• Simmons & Simmons ⸺ Of Counsel
• Freeths ⸺ Partner, Head of Pensions
• BDB Pitmans (formerly Pitmans) ⸺ Director

Memberships and Pension Industry Highlights

• Association of Pensions Lawyers
• Finalist and awarded ‘Highly Commended’ in the Lawyer of the Year category, in the Professional Pensions Women in Pensions Awards 2021
• Ranked as a Recommended Lawyer in the Legal 500 2022
• Nominated for the Professional Pensions, Women’s in Pensions Awards 2019
• Ambassador of Insuring Women’s Futures Group

Education

• University of Leicester
• Guildford College of Law