Claire Southern

People are often surprised to find out that Claire's a pensions lawyer. She's learned to take that as a compliment. She enjoys working closely with clients to find solutions to their problems and believes that pensions law is much improved by some straight talking and a sense of humor. Claire likes variety and this is reflected in the wide range of clients and matters that she works on. She has developed specialist practices in trustee friendly derivative instruments and the VAT recoverability of pension scheme expenses.

She enjoys guiding trustee boards through complex and challenging issues. The key to doing this well is understanding that 99% of trustee decisions are not complicated once the 'white noise' of jargon and technical detail has been filtered out. Focus on what's important to members. Be confident you could look them in the eye and say you did the best you could for them.